A/N This is an entirely new chapter of Attraction. Please be advised, however, that Wattpad tends to mess up when old drafts are published again. In the event that you had Attraction in your private library before I started updating again, it is possible that you get the old chapters when I update rewritten ones.
This is solved by doing the following.
1. remove the book from your private reading list (the library in the app)
2. shut down the app, and if you don't know how, then simply restart your phone.
3. Open the app and add the story again.
The next chapter should start with the following words: Updated version of Attraction. If not, then you might have to retry the procedure.
A week had passed when Chris called, asking me to check the meanest city tabloid. He sounded amused more than anything else. Smug.
I had a vague idea of what Chris might be talking about and wasn't sure how I felt about it. My eyes were tired from working well into the night with some new remixes, but I managed to sit by my laptop and found a webpage that hosted both the incriminating photo and a few lines of text. The photographer hadn't known my identity, but Tom was mentioned as a close acquaintance to Lara Demalier and Dante Heron. There were photos of the others as well, but they had nothing to worry about. Lara had even been prepared with a graceful pose.
"Joah," Chris was still on the line.
"Yeah. What?" I was still staring at the picture. We looked hot together.
"So you left with Tom after all. You never told me." The guy was keen for gossip.
"I should have known you'd find this. I mean, who else reads this crap?"
"Don't you wonder how Tom reacted?" he asked, sounding like the tease he was.
"It's just a picture." I doubted Tom had said anything about it. He didn't seem like the type to comment on rumors. I began to walk back and forth in the apartment, skirting past clutter and stray items of dirty clothing that others had left behind.
"Well, it's more or less implied you're a couple."
"It's gossip, Chris." I could have lied to create some healthy drama, but that might land me in real trouble.
"So, you didn't go home with him? I'm not sure I believe that." Chris had smelled a bone. The question was if he would drop it.
"He drove me back here, but considering that I haven't even let you see this place, do you really think I would have let him inside?"
"Fair point. Anyway, Lara wants to go shopping and she asked me to join. I told her you might be up for it instead."
I almost laughed. "Wait, first you call to question me about my sex life, then you want a favor? Tut tut."
Chris whined. "Oh but come on! You know how much I hate shopping. I'm begging you here."
"What do I get in return?"
"I'll let you know that Tom snatched the magazine from me and wouldn't give it back."
"That's useless information." I suddenly imagined Tom ripping out the page and burning it slowly above a tiny lighter.
"Tom will be driving the two of you around."
Now, that was a much better incentive. "Fine. I'll do it. I have to get out of here anyway. Might as well kill some hours before tonight."
"Are you playing?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, at the regular club. Why don't you see if you can get Adam there?" I hadn't seen Adam for a while, something I should have realized sooner. If anyone needed friends around, it was Adam. That lousy ex-boyfriend of his had all but ruined the guy. Adam needed some fun, and definitely friends who cared enough to check how he was doing.
"I think he's left town. He said something about a road trip."
"Bring someone else, then. But you owe me, so be there."
"Fine. I'll call Lara and tell her to pick you up," Chris replied. The bastard sounded smug again.
* * * *
The sleek Bentley waited by the curb a few blocks away from my place where Tom had dropped me off a week ago. The tinted windows prevented me from seeing who sat behind the wheel, but my nerves began to tingle anyway.
Sunlight gleamed from the black paint when Tom opened and stepped out. In a suit, as always. It felt seriously awkward when he opened the back door without a word, hiding behind his sunglasses. Suddenly I understood why Chris usually tried to open the door himself rather than allowing Tom to get there first.
"Thanks, hot stuff," I said, just to regain a part of myself that had gone awfully quiet.
Tom stiffened, but that was about it. Perhaps he even gave me a nod.
I got inside and was fastening the seatbelt when the door slammed shut, which had me smiling. Clearly, it was possible to poke that façade of his to get some kind of response. It was better to keep things light.
He revved the engine, but since the privacy screen remained in place that sound was the only sign that he was there in the car with me at all. Feeling strangely trapped, I knocked on it before I could change my mind. A full minute passed before it slowly descended.
"What?" Tom asked, not even looking at me via the rearview mirror.
I leaned forward, one hand on the back of his seat. "Are we picking up Lara, or why isn't she here?"
"Yes." He pushed a button that made the screen move back up again. Not fair.
I placed my hands on it, thinking that it would stop, which it actually did. "So it's not just you and me?"
A slight shake of his head. "Why would I want to see you alone?"
"I can think of a few reasons. And apparently the gossip column agrees."
"Get your hands off." He sounded mildly agitated, but I was having too much fun taunting him to give up.
"Pity, I thought you were more of a hands-on kind-of-guy."
I laughed when I saw his knuckles tighten around the steering wheel.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled up by the curb outside a massive house that looked more like a hotel than a residence. Lara wore a dramatic hat to shade her face and shoulders from the sun, along with sunglasses that were large enough to almost hide her identity. The midnight blue dress that fluttered in the wind suited her perfectly. I checked my outfit and decided that we wouldn't match which was a pity.
