Sleeping with the Frenemy (Vega Family Love Stories #3)

Chapter 20

20

Killian Kane sat in his bed, perched up on tons of pillows. It was clear that plenty of effort had been made to help him look put together. He was wearing a collared plaid shirt under a black suit jacket and his hair had been freshly styled. Despite all of that, it was apparent he was dying. His face was gaunt and pale. There was a tension to the way he held his body that was a poor attempt to belie the pain clear in his eyes. But worse than all of that was that his commanding, larger-than-life energy was gone. He looked exhausted and just done, like he wanted it over with already.

It was difficult to see and Sofi had never even been very close to him. Beyond his rakish charm and over-the-top compliments, they hadn’t talked much. To Sofi, he’d simply been Papo’s best friend and basically Kamilah’s great-uncle. Yet even so, Sofi had waited as long as humanly possible to watch the video Papo had given her. But she could no longer put it off. Mostly because in the middle of the night she’d had a great idea that could get her out of having to make a toast. First she had to know if it would fit with what Killian had said.

Taking a deep breath, Sofi hit Play.

Less than two minutes later, the video was over and she was wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. She knew that once this played at the reception, everyone would be a mess. But the good news was that it would work perfectly for her plan to get everyone to record something short and quick for Kamilah and Liam. She’d get someone, probably one of Lola’s teens, to edit it all together. Then everyone had the chance to say something nice and, the best part, no one would have to give a speech in person. It was genius. Sofi fought the urge to literally pat herself on the back.

“Sofi, girl, you are awesome at this,” she told herself.

Wedding planning was surprisingly fun. Sofi wasn’t sure if it was because she loved pretty things or organization, but she was killing it if she said so herself. The flowers were chosen, the changes to the cake had been accepted, the tent, stage, and dance floor had been rented for the outside area, and her favorite caterers had agreed to have their team use the El Coquí kitchen and dining area to prepare the originally planned meal with a few tweaks that Sofi knew would make it even better. Luckily, all of her other corporate vendors had agreed to work with her even though it was last-minute. With the exception of the DJ, but that didn’t matter, because she’d reached out to Gio and he’d agreed to do it for free. He’d been a little offended that he hadn’t been the first DJ considered. Sofi assured him that it was only because Kamilah wanted her family to just enjoy the wedding. She’d left out the fact that Leo and his band were performing.

As she put off actual work to spend more time checking off items for the wedding, she realized that the only times she truly liked her job were the times she was planning events, whether they were for company functions or clients. There was just something so fulfilling about seeing her vision come to fruition and witnessing the joy of the people experiencing it.

“I’m an event planner,” she said out loud to herself. She liked that. It felt good. She tried something else. “Sofia Rosario Santana, event planner.” Oh yes. That was really good. Perfect. Holy shit. “This is it. This is what I want.” She was more sure than ever.

Sofi pushed back from her desk and spun in her chair, throwing her arms up and giggling with excitement. This was it. This was what she wanted to do. She wanted to run an event planning company. Her own event planning company, so that she never had to be someone’s employee again. She’d be her own boss, she’d make her own rules, and she’d only take on the clients she wanted. It would be great. Now she just needed to figure out how to do it. Sofi began the only way she knew how, by digging in.

She was into her third page of notes when the door to her office opened. Sofi rushed to flip over the paper on her desk and cover it with her crossed arms.

She looked up to see her dad standing in her doorway. “What are you still doing here, mi reina? They are in the conference room waiting for you. Vamos.”

“I’m sorry. What?”

“The Costa people are here. It’s time for your presentation.”

“What presentation?”

Her dad looked at her like she was twerking on top of her desk. “Nena, no me digas que se te olvidó.”

No. She hadn’t forgotten it. She had never known about it. At least she was almost positive she’d never known about it. Sofi clicked on her calendar to double-check. “It’s not on my calendar.” She looked at her dad.

“I told Malorie to make sure to let you know and add it to your calendar,” he told her. “You need to take over handling the Costa account for me. I have too much other stuff going on.”

