Witness

32. Chelsea

I'm not going to overthink it. 

Really, I'm not. 

I'm not. 

"What is going on with you today?" Madelaine asks, appearing at the door of my office like a side character spawning in. My seat creaks as I jump and clutch my chest. Maddie laughs. "Jeez, Chels. Get some sleep tonight, okay? You're skittish today." 

"I didn't sleep much last night." 

"You don't say," she muses. "I got you a mocha. You look like you need it."

She places the cup on my desk, rich and sweet smelling. I realise I didn't eat lunch this afternoon, skipped it all together because a meeting with the CEO ran long. I've been thinking too much all day. 

"Are you okay?" She asks, eyeing me. 

"Of course," I respond on instinct. "I'm a bad bitch, right?" 

"Always." 

A moment passes between us. I know she wants to ask again, is maybe worried about me, but my thoughts are so undecipherable and jumbled right now that I'm not sure what to say. Kaiden, Damien, police, sex, bail, Tony; it's overwhelming. 

Still, Maddie's my best friend. 

Telling her about Damien would be cruel. It would drag her and Noah into the mess around me, and it's the last thing they need. Telling her about Kaiden, however... That, she deserves to know. Best friend privilege and all. 

"Kaiden and I kissed." 

She closes my office door, leaning against it, grinning. 

"I thought you'd kissed ages ago." 

"Nope," I pop. "Last night was the first." 

"The first... Kiss?" She smirks. 

There's sadly nothing in throwing distance that wouldn't leave a large bruise or dent. 

"The first..." My hand flails. 

Sex? She mouths, jaw dropped.

"No, you bitch!" 

"Well you've known him a long time! And it's not like you've never had a one night stand before!" 

"It's not been..." My thoughts take off. It's not been a long time. 

But, has it? It's been a few months by now. This thing with Damien seems to have been going on forever, every piece moving slower than the last, and I've known Kaiden just as long. 

"It's complicated," I settle with. 

Way too complicated. Private PI who followed me, bumped into me hated me, demanded information from me and then grew beyond like and into... handsy stuff. I could explain it away with a lot of thought, but I'm not sure I want to try to get around the Mierro brothers when I describe it. 

"Well do you like him? Do you really, really like him?" Her voice turns sweet like honey, half serious, half teasing. 

"Not as much as I like your step-dad," I reply in the same sickly sweet tone. 

"Ew!" She slaps my desk, still grinning. 

I think of Kaiden's stupidly attractive cold attitude, the way he hesitated when I got out of his car to go to Damien's house, how angry he got when Tony broke in. 

Also, I think of how easy it is to argue with him. How we bounce off each other even when we aren't being friendly, how cutting some of our words can be.