Chapter 3 Then We're Nothing Alike

Julian pulled his arm free of the woman beside him before he'd even thought about it.

Her hand dropped. For half a second, her smile went stiff.

"Paige is my friend too," Elena said. "Is it strange that I came to her birthday?"

"No. I just thought you hated these things. That's why I didn't mention it."

Elena smiled a little. Because she hated these things? Or because he'd planned on bringing someone else?

Julian's eyes swept the room, cold. Who invited her?

Paige suddenly found something very interesting at the bottom of her glass.

The woman stepped forward and held out her hand.

"You must be Elena. I'm Bianca Sloane. I'm sure Julian's told you about me."

So this was Bianca.

Elena's chest went tight. But she kept her face pleasant and shook the hand.

"Bianca. I've heard so much about you."

Bianca tilted her head and studied her. "You know, people keep telling me we look alike."

Julian's face darkened.

"I can see it," Bianca went on, all sugar. "In the face, a little. Style's another story."

Her eyes went from Elena's hair down to her flats and back up. "For a Don's girlfriend, you're awfully low-key, Ms. Rossi. When Julian and I were together, he bought me everything. Birkins. Whole racks of Chanel. You know what they say. Follow the money, and you'll find the love. Looking alike doesn't count for much."

Elena smiled back.

"So the thing you think we have in common is waiting around for a man to buy us bags?" she said. "Then no. We're nothing alike." She let that sit for a second. "If a face needs a price tag to hold it up, it can't be much of a face."

Somebody behind Paige coughed into her drink.

Bianca's smile slipped. She turned to Julian with wide, wounded eyes.

"Elena." Julian's voice was low. "That's enough."

"Okay! Okay!" Paige clapped her hands. "Everybody sit! It's my birthday, and nobody's allowed to fight on my birthday!"

Someone suggested a drinking game to save the mood. Bianca went over to the long table, laughing, and picked up a glass.

Elena went to the couch in the far corner and sat down by herself.

A few minutes later, Julian sat down beside her.

"Hey." He bumped her shoulder with his. "Don't let Bianca get to you. She talks like that to everybody."

"Come on. Don't be like this." He took her hand and laced his fingers through hers, the way he always did when he wanted to be forgiven.

Elena didn't answer.

A cheer went up from the table. Bianca had lost a round.

"Drink! Drink! Drink!"

Julian's hand went slack around hers. His eyes went to the table and stayed there.

His eyes went to the table and stayed there. Bianca drank the first shot laughing. She drank the second one with her eyes squeezed shut. With every glass, Julian's jaw got tighter.

She finished the third and reached for a fourth.

Julian let go of Elena's hand, crossed the room in a few long strides, and took the glass out of Bianca's fingers.

"Your stomach's a wreck and you're drinking like this? "

The room went quiet.

Bianca lifted her chin. "What do you care?"

"You're done drinking." Julian looked around the table. He didn't raise his voice. "Anybody pours her another one, and we'll see what happens."

Every face at that table found somewhere else to look.

Elena watched from the corner, and the corner of her mouth curved, cold.

Bianca reached for the glass. He lifted it out of reach. She went up on her toes, lost her balance, and fell against his chest.

His free arm locked around her waist before he'd decided to do it.

"Careful," he said. "All these years, and you're still this reckless."

Bianca leaned into him with her cheeks flushed and looked up at his face. "Julian," she said softly, "you're the worst."

Somebody whistled. Somebody else laughed.

Julian looked up and met Elena's eyes across the room.

They were ice cold.

It hit him all at once what this looked like. His arm around Bianca's waist. His girlfriend ten feet away, watching him do it in front of everyone. He'd gone too far.

He let go of Bianca and stepped back.

His friends followed his eyes to the corner. They saw Elena's face, and it was obvious they'd all forgotten she was there. Nate cleared his throat.

"New rule!" he called out. "Bianca's stomach is off-limits. You lose, you do a dare. No more shots."

"Yeah, dares. Good call."

Julian came back to the couch and sat down.

He waited for her to say something. He knew how this went. She'd go quiet and hurt, he'd coax it out of her in the car, and tomorrow he'd send Danny out for something expensive.

She didn't say anything. She was reading an email from the hospital on her phone.

That bothered him more than a scene would have. She was different tonight, and he couldn't put his finger on how.

He opened his mouth to say something.

"Bianca, you lost again! Truth or dare?"

His head turned.

"Dare," Bianca said. She was looking straight at Julian when she said it.

Someone held out a glass bowl full of folded slips of paper. Bianca picked one. The guy holding the bowl unfolded it, read it, and his eyes went wide.

"Kiss anyone of the opposite sex in this room."

Julian's face went hard and cold.

Bianca stood up, still smiling, walked right past him, and stopped in front of Nate Lombardo.

"Nate. Do you mind?"

Nate shot a look at Julian and didn't dare breathe.

Bianca slid her arms around Nate's neck and leaned in.

"Enough!"

Julian was across the room before anyone saw him move. He grabbed Bianca by the wrist and pulled her toward the door. In the doorway, he turned his head.

"Bianca and I need to take care of something," he told Elena. "Danny will drive you home."

The door swung shut behind them.

One by one, everybody turned to look at Elena. Pity, mostly. Over by the bar, Brooke was trying not to smile.

Elena sat there with her phone in her hand and felt her chest go cold.

Julian Costa was the coolest head in any room. She'd watched men who'd run the Miami docks for 30 years go silent when he set down his glass. She'd watched him end a feud between two families with one sentence and a handshake, then walk out without looking back. Nothing ever touched him. That had been the first thing about him that scared her, and the first thing she'd fallen for.

This was the first time she'd ever seen him lose control.

And it wasn't over her.

She put her phone away and went to the restroom.

She was still in the stall when the door banged open and a few girls came in, talking over the sound of the taps.

"Did you see that? He just left his girlfriend sitting there."

"I mean, it's pretty obvious who he actually cares about."

"Did you see his face when she went for Nate? I thought he was going to kill somebody."

"Poor Elena. Everybody knows she's just the stand-in."

"Two weeks, tops. They're done. Honestly, she should've seen it..."

The voice cut off.

Elena had stepped out of the stall. The girl at the mirror caught her reflection and shut her mouth so fast her teeth clicked.

The three of them grabbed their purses and hurried out without looking at her.

Elena walked to the sink and washed her hands.

They were right. She and Julian were finished.

Just not the way anybody out there thought.

He wasn't going to end it. She was. She didn't love him anymore, and she didn't want him.