Sofi wasn’t sure she believed that. On one hand, Malorie was the secretary she and her father shared. She was new to the position, starting there shortly before Sofi returned from Europe. She’d been hired after their old secretary, Mrs. Barnes, had retired. Sofi had no idea what Malorie’s work was like prior to her return, but since she’d been back it had been clear that Malorie was struggling to juggle both Sofi and her father. Sofi had the sneaking suspicion that Malorie’s organizational skills had not been the reason her dad had hired her. She was ninety-five percent sure that Malorie was one of her dad’s “friends” who’d just been lucky enough to be available when the secretary position opened.

On the other hand, Sofi would not put it past her dad to spring this meeting on her at the last minute as some sort of lesson. That was totally his MO. He was the type of dad who’d throw his kid in the deep end to get them to swim. He thought a person needed to take their licks in order to learn. Having a conversation like a normal human being didn’t even cross his mind.

“Well, It’s not here so I had no idea about it. I don’t have anything prepared.” She already knew what he was going to say next.

“We can’t do anything about that now. They’re here and waiting.”

“I’ll reschedule with them,” she tried to suggest, knowing it wasn’t going to work.

As expected, her dad shook his head before she was even done speaking. “Absolutely not. They have been one of our biggest accounts for years and they are already on the fence about bringing us on again. There is no way we’re rescheduling.”

“I have nothing ready for them. What do you want me to do? Wing it?”

“This is supposed to be your account now. Besides, you’ve come with me to enough meetings that you know just as much as I do. You should be able to make it work.”

That was absolute bullshit. Sure, she’d accompanied him to most of the meetings so she knew some basics, but he was the one who knew the details. Besides, Sofi didn’t do last-minute presentations, her glossophobia wouldn’t let her. “You know that I can’t do that. I need to be prepared.” Her dad had never understood her need to have everything planned out and memorized to a T. He was the type of guy who could go into a meeting with nothing and leave with not only a contract, but a new best friend.

“You’re going to have to.” He gave her a stern look. “I’ll head in there first and take some time catching up, but I want you in there in five minutes. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

He turned and left, leaving Sofi sitting at her desk panicking.

She didn’t know what to do. She felt like every word she’d ever known had flown right out of her head. Fuck. She hated this feeling. Her stomach turned as sweat started to bead along her hairline. She felt like every cell in her body was shaking. Saliva flooded her mouth. You will not throw up , she told herself sternly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth. She repeated the action over and over until she no longer felt panicked. She still felt like she was on a train that had gone off track, but at least she didn’t feel like she was going to puke.

Sofi continued to tell herself that everything was going to be fine as she reached for her phone, unlocked it, and raced through her contacts until she hit the one she wanted. She held the phone to her ear as it rang and rang. “Pick up. Pick up. Pick up,” she chanted. The ringing stopped and Sofi almost cried in relief, but her relief was short lived.

“You’ve reached Leo. Don’t leave a message, because I won’t listen to it. It’s not 1996. Send me a text like someone who’s not a psycho. Unless this is my mom. Then just call me back later.”

“Fuck,” Sofi exclaimed. She called back only to get the same response. “What is the point of having a boyfriend if he doesn’t respond when you need him to?” she groused. She’d just hit the call button again when there was a knock at her office door.

Malorie poked her perfectly made-up, clearly unnatural platinum blond head around Sofi’s door. “Your dad told me to let you know when your five minutes were up.”

Of course he would tell her that, but not that Sofi had a meeting in the first fucking place. “I got it,” she gritted out through her clenched jaw. “Thank you, Malorie.”

The younger woman smiled. “No problem.” Then she simply stood there.

“Is there anything else?”

“Umm. He wanted me to walk you there. He said to make sure you made it there and didn’t disappear.”

Sofi contemplated chucking her phone at her floor-to-ceiling office window then quickly realized that it would only succeed in breaking her phone. Which she needed. To call someone else for help since Leo had decided not to answer. Maybe she’d call the police to come get her after she committed patricide.

