On any other day besides today, I would argue that Eli managed to bring out good things in me. He brought out a sort of sexiness that I wasn’t even aware that I had and a joking, teasing side that could be directed at anyone. There were times, however, that Eli brought out the bad in me. He always made me feel ready to argue, to freak out over the little things. Today was the worst of those days.
Not only was I ready to have a serious showdown with Eli Dunn that would probably end badly, I wanted to tear him apart. I couldn’t understand how he could have done what I read and never bothered to mention it to me. Of course, I couldn’t believe that something like this could have gone public and not one person in my life felt the need to tell me when it became quite obvious that Eli and I were fooling around. Even if our relationship didn’t seem serious to anyone else, I felt a slight jab of betrayal from each of my friends.
I just didn’t understand how they could keep this from me.
They weren’t the ones that did what this article suggested that Eli had and because of that, I found myself outside of Eli’s brother’s apartment, slamming both of my fists repeatedly on the door and waiting for him to open up. I was standing in the third floor hallway, causing such a riot that it was amazing that none of the other occupants came out demanding to know what could possibly cause someone to freak out like this at one in the afternoon.
As I thought this, I realized that this was probably a usual occurence for them. I had reason to believe that Eli really was as big of a player as he suggested. Knowing my own gender, I figured that most girls didn’t take too kindly to having their hearts ripped from their chest, thrown on the floor, and then stomped on by a boy who should have been melting hearts from the pages of a magazine. This probably wasn’t the first time that a girl in a fit came storming to this very apartment, beating on the door until her hands were red and yelling until her voice was practically gone.
“Eli! Open the fucking door!” I yelled, continuing to beat my fists on the door. I really wished that he would have hurried up for I was beginning to lose the anger and stamina that had propelled me here in the first place. Planting my hands flat on of the door, I pressed my forehead against the door, voice falling to a whimper. "Please, Eli? Just open the door."
I wasn't sure why exactly I was feeling so emotional about all of this, but what I had read had made me extremely uncomfortable. To think that Eli would do that to his family, that he was honestly so selfish, so unwilling to go without sex that he had done this made me sick to my stomach. I had felt nauseas since the moment I had read the article and the more I thought about it, the more I felt as if I was going to vomit.
I had always known that Eli was bad, but I never thought this bad.
Just as I was thinking of where I could possibly throw up without doing it on his innocent brother's doormat, I heard the sound of the lock being undone. Peeling myself off of the door, I barely lifted my head when it finally swung open. Fists clenched on either side of me, I began talking before I even looked at the person standing in the doorway.
"I'm going to give you five minutes to explain what happened or I'm leaving and I swear to god, Eli, you will never see me again." I shook my head, staring at the bare feet sticking out from beneath a pair of darkwashed jeans. Shaking the strands of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail in my panic attack, I raised my eyes, still really not seeing anything in front of me due to the amount of anger that was coursing through me. "I can't believe that you would put your parents through this. That while your father was off in rehab, you decided that you were going to have an affair with the VP of his company. Did you think you were going to be able to take it over? Did you really come to California with a get rich quick scheme? And how much older is this lady than you? I know you're a whore, but I never thought you chased after cougars. Seriously, Eli, I've been sick the entire way here. I can't believe you didn't tell me about this."
The creaking of the door at the end of my speech caused me to blink, looking into the face of the person standing in front of me. I should've known from the moment I had propelled into that speech and wasn't interrupted once that the person I was talking to wasn't Eli. He would have never let me go off on a tangent accusing him of something that he potentially may not have done. He would've defended himself before I had even finished my accusation, most likely telling me where I could take my words and shove them.
The person standing in the doorway was not Eli. He did look shockingly similar to Eli, sporting the same mop of black hair that was a tad bit longer, curling about his ears. His fringe hung down along his bushy black eyebrows, brown eyes framed in thick lashes that made me selfconscience of my own. The guy in front of me was still sporting early morning stubble, a bottle of shaving cream in one hand. A white towel was draped over his shoulder, causing my eyes to fall from his mouth to his chest, which was completely bare.
Looking at all of the muscle indentation and the abs that rested just beneath his chest, I had to think of things that grossed me out (snakes, sunburn, foot fungus, the smell of dog poop, and old men's saggy bodies) to keep me from getting too warm. Unfortunately, my eyes were still wandering, moving past his belly button to the line of black hair that disappeared beneath the band of his Calvin Klein underwear and unsnapped blue jeans that were hanging loosely on his waist.
