It all started with a game

Chapter 14

Alexia was frozen, trying to process it all. "What?" She repeated.

"Beatrice has no interest in me. Her only goal is to break my heart and you've given her perfect ammunition to that. You shouldn't have invited her." I refused to look my sister in the eyes. She shouldn't have invited her.

"I didn't know. You never told me. I thought she was your girlfriend," Alexia tried to defend herself but I was too angry to even think about letting the topic go.

"I didn't want you to even meet her in the first place, okay? She's temporary. You said it yourself, the second she finds out who I really am, she's on a one way ticket back to wherever she came from."

Alexia sighed, taking a step close to me. "Ryder, she's a really sweet person. I don't think she's going to do that to you. She wouldn't just leave."

"How would you know? You talked to her for a couple hours and most of it was just about how much of a loser I was." Am.

Alexia's phone pinged in her hand before she could get another word defending Beatrice in.

"It's Beatrice. She's at the door. I'll go get her." Alexia excused herself, leaving me alone with Estrella.

I took a deep breath to relax my body before looking at my cat. "I guess it's just me and you."

And then she left too.

I watched her tail curve around the doorframe as she made her way over to greet whoever was at the door like she usually did, because to her, today was just another day.

I struggled with the tie, suddenly wishing my father had taught me how to tie a tie before hitting a light pole at 130 mph. But he didn't and now I was about to go to his 'memorial dinner'—if you could even call it that, considering it was just another chance at publicity in mother's eyes—with a clip on tie.

I was about ready to tear my hair out as the tie knotted into a ball once more.

I didn't even hear her walk in but before I could process what was happening, she was grabbing the two ends of the cloth. She smiled at me, her blue eyes almost sparking before a lock of hair quickly fell to block it. Without thinking, I tucked the strand back behind her ear.

She managed to unknot the tie before I finally processed what was going on. I pushed her away. "I've got it."

She seemed taken aback, but brushed it off. "It's okay, I can do it. I have to tie them for Klaus and Sonny all the time." She took another step into my personal space bubble, taking another reach for the strip of material.

I shot my gaze in the opposite direction, pulling away from her. "I don't need your help." I don't need anyone's help.

Estrella, who had apparently followed Beatrice in, let out a long meow as if to call me out on my idiocy.

Her eyebrows crinkled. She tried again, with me quickly moving her hands away from me. We repeated the process like children before she caught both of my hands in her tender grasp, her eyes not matching her grasp at all as she looked about ready to strangle me with the tie. "Will you quit acting like a baby and just let me help you?" She scolded.

I did not need to be told twice, quickly back down, not happily though. I made sure to be very grumpy during the whole process. But it was hard to be grumpy when she started mumbling about a tree and a bunny rabbit.

She straightened the tie on my neck, her nose scrunching up as she concentrated. "Okay, the bunny runs two loops around the tree." She wrapped the fat end twice around the skinny end. "And then under the bush." I don't even know what she did on that step but it started to look more like a tie instead of a big piece of cloth. "And then over the log into his little burrow," she finished, tightening the tie and straightening my collar. She patted my chest twice to let me know she was done. "Perfect."