Sofi stood up from her desk and stomped her way to the door. Malorie had better move out of the way quickly, because, with the mood she was in, Sofi was willing to bowl her over. Her willingness must’ve shown on her face, because Malorie practically dove out of Sofi’s path. During their silent walk to the conference room, Sofi kept reminding herself to breathe. She also told herself to ignore her sweaty scalp, back, underarms, and hands. You can do this , she repeated over and over.

Then she reached the door to the conference room and almost turned to flee. Except freaking Malorie just had to knock on the door to let them all know she’d arrived. Malorie was now officially her least favorite of all her dad’s girlfriends—and one of them had once told Sofi that she’d never be anything but a pretty piece of arm candy for some guy to take advantage of.

“There she is!” her dad’s voice rang out. “The woman of the hour.”

“Sofi, dollface,” Anthony Costa said as he stood to round the table. “I’m so glad to see you. This place hasn’t been the same without your gorgeous face around.” He pulled her into a hug without her consent. “I’ve had to stare at your dad’s ugly mug for the last year.” He let out a loud braying laugh like the ass he was.

Sofi stood there like a board. “Hello, Mr. Costa. It’s nice to see you.” She didn’t even bother with the other people who’d accompanied him since there’d undoubtedly be a new team the next time they met. Much like her father, Tony liked to have pretty young women around. Unlike her father, he didn’t have the charisma to charm them into staying around. Where her dad could win over just about every straight woman with a pulse, Tony only attracted a certain kind of woman—one who was using him as much as he was using her.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Tony?” He looked like a Tony. In that he looked like the guy who played Tony Soprano. He finally pulled away and Sofi fought the urge to brush herself off. He was such a sleazeball. “We’re definitely on a first-name basis, especially now that we’re going to be working much more closely together.” He brushed his knuckle along his jawline and suddenly the urge to vomit was back.

Of course, her dad said nothing while the guy basically harassed her right in front of him. Her tío Manny would’ve decked him the first time he’d called her beautiful for a Black girl. That had been when she was barely twenty. Every time she’d seen him since then, he’d gotten more and more bold in his words and his touches.

“I see that the culture of Europe did you well.” His eyes tracked down her body, pausing at her chest and groin. “Tell me, what did you think of my home country? You must’ve loved Italy.”

It had been her least favorite place, the racism was set to blatant there, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “It was beautiful and of course the food was to die for.”

He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips. “You let me know when you want to go back. I’ll take you. I have a gorgeous villa there.” Something in his tone let her know that he wasn’t offering out of the goodness of his heart. Payment of some kind was expected in return.

Sofi’s eyes shot to her father. Surely, he’d say something now. A man older than him had just propositioned his only daughter in a room full of their colleagues. But he said nothing and the look on his face told her that she’d better not say anything either.

“Let’s get started,” was all he said. “Sofi has some great ideas of how we can bring Costa watches to a new level. Right, mi reina?”

Sofi stayed quiet because she obviously didn’t. Until that moment, she’d forgotten what the company even sold. All that she could think of was that she wanted out. She didn’t want to pull a whole presentation out of her ass. She didn’t want to take over the account. She didn’t want to play nice with the pervy asswipe. She didn’t even want to be in the building. She was totally overwhelmed by everything she didn’t want.

Her pulse, which had never slowed, rose to what had to be a dangerous level. Her vision went blurry while her fingers and toes began to tingle. She almost felt like her soul was leaving her body. Then her unsettled stomach made an incredibly loud bubbling noise, and everyone looked at her in alarm.

“Excuse me a second,” she managed to eke out of her numb, cold lips. On shaky legs, she darted for the door. She heard her dad call her name in offended anger, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. As soon as she turned the corner, she started running. She was sure she scared the shit out of Malorie, if the woman’s screech was anything to go by, but she didn’t care. She went straight to her office, snatched her purse, notebook, and laptop off her desk and then rushed back out the door. She decided to let her dad step in and solve the problems he’d created for once.

