The Billionaire And The Waitress (gxg)

45 - an agreement

     "MUSE, please," Adrien said, shoving Piper off herself. Piper stumbled back over the towel she had dropped a minute ago. 

     Muse had already turned, already backed up into the fitness room. Adrien didn't bother grabbing her phone or her change of clothes before running after her. She still had on her sports bra and baggy black sweatpants from her workout, earbuds dangling from one of the pockets. 

     "Adrien," Piper whined.

     Adrien didn't pay attention to her. Muse had almost reached the exit of the gym when Adrien reached for her, locking one hand around her forearm. She ignored the one Asian man unpacking plates from the squat rack, and Piper left behind in the change room. Nothing mattered to her except Muse.

    "Muse, stop. Please stop."

    "I don't really care what you have to say right now."

    "I know how it looks, okay? God." Adrien ran her fingers through her hair, trembling now. She dropped every facade, every calculated expression, every wall she had ever put up. "You have to listen to me. I finished working out. Piper was already there in the change room. She had just come out of the sauna―that's why she had a towel on. She told me she had to tell me something."

     "I don't care. I don't care. Let go of me."

     Adrien released Muse's arm, a shaky breath escaping her. "No, please. Listen to me. She told me she had to tell me something, okay? She said it was important, something about my father. She said it was an emergency. I didn't believe her, but she mentioned the tapes. The ones with my father from when he―from when my mom was in the hospital, and he was cheating."

     Muse was shaking her head, backing away.

     "She said she knew more than I thought," Adrien said, talking faster. "She came right up close to me, told me she'd whisper it like a secret. She said that only a minute before you got there, Muse. It wasn't like you think. It happened so fast. She dropped her towel the second you came in. I think it was a setup. To make it look like we were doing something. But we weren't. I swear on my fucking life. I think my father sent her, or―or Grey sent her, I don't know."

      Muse's hazel eyes flamed bright. "So why the fuck did you let her lick your neck, Adrien?"

     "When she told me she had to whisper the secret in my ear, she licked my neck instead. Muse, please. You have to believe I wouldn't―"

     "How long have I known you, Adrien? Two months? Three? You spent a decade of your life sleeping around with women. I don't know who the fuck you are, or what you're capable of."

      Adrien ran her fingers through her hair again. Her voice became soft. "I love you."

     "You don't even know me!"

     "But I want to. I want to know everything about you. I want to know everything you've ever thought, I want to know what stupid things make you laugh. I want to know what wrinkles you have at fifty. And I'm sorry I lied, and I'm sorry you saw Piper and I and thought we were doing something we weren't, but―"

      "I meant what I said when we met," Muse told her, eyes still blazing. "Fuck whoever you want, Adrien. For all I know, you have been this whole time."

      Adrien stepped closer to Muse. Something in her felt like it was cracking, splintering. 

     "Muse, please." 

     "Your words don't mean anything to me anymore."

      Muse turned to walk away, and something in Adrien snapped. She felt it deep within her chest. As if her rib cage had cracked, and her heart was spilling between the bones. She might as well have been dying from the inside out, giving voice to her last words.