Page 78 of XX Love Affair
“You’re nineteen,” Delia spat the moment the door closed behind Helena.
The fear was immediately present in her wide eyes. “What?”
“Your ID is fake, isn’t it? You’re nineteen.” Delia still couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of her mouth. “A teenager! A teen!”
Although her eyebrows furrowed, Helena still shook as if she knew this was the end of the line. “Who told you something like that?”
“Does it matter? You’re not denying it.”
Helena held up her hands. Not helping. Delia marched to the other side of the small room. I had sex with a teenager in here. Are you kidding me? She had been sleeping with a teenager ever since. Even Delia’s arguments for dating a twenty-one-year-old faltered when she put that into a new perspective. Just because it’s legal… God, that doesn’t mean I want to. She hadn’t known. She was never allowed to say no based on that detail.
Wasn’t that the crux of it?
“I can explain…”
“What is there to explain?” Delia spat back. “I was calling you a kid as a joke. Turns out you are a kid! I’m a goddam cradle robber! I’m…” She swallowed her next self-insult. I’m not better than my father right now.
“Why does it matter?” Helena remained near the door.
Delia was ready to explode with why that was not only a dumb question but with her reasons for telling off Helena. Be the mature one. You’re thirty, aren’t you? A thirty-year-old dating a teenager. Just great. Just great!
“We’re going home. You can tell me your side of the story there.”
Helena curtly nodded. Yet while the two of them exited the club with their heads held high and only a slight current charging between them, Delia knew that this was it. This was probably the end. If Helena had been caught lying about her age…
What else was she lying about? And how dumb was Delia for not seeing it?
Chapter 24
Bile simmered in Helena’s stomach the whole ride home. Delia wouldn’t talk to her. Of course she won’t. She’s angry. So was Helena. Someone had sold her out, but not to the club. If it were The Dark Hour who heard about it, Helena would be out on her ass faster than she could prep it for landing on the sidewalk. Word would also travel to the other clubs in the same network, even if they had different owners. All of those people knew each other. Like everyone now knew that Helena had been in their midst while underage.
Delia didn’t tell her to get the hell out, though. Nor did she tell Helena to sleep on the couch that night. Once they took the elevator up to her condo, Delia got herself a drink. She did not offer Helena anything.
“Tell me the truth.” Bronze liquid sloshed into an iceless glass. “Now.”
Helena sat on one of the stools at the island counter. “Will you tell me who told you?”
“No.” Delia shook her head. “Maybe. Depends on what you say.”
Some of the contents of Helena’s purse spilled out when she plopped it onto the counter. She grabbed her lipstick and spun the cap until her nerves were placated. They never were.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth. I thought I established that.”
Helena accidentally smeared red lipstick across her thumb. She pulled a tissue out of her bag and attempted to surreptitiously clean it up. “I am who I say am, if it makes any difference.” She swallowed the first bit of fury to make its way up her throat. Why do I care? So what if this gravy train ends… She’d figure it out. That had always been the plan. “My name is Helena Pierce. I’m an army brat who settled in Olympia after my high school teacher took advantage of me at my old school. I played on the championship soccer team before graduating and going off to be a dumbass, apparently.”
“And how long ago was that?” Delia asked. “Couldn’t help but notice you said you went straight from high school graduation to fooling around in clubs across the country.”
“So what if I did?”
“You’re nineteen.”
“Saying that over and over isn’t going to change the truth, you know. Besides, I don’t see why you should care. I get that places could get in trouble if they found out how old I am, but I was careful. I’ve got the best fake ID money can buy. I’m careful to only use my real ID when the government is involved. Besides, it’s stupid that I can join the Army like my parents did, but I can’t get laid in a place that serves alcohol. That’s dumb.”
Delia remained on the other side of the island counter, arms crossed, frowning, her drink settling into its glass.
“Nineteen. Twenty-one. What’s the fucking difference? Besides, I’m closer to turning twenty than I am to nineteen!”