She saw Malorie standing by the front desk wringing her hands. “Sofi, your dad—”

Sofi cut her off. “I don’t care what he has to say right now. You can tell him that I quit.” With that she turned to the elevator and hit the down button. She was going to go home, open a bottle of her favorite pineapple-flavored moscato, and start putting together a business plan for her event planning idea. It had become clearer to her than ever that her time at her father’s company was over. She just couldn’t do it anymore. She didn’t have the patience. She was tired. She didn’t have the energy to pretend to be something she wasn’t anymore. Besides, Leo had made a really good point when he told her that she’d made the company more money than her father had spent on her education. She wasn’t beholden to him anymore, even though she’d felt like she was.

It was time for her to focus on herself.

Sofi left the building and hopped in her car where she continued to call Leo. Every time it went to voicemail. By the time she’d gotten to the building she was concerned. What if something had happened and he was currently lying in a pool of his own blood somewhere? She parked and rushed up the stairs to the apartment only to find it empty. She called him again and heard buzzing. She followed the sound to the couch where his phone was peeking out from the cushions. Okay. Well, that explained why he hadn’t answered her, but where the hell was he? She knew he didn’t work at the CFD that day. She went to look for him at the distillery. She’d just entered the doors when she ran into Liam.

She hadn’t ever spent any amount of time alone with him, so she didn’t exactly know what to do around him. “Oh hi,” she said.

“Hey, Sofi.” He looked down at his phone and back up at her. One of his eyebrows rose.

She could guess that he was wondering why she was there so early and wanted to know if everything was okay. No. It was not. But she wasn’t going to talk to him about that. She wanted to talk to Leo. “I’m just looking for Leo. He forgot his phone upstairs.”

“He stopped by earlier to leave Tostón with me.” He gestured toward the doors that led to his and Kamilah’s place. “He said that he had something to do. He looked in a hurry.”

That could mean just about anything when it came to Leo, but she figured that he must’ve forgotten that he was needed somewhere and had to rush out.

He gave Sofi another once-over. “Everything okay?”

Sofi was shocked that he’d asked. Liam was not the type to offer people a compassionate ear to listen or a shoulder to lean on, especially not her. They were still clearly working things out between them, not that they’d ever gotten along well anyway, but it had definitely gotten worse after Sofi’s absence. He blamed her for hurting Kamilah, which cool because she blamed him for the same thing.

They were just going to have to get over it.

Sofi would get over the fact that her best friend was in love with the same guy who’d hurt her many times for over fifteen years and Liam would get over the fact that she’d ghosted his fiancée for over a year. They had to otherwise they’d make Kamilah miserable, and she didn’t deserve that. To that end, Sofi accepted the olive branch Liam was extending.

“I’m having a bit of an afternoon, but I’ll be fine,” she said.

“Of course you’ll be fine.”

She wasn’t sure if it was because of what just happened at work or because of who she was talking to, but that felt like an attack. “What does that mean?” she barked with more attitude than necessary.

Liam’s eyes widened. “I meant that you’re the type of person who will keep going no matter what. That’s why I know you’ll be fine.”

“Oh.” That was actually a really nice thing to say. “Sorry.” Okay. Fine. Maybe Sofi could understand her best friend’s obsession with this guy. He didn’t say much, but when he wanted to he could be sweet. “And thank you, Liam. I needed to hear that.” But she couldn’t help but be bothered that she’d had to hear it from him, the guy she barely got along with, instead of the one she was dating.

She knew Leo hadn’t purposefully forgotten his phone and she knew that he had no reason to suspect she’d need him in the middle of the day. However, she still felt like he’d let her down. Sofi was not the type of woman to look for comfort from others. She tended to keep things to herself. And yet, here she was searching for the person she’d decided to share her life with only to still be here by herself. She didn’t like that feeling. It felt like neglect. Like she wasn’t important. After the situation she’d just had with her dad, it was the last way she wanted to feel. Especially from her boyfriend who claimed to love her.

She knew it didn’t make sense and she was very upset with herself for feeling abandoned by Leo. She also knew she was projecting her feelings about her father onto him, but she couldn’t help her feelings.

As Sofi walked up the stairs to the apartment one thought was replaying in her head over and over. Was she really ready for this relationship, and if she was, then why was she constantly comparing her boyfriend to her father?