Enemy Mine

Chapter 61

Sylvie called as soon as she saw her Instagram feed had blown up with images of me and Vincent and my ginormous engagement ring, gushing with more enthusiasm than should be allowed at seven o'clock in the morning.

"You won the local celeb lotto on every form of social media," she said.

"I blame Amelia for that. She played up the engagement with tweets of Vincent's comment 'I never knew love until I met you'. There's even a meme of Vincent proposing with a Gollum quote from The Hobbit."

"'My Precious'. I saw that one. Ah, the perils of life with the city's hottest gargoyle. Your face plastered all over kingdom come."

"Fodder for the masses," I snorted. "I'm trying to roll with it until another celebrity takes the crown. I do have a problem with Vincent showing up on all the playboy hashtags, though. That label needs to go, pronto."

"You're marrying a rock star, babe." 

"Vincent is not a rock star."

"But, he's like a rock star. Everyone knows who he is and everyone wants to bone him. Even some of the guys. And you get him all to yourself. You lucky bitch."

"I don't know what you're complaining about. You've got Colin."

"Yup, and he's pretty fucking hung."

"Hey, watch the language. I need to clean mine up if I'm going to be a role model for my kids."

"Shit. Are you pregnant?"

"No, but it's inevitable."

"Is it? I mean, are you going to ignore Master Ricci and have a baby?"

"Magister Ricci, and Vincent and I have never used birth control. If it's meant to be, it will be."

"I don't think I've ever heard you talk about motherhood before. It was always a dirty word for you."

"I was never in love before."

"True dat. Hey, you up for some bestie hang-out time? We haven't seen each other in a week."

"We used to go months without seeing each other."

"Yeah, but we lived in different cities. I'm a lonely single girl, remember, like you used to be. Besides, my mom called last night and I need someone to talk to."

"Oh, wow. How long has it been?"

"Sixteen months. She only called because I texted her that I moved. Amazingly, she kept the same phone number. Apparently, she has a good job that doesn't require her to get naked."

"I thought she gave up stripping years ago."

"She did, but she only recently ditched her scummy boyfriend and moved to a small town in Montana. She's working on a nudist dude ranch run by a same sex couple."

I chuckled. "Sounds like she found her niche then. Let's plan to get lunch somewhere. I need to rendezvous with Vincent first, then I'll text you. Think about where you want to meet."

"I'll start my Google search now."

As I swiped the screen on my phone, I stopped to glance at the engagement ring shimmering like a lighthouse beacon on my finger. I still couldn't believe Vincent made it so public. While the camera clearly loved him, he didn't try to grab it at every opportunity. He liked his privacy, but based on the flood of well-wishers and questions about a wedding date, there would be no avoiding the full monty.

Vincent had disappeared into his office at six AM to talk with his Japanese partners. Apparently, they conducted their business better on Saturdays after most of them had pounded a few drinks. I checked the magic eye to make sure Mr. Pearlman was still sitting in his recliner vegging on TV, and I debated on whether to walk over and invade his privacy when my phone buzzed with a call. I gasped when I saw Christoph's name.