"You're not Eli." I finally muttered, careful not to drag my eyes up his body to his eyes. I didn't look him in the eye until after I had moved my eyes to the door, traveling up the stretch of white wood until I reached the gold numbers that hung there above the eye hole. Flicking my eyes back to his, I winced, not entirely sure what to do in this awkward position. Not only had I just accused him of being a homewrecker, but I had also undeniably checked him out.
"No, I'm not." He shook his head, eyes burning into mine. "But, if you're looking for the person who ruined his father's reputation, then you've found the right guy."
"I guess I'm just going to…" I stopped midsentence and flicked my eyes up to him. "What?"
"I'm guessing you saw the article about Dunn Corporations, right?" His eyes fell to the newspaper clipping that was still in my hand, now almost completely crumbled and in the danger of being ripped to shreds. "I'm E. Dunn."
I paused, furrowing my brow as I looked at him. Raising the newspaper slowly to my face, I looked down at the words printed there. "But doesn't that E stand for Eli?"
"Listen, I don't know who you are or how you know my brother, but all you need to know is that Eli didn't do what you obviously seem to think he did." The guy was stepping backwards and beginning to shut the door on me. "Now, I've gone over my mistakes enough times in my head that I really don't want to hash this out with you too."
"Wait!" I called, slipping my foot inbetween the door and the jamb. "You don't have to tell me anything. But can you at least tell me where Eli is?"
"I don't know if I should be giving a crazy bitch who came here pounding on the door that information." The guy shook his head. "For all I know, this was just at the bottom of the list of issues you have with him."
"I'm not a crazy bitch, I swear!" I said, the pleaing in my voice almost making me sick. "Listen, I'm Adrienne. Maybe you know my sister, Georgia?"
The guy had been looking as if he was going to shove me through the door until I had name-dropped. With Georgia's name lingering in the air between us, drawing a source of recognition from his face, I felt as if maybe I was about to get through to this superbly attractive boy that was Eli's brother. If I hadn't already insulted him and had strong feelings for his little brother, I might have tried to win myself an award by seducing him as well as Eli.
"So, you're Georgia's little sister." He said with a sigh and then swung the door open. Stepping back, he gestured for me to come in. "You might as well come in."
Not wanting him to think twice about letting me in, I snuck through the crack and passed him in the little hallway. With a sigh, he shut and locked the door behind him again before leading the way to the living room. "Go ahead and take a seat. I'll be out in a minute. I just need to find a shirt."
I almost told him not to worry about it, that his half-nakedness really didn't bother me. I wanted to tell him that his brother was always pretty much shirtless and if I could manage to talk to Eli when he was only in his underwear without throwing myself on him, then I could totally handle him. The only problem was that nowadays, I couldn't keep myself from throwing myself at Eli even when he was wearing all of his clothes. If he happened to walk through the door right now, I'd probably take him right here on the living room floor.
As that absurdly dirty thought rushed through my head, I made my way around the couches and perched on the edge of the loveseat. Eli's brother, whose name I still had yet to discover, was the Dunn that was talked about in the article. I was still embarrassed, a flush still staining my cheeks as I sat in the living room, gazing through the open balcony door and out at the next building over. Bouncing my leg, I waited for Eli's brother to return to the room, trying to decide how I felt even though he had said it had been him.
For all that I knew, his brother was playing the nice guy and trying to cover for Eli. I don't know why he would protect Eli from someone he didn't even know, but he had said that he was E. Dunn. I didn't want to think that the article was talking about Eli, but I couldn't know for sure until his brother came back.
Not wanting to think too hard for fear I would make myself sick again, I tried to relax against the cushions of the couch. The guy walked back into the room, now sporting a gray cotton v-neck that reminded me of the ones that Eli wore. With his hair sticking up in the back, he walked around the couches, passing me with a hint of a cologne following him.
"I don't think I told you, but I'm Emmett." He said, taking a seat on the edge of the opposite couch with his knees spread and his forearms resting on them. "So, Georgia didn't send you here with a message for me? No kick to the groin to deliver?"
"Not that I'm aware of." I shook my head. "Why? Are you and Georgia not on good terms?"
