The Biggest Licker

“Thank you, Austin,” Drake says, offering Austin his hand; he shakes it, and offers my stepdad a little smile. I should've this seen coming; Austin helped Drake get onto the stage.

“Austin’s a friend of mine, Sloane, you know that,” Drake tells me as he sees all the rage washing over my face. “He knows about our, uh, situation ... And he let me know that you and Natalie were coming to Python the moment you called him about the stage.”

“How could you…?” I ask him, rage coursing through my veins. I fucking doubt I’ll be able to restrain myself. I’m spoiling for a fight right now.

“Calm down, Sloane. I came here because I want to explain exactly what happened.”

“I’m dying to hear your version then,” I hear Natalie say, and I turn my head toward the door. She’s leaning against the doorway, wearing a clean tight fitting dress, her blonde hair still wet from the shower.

“Try not to kill yourselves, will ya?” Austin tells us, and then marches out of the office, closing the double doors behind him. Natalie walks toward the middle of the office and, standing by my side, she stares Drake down.

“Let’s sit,” he says, a serious expression on his face, and then sinks into one of the leather couches in the center of the office.

“I don’t wanna fucking sit. I wanna hear an apology,” I growl, my fingernails digging into the palm of my hands.

“Then I apologize,” he says with a weak smile, looking from me to Natalie. Fuck, it pains me to fucking admit it, but he sounds sincere. Still, fuck it; an apology doesn’t solve a fucking thing.

“You betrayed us,” Natalie whispers, her tone of voice weak. This entire situation hurts her, and that makes me even more fucking angry. “You betrayed me.”

“No, I didn’t. I protected you,” he says, talking slowly but with a kind of resolute certainty. Seriously, if he starts spitting out that bullshit Linda said, about how Dirty Lil’ Angels isn’t a reputable company for Natalie, I’m going to fucking knock his lights out.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Linda knows, Sloane. She knows about us,” he tells me, and I feel a block of ice landing in my stomach. Fuck. “She threatened me that she’d go public, and you know what that would do to us… If this made headlines out of the blue, all of our companies would take a massive hit. Stock would go down, our boards would come after blood, and there’d be no way for Natalie to secure her financing.” His words hang in the air like a bad omen, and I finally relent and sit on the couch in front of him, letting it all sink in.

“Jesus fuck,” I whisper.

“Yeah…” he continues, “I had to act fast. But I’m sorry, I really am,” he says, apologizing to both Natalie and I.

She’s still standing in the middle of the office, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. Now it’s her hands that are balled into tight fists.

“No…” she simply says, sitting by my side as if she’s shell shocked. She looks pale and sickly, and there are tears welling up in her eyes. “I can’t believe she’d go this far…” she mutters, a sob making her convulse. Burying her face into her hands, she starts crying, and I feel my heart fucking breaking. “My own mother.”

“Hey, hey,” Drake whispers, kneeling in front of her. “It’ll be okay.”

/> “It’ll be okay, Natalie,” I repeat, peeling her hands off her face and then wrapping my arms around her body. I don’t know how we’re going to solve this fucking mess we’re in, but I can fucking guarantee you that we will; I’ll go to hell and back for this woman.

“Hey… I’m sorry too,” I tell Drake, turning to him. “I guess I should've trusted you.”

“You should have,” he says, but his face opens up into a smile. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re here. The three of us, together.”

“That’s right,” I agree, and the three of us fall into a tight embrace. I don’t know why, but I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t even know how to fucking describe it; it’s like my heart has grown lighter and heavier at the same time.

And then Natalie turns her clear blue eyes to me and… Fuck, she’s the most beautiful woman on Earth, there’s no doubt about it. And Drake and I are the luckiest bastards alive.

You know, I was fucking pissed about what Drake did, but I have to admit, it wasn’t about the money. The three of us belong together, and when I thought that Drake was abandoning us I just fucking lost it. I tried to mask my sadness with anger, but there’s no mistaking it; what I really felt was sadness, a deep cold feeling that tried to choke out the happiness I felt.

But now we’re together again and, whatever the world throws at us, we’re going to face it head on.

“I love you,” I find myself saying, unable to stop the words before they leave my mouth.

“I love you,” Drake tells Natalie exactly at the same time, our voices blending into one.

She raises her head, wipes one sole tear with the back of her hand, and then smiles. And fuck me if hers isn’t the brightest smile I’ve ever seen in my life. Leaning toward me, she brushes her smooth lips against mine, and then does the same with Drake.

“I love you too,” she whispers, the tears giving way to happiness. “I really do.”

Smiling back, I just wrap my arms around her and pull her close. Drake sits by her side too, and he puts his arms over us.