50 Shades of Drake 3 and 4

Chapter One Hundred Two

    "You've been quiet," Destiny told Aubrey later that night at the dinner table.

    "Just thinking," he said, and couldn't help but smile at the irony. For once, his mind was the one that was wandering. His mind kept replaying the conversation he'd had with Brian. Thankfully, because he was relatively decent at reading people, he knew that Brian would come around. The only question was: when? "How was your day today?"

    "It was okay," she answered. "I got a lot of work done, for the first time in since...forever."

    "That's good, but don't be too harsh of a critic on yourself," he cautioned. "I appreciate the fact that you want to work hard, but it's not worth overwhelming yourself. There's a lot that you're still processing from all that has happened."

    "Yeah." She lapsed into silence, pushing her chicken salad around her plate.

    His cell phone buzzed on the glass surface of the table. He grabbed the phone, glanced at the screen, and tried to hide a smile as he answered the phone. "Let me guess: you've had a change of heart?"

    "You could say that," Brian said. "So...how do we do this?"

    Aubrey glanced at his watch. "Can you come to my place? Right now?"

    "Right now?" Brian repeated. "Uh..."

    "Much like you, I'd like this to be over with as quickly as humanly possible," Aubrey told him.

    "Right. Of course. I've just barely had a chance to wrap my head around any of this." Brian paused, then a moment later said, "Yeah. Yeah, I can come over tonight."

    Aubrey hung up the phone and stared at it.

    "Is everything okay?" Destiny queried.

    He cleared his throat and set his phone down beside his plate. "Yeah. That was Brian. I invited him over."

    Her fork hovered in mid-air. "Why?" she asked, dragging the word out.

    "Because there is something that we need to discuss with you," Aubrey told her.

    Her fork clattered on her plate. "What is it that you need to discuss with me?"

    "You'll find out when he gets here."

    "I want to know now." It was the sharpest he'd ever heard her voice, and only served to confirm in his mind that his plan was the right route to take.

    He sat back in his chair. "You love me, right?"

    She frowned. "Of course I do, you know that."

    "Am I the only man you love?" he asked her, flat-out. "Romantically speaking, of course."

    She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Her face flushed red.

    "You can be honest with me," he told her. "That's the only way we will work, is if you're honest with me."

    "I thought we were going to try to move on and work on us," she said. "Why are you digging this up?"

    "I'm not digging anything up," he told her. "Something has been distracting you ever since D.C."

    She turned her head away from him.

    "Do you...do you love him?" he asked her, his voice much quieter than he'd intended.

    "I love you," she said emphatically.

    "You didn't answer my question."

    "Because it's a silly question!" she exclaimed, turning tear-filled eyes on him.