"The last time that I saw Georgia Mathers, she was in the corner of shame, drinking away her grief." Emmett muttered. "That was almost two years ago, I think."
"Well, I'm not surprised to hear that." I crossed my arms over my chest. "But, this scandal thing. Was it really you?"
"Wait a minute, you said your name was Adrienne, right?" Emmett looked at me, his thick eyebrows narrowing. When I nodded, he let a grin slide across his face. "So you're the girl that my brother's trying to pretend like he doesn't really care about. He's right. You do look like Miranda Kerr."
"Um, thanks." I felt myself blushing again. "Eli told me that you guys really don't get along."
"Well, that's all thanks to the stupid shit I've done in the past year." Emmett stood up, walking towards the balcony door and stopping at the bar. Stepping around it, he bent down and pulled open the minifridge that was built in, swinging the door open. Taking two glasses off of the shelf from beneath the countertop, he pulled out a bottle of vodka along with a carton of orange juice, setting them both on the counter. As he went about mixing together screwdrivers, he continued talking. "Last summer, my father developed an addiction to meth. It got really bad and the business was sinking. We both knew he had a problem and that it needed to be taken care of as soon as possible. I'm almost done with college and have been shadowing my father in the company for years. So, it made sense that I, under the supervision of his partner, would fill in for him. He told the press and the rest of his company that he and my stepmother were spending a few weeks in the Carribean. I never actually meant to sleep with her. We were just spending so much time together, trying to take care of the business that it just happened. When we got caught by her husband, well, things went south. It ended up in the press and everyone thought I was there to steal money."
The details beyond this were of little to no importance to me. All I wanted to know was that Eli hadn't been the one who slept with the vice president of his father's company.
"When I found those clippings in Georgia's bag, she acted as if it was Eli who did that." I finally said, reaching out to take the drink that he was handing me. "Why would she think that?"
Emmett frowned as he took a seat on the couch again and looked at me over the rim of his glass. "I don't think I have an answer for that. I mean, when Georgia has an ulterior motive, she usually makes sure there's not a loophole or anyway to find out the truth. Georgia's pretty good at covering her tracks."
"How do you know about that?" I asked as the concoction rolled over my lips. "Do you and Georgia have some sort of past?"
"Of course. Your sister has a past with everyone." Emmett shrugged. "Just like she plays everyone for a fool. I feel like we're missing something here because your sister isn't stupid enough to try to pin this on Eli. It would have been impossible."
"Why's that?" I asked.
"Because Eli wasn't even in California when this came out." Emmett shrugged, one hand wrapped around his glass. "Are you sure she didn't want you to see this?"
"Positive. She was practically driving head-on into the other lane of traffic when they exploded everywhere." I told him. "Besides, if this was public knowledge, then why would she try and hide this from me?"
"Well, my brother has an apartment with her and Rodell." Emmett leaned forward, pushing his glass onto the table. He looked about as confused as I felt, eyebrows permanently furrowed.
"Does my sister not like you? Like, does she have a grudge against you or something? Because when Eli's file went missing, she freaked out." When Emmett's eyebrows raised significantly, I continued on. "Okay, so, I took the file. I was with Angeline and we were wasted and I wanted to know more about Eli. I was at my boyfriend's house when I saw something Georgia had written on it to Oliver. It said something like he couldn't trust Eli and they needed to get rid of him."
Emmett was quiet for a long time, now sitting with his elbows propped on his knees and his hands steepled before him. He was staring at the blank flat screen that hung on the far wall. I watched as he chewed his bottom lip, the two of them parting as he got lost in thought.
I didn't understand the point of this unexpected plot twist. Everything that was happening this summer didn't necessarily have a point, but there had to be a reason why Georgia had those clippings in her purse. She certainly was not stuffing her bra with them.
This didn't happen on accident. It couldn't have. There had been a file tucked in Georgia's purse. I remembered my fingers brushing over the folder in her bag when I was digging through it for her phone. What didn't make sense, though, was the fact that there was no way for her to know that I was going to go through her purse.
Besides, why did it really matter to Georgia if Eli and I were in a relationship or not? She didn't know him, had never encountered him. Then again, why did Georgia always have to have her nose in my life? I couldn't get away with anything without her knowing about it.
"Emmett?" I looked away from where I had been staring out across the balcony. When he looked to me, I continued on, "Eli lost his apartment. He said that you weren't giving him money."
