Do I Wanna Know?

Chapter 18

"Wait...he told you he loves you? Just like that?"

I nodded to Claudia as I watched her exhale a puff of smoke away from me, then waved it away with a flick of her wrist.

"But something was definitely wrong. He came home soaking wet from the rain, and he had some kind of wound bandaged up in his side, and he was shaking when he hugged me."

Her brows arched up as she took another pull from her cigarette. "Did you ask him what happened?"

"Yeah, and he basically said it was just dudes being dudes. But I'm telling you, something was off. He kissed me after he said it, but then it was like he just wanted to hug and hold me."

"Well how is he acting now? It's been a few days since they got back, so is he back to normal?"

"Mhm," I bit down on my thumbnail and glanced to the traffic on Hollywood Boulevard. "He's acting like nothing weird happened that night, but he's still been telling me that he loves me too. And he finally fucked me for it."

Claudia smiled then, raising her arms out to her side. "That's great! Nothing to worry about then, right? The second sexiest millionaire alive loves you!"

"The second?"

"Zayn," she clarified. "He's first now."

"Right," I chuckled. "How was he when he got back?"

"Good," she shrugged. "He took me out to dinner the next night and then we fucked in the backseat of his Tesla when he brought me back home...and then we fucked in my entryway...and in-"

"Okay, got it," I laughed with her as I ran my palm down my face. "Maybe I was just so disoriented and tired that morning that I was just imagining it was weird."

Claudia nodded as she smushed the toe of her heels into the burned out bud on the sidewalk. "The way I see it, he missed you so much on just that short trip that he realized he loves you, as he should. You guys have been together long enough for that to make sense, so just be happy, Grace. He loves you."

Hearing those words confirmed to me by someone else only made me swoon all over again. It was hard to believe, but he says it to me every day now and I don't think I would ever get used to the way it made me feel. I was addicted to it, to words.

"Alright, well thanks for giving me this little pep talk on your break. Sorry you got stuck with an early Thursday afternoon shift."

"It is what it is," she sighed and leaned in to kiss my cheek as we headed back to the front door. "You wanna come inside? Maybe get day drunk?"

"As great as that sounds, I think I'm gonna go see my dad."

"Your dad?" Her blue eyes bugged out. "Why?"

"I don't know," I shrugged weakly and tightened my high ponytail. "It's been months so I figured I should."

"Okay, well...be safe and carry your pepper spray with you. Lock your car and do not take that Chanel bag."

"Got it, thanks mom," I chuckled, giving her a tight hug before we parted ways.

Back in my car now, my GPS told me it would take one hour and fifteen minutes to get to Compton from Hollywood, which was a lot longer than I should have been willing to drive, but it's not like I had anything else to do today.