Tom helped her into the car, making sure her dress didn't get stuck in the door.
"There you are. I haven't seen you in a week. Where have you been hiding?" She pushed my shoulder lightly, smiling.
I wasn't sure what to respond. I'd only met her once before, but from her way of talking it sounded like we'd been friends forever. I decided to play along. "I've been desperate to go shopping, and here you are, saving the day."
"Oh, honey, you saved me. I've been having breakfast with the most tedious people of my acquaintance. But when family begs for a favor, you do as they say."
I nodded. I would have done anything for my family.
She leaned forward. "Tom, I think we're going for the longer trip today. Drop us off at Alexander Wang."
I should have known we were going to the kind of shops where I couldn't afford a shoelace. At least Lara's presence would give me a reason to rifle through the racks and perhaps even try stuff on for a change.
Tom stopped the car where he could find a spot on the busy shopping street, mumbling something about getting a coffee.
"Get your coffee and cake. I'll call when we need you," Lara said.
I instantly imagined Tom eating cake in the car and smudging the panel. It struck me as a ridiculous notion. I had no problem seeing him dirtying the car in other ways, though. Sex and leather was such a heady combination of scents.
Lara was way ahead of me, already through the doors to the boutique when I managed to stop staring after the car. I caught up with her inside and pointedly ignored to look at the men's clothes. I would only feel tempted, after all.
"What do you think of this?" She held a flowery blouse against her chest.
"Really?"
Her soft laughter put me at ease. "I knew you were a better shopping partner than Chris." She discarded the blouse and continued farther into the store, waving off an assistant who came to offer help.
"So, Chris told me you're a DJ."
"For now."
She smiled and plucked a dress from the stands. This one would suit her better than the blouse. "You have other plans, then?"
"Not right now." I was almost ashamed of that answer. I'd had dreams. Big dreams. But they'd all turned into intangible ideas without direction. I'd spent my time following useless pursuits, hoping for something to magically happen. It hadn't. But I kept insisting that I had time to flounder around without much of an aim.
"I think I'll try this on," she replied, perhaps sensing that I needed a bit of time to figure out a good answer.
We spent hours like that, talking and trying on clothes. I tried not to look at the price tags too much but returned each item to the assistants. I shifted my focus to helping Lara instead, even though she clearly didn't need my advice. I had a feeling this entire trip was a ruse to lure out more information from me rather than buying clothes. Her questions turned increasingly more probing.
She was checking the hand-stitched lace on a top when she asked about my family. "Don't they miss you when you're all the way over here?"
I don't know what it was about Lara, but for some reason the question didn't hurt as much as it should have done. "Not really."
Her reaction was subtle but definitely there. I smiled to put her at ease and with the hope that she wouldn't continue that particular line of questioning. She responded with tact, "You would be sorely missed here."
"That's...thanks. I like it here, and I like the company."
"Well, you're far better company than my family. The stories I could tell you." She wore a smile filled with conspiracy and promises of juicy gossip. "I had to fend off my aunt who wanted to force her daughter on Dante at one point. It would have been hilarious if Dante hadn't been...well, Dante."
A soft chuckle soothed my nerves. She was good at that—lightening the mood.
"My aunt introduced me to a string of girls before I told her I liked boys better."
Lara eyed me curiously. "I can't imagine you staying in the closet for long."
"Nah, I was out to my friends, but not my aunt." I left it at that, dreading deeper questions.
"Oh well, sometimes silence is golden. God knows I've kept secrets," she replied, fetching another blouse from a hanger.
Awhile later, when we were walking back toward the car, Lara leaned into my side and squeezed my arm gently. It was a touch of comfort, in one way kinder than many others I'd received over the years. When it was time to leave the car at my regular stop, she did it again. "Joachim, if you ever want to talk, don't hesitate." The warmth in her voice almost made me choke up. "And, you know, sometimes family is defined by ties rather than blood."
I instantly thought of what Chris had said about Dante's mother, and how Lara had more or less claimed that role. In a sense, my aunt Helene had tried, but it had never been enough.
"Thank you." I didn't know what else to say.
I caught a fleeting glance of Tom in the rear view mirror, and this time he was looking right at me. Or through me. I wasn't sure which. He moved to open his door so that he could reach mine, but I couldn't allow that to happen. He'd seen more than I'd wanted him to see.
When the doors closed behind both of us, our gazes met above the car. For a second or two, I forgot how to speak. I wondered why, but he looked at me differently, almost as if he were seeing a new person in front of him.
The smile came with effort, but I finally managed. "Thanks for the ride." I made sure to use just the right infliction to tease him a bit more. Teasing was safe.
His response was to get his shades on and jump back in the car, leaving me to figure out what the hell was going on with my feelings.
It was a good thing that I would be playing later on. Seeing a dancing crowd always got me in a great mood. Maybe I would even let someone take me away so I could forget.