"What?" He suddenly sat up. "I never gave Eli the money. They were supposed to be drawing it right from my account. Eli has my apartment from when I was there."
"I don't understand any of this." I told him.
"I think that Georgia's keeping something from you." Emmett said. "I mean, don't look so offended. She's kept a lot from everyone. I don't think she makes exceptions for anyone."
I sighed and leaned back into the couch. I didn't want to think that Georgia was keeping something from me. My mind couldn't even begin to think what it could possibly be. What could she possibly want to keep from me?
As we sat there in silence, each of us trying to figure out what could possibly be the reasoning behind me discovering that article that made an E. Dunn look to be an uncontrollable pig, the sound of a key in the front door caused me to jump. Emmett barely turned his head, let alone unfurrowed his brow to look in the direction of the door. I looked over my shoulder as Eli walked through the door, wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and tennis shoes. With one headphone tucked in his ear and the other bouncing against his bare chest, he was just coming out of the zone, eyes not looking into the living room. Instead, he was shaking his head, running a hand through his hair. Rolling his neck and stumbling down the hall, he walked into the kitchen and yanked open the refrigerator. Pulling out a water bottle he turned around, pressing his arms against the counter.
"Emmett!" He called, eyes closed as he tilted his head back and allowed the water to run down his throat.
"What?"
"Okay, so I went on that run and I spent the entire time trying to think of a way to tell Adrienne that…" He put his water bottle down on the counter and looked for the first time into the room, opening his mouth to speak again. When his eyes brushed over the top of Emmett's head and then to me, his mouth fell open, obviously about to have said something that I wasn't meant to hear quite yet.
The butterflies in my stomach rustled uncontrollably at the thought of Eli jogging and spending the entire time thinking about me. I fought the smile that threatened to cross my face and instead tried to put an equally surprised expression on my face as he stared at me from the kitchen.
"Adrienne! Hi!" He said, not skipping a beat as he walked around to where I was sitting. Leaning across the back of the chair, he kissed me on the cheek before tugging on a strand of my hair. "What are you doing here?"
Emmett made it obvious that I would have to come up with my own lie as he picked up his glass, taking a long drink. I was eventually planning on telling Eli about the article. Now wasn't the time; I didn't want to tell him that I had come flying here with unreasonable accusations and looking for a reason to call him out for being player extraordinaire. Looking up at Eli, I grinned at him. "I can't find my phone. I think maybe I forgot it here."
"Your phone?" Eli tilted his head to the side, a look of concentration crossing his face. "I haven't seen it, but you can check my room if you want."
"Thanks," I smiled at him.
"Well, since you're here, want to go get something to eat?" He asked, tugging again on my hair. "I'm starved."
"Sure."
"Cool. I'm gonna go shower and then we can go." He grinned and pushed off of the chair. I stood up as he began to walk away from us, Emmett clearing his throat behind me.
I looked back at him, raising an eyebrow at him. "What?"
"I just find it hard to believe that you thought that that was screwing my dad's VP." Emmett shook his head.
"You know, Emmett, I wouldn't doubt your bother's sexual appeal." I told him. "Out of the two of you, one of you's about to get laid tonight. And I don't think it's going to be you."
With a wink that should have made Emmett scramble to find something to do later on tonight because this apartment would be preoccupied, I flounced away. Letting myself into Eli's room, I began to search top and bottom for my phone.
When Eli came back into his room sporting just a towel around his waist and dewy droplets falling from the strands of his black hair and rolling across his shoulders, it took all I had not to pin him to the back of the bedroom door right there. He raised an eyebrow when he saw me sitting on his bed, swinging my legs.
"I think you should give me a preview of what I'll get to see tonight." I told him, eyes falling to the towel that looked like it was about to slip to the floor.
"What are you talking about?" He chuckled as he stepped over to his drawers. "Our date isn't until Wednesday. Tonight you're just going to have to deal with me being entirely dressed."
"Not if I have anything to do with it." I said, just as he bent at the waist, head snapping back to look at me.
As I raised my eyebrows at him with a grin on my face, the towel slipped off, falling to the floor where it pooled around his feet. Not even bothering trying to hide it, I let my eyes fall from his, down over the muscles of his back. When my eyes found his butt now sticking in the air, my grin grew even bigger.
If things went according to plan, this wasn't the only time that Eli would be naked in front of me today.