TANGLED WITH THE CARVERS

CHAPTER 3*HANGOVER*

||*NADIA*||

Waking to the harsh sunlight on my face filtering through the open window blinds wasn’t on my bucket list for this morning. I hate sleeping with any form of light on my face, albeit small it might be, and for some reason I didn’t go to bed with my eye mask on last night, which is very unusual for me.

Groaning with annoyance, I turn on my side, facing the other way from the open window blinds. I shuffle around aimlessly in my new position to get comfortable on the mattress so I can go back to sleep, but the onslaught of a splitting headache nigging at the back of my head told me otherwise.

This is the one reason I hate drinking, despite my high tolerance for alcohol. All my friends always say they envy me for my alcohol tolerance, but what they don’t know__even though they know they don’t seem to take it as a serious concern__ is how I feel the next day. I always feel like s**t depending on how much I drank the night before. Most days I feel like a trainwreck, and no, it doesn’t get better as the day progresses because no amount of hangover drinks or soup I take can help remedy the way the alcohol wears me down through the rest of day. And I usually need to sleep it off to feel better, but then the headache is always a b***h.

I push myself out of bed with so much difficulty because my body suddenly feels like it weighs a ton more. Discarding the blanket hanging around my waist, I trudge blindly out of my room, rubbing my eyes sleepily because of course my body still needs to go back to bed, but there’s no way in hell that’ll be able to get another minute of sleep if I don’t deal with this stupid headache.

Once I get to the small kitchen in my humble apartment, my search for something to use for my headache becomes more frantic as the minutes pass, huffing along as I come up empty from each cabinet. I almost give up my search until my eyes land on the ibuprofen sitting idly on my kitchen counter.

Huffing in annoyance at the fact that I just wasted minutes searching through my cabinets only to have it sitting on my counter all along. I walk over to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water before popping two tablets into my mouth, washing down the taste with water, yet I still can’t help the grimace on my face as I swallow the pills. I swear, I will never get over my hate for medicine.

“Hey babe.” Zara calls, stumbling into my kitchen, her eyes barely open, her hair sticking out from under the bonnet she’s wearing and a dried patch of drool running along the side of her mouth, all the way up.

“Did you sleep here?” I ask, because I don’t remember her coming in last night before going to bed.

“Nah, I went with some guy from the club, I came around this morning. I wouldn’t dare to go home like this to my parents, they’ll lock me out.” She grabs the bottle of water from my hand, grumbling as she helps herself to the ibuprofen still sitting on the counter.

Every other thing Zara was saying about her parents or whoever her one night stand could’ve been, was all falling on deaf ears as my thoughts strayed somewhere else. Most specifically last night after Xander drove me home.

“Oh my god.” I all but exclaim, stumbling backwards away from the kitchen counter.

“Are you okay?” Zara drops the bottle of water carelessly on the counter before walking around it to grab my hand. “I swear if you fall you’re going to take me with you, because I don’t think I have the strength to keep you upright right now so please don’t fall.” She adds, grabbing my other hand to pull me forward.

I can’t even answer or promise her that I won’t collapse at this point because the memory flashing through my mind right now seems so horrendous. Am I making this up in my head? It can’t be.

“Dia…” I can hear her, but I swear I still can’t pull myself out of my head.

“Nadia… Nadia.” Zara yells in my face this time, causing me to flinch.

“What is going on, are you okay? Did something happen?” She bombards me with numerous questions, while her voice quivers with concern.

“I need to sit down, I don’t think I can last another minute standing up without collapsing.” I let out in a pinched voice, shaking my head at the onslaught of memories, and my headache seems to find a new reason to hang on to me.

“Come.” I let Zara drag me to my living room, looking ahead aimlessly as she gently pushes me and my ass plops on the couch.

“Will you tell me what has you gaping at nothing with your mouth hanging open like that of a dying fish?” I don’t realize that I haven’t answered her until she slaps my shoulder, “Nadia, I’m talking to you, stop scaring me.”

“I…” I blink, shifting my gaze from the wall to face my best friend, “I think… I think…” I can’t find the words, for the life of me I suddenly cannot speak.

“It can’t be that bad right? Whatever has your face blanching like this can’t be that bad as long as it doesn’t involve murder.” She rubs my arm, “Did you kill someone?” Zara whispers, leaning forward. “Is that it? Even if you killed someone I’m sure there’s a reason, do you need help with hiding the body? We can figure it out together. I can find a way, maybe make a few calls, I think I read it somewhere, how to get rid of a body. Dismembering the body should work, ahh there’s also this plant, ahh ahh google should help, or maybe we could throw the body in the sea, chop off the head or something.”

“Zara.” My mouth hangs agape, staring at my friend with a horrified expression. “Oh my god Zara, I didn’t kill anyone, stop talking about murder, and why would you even help me hide a body. That’s a crime.” I exclaim in pure mortification.

Zara shrugs, like talking about hiding a body was nothing, “You are my best friend Dia, if you killed someone, it’s only logical that I help you hide the body. You’ll do the same for me won’t you.”

I can’t stop blinking at her, is she really asking this? What makes her think I’ll help her bury a body? We might be best friends, childhood friends, but there sure has to be a line right? A line of morality, things we can and cannot do for each other.

“You’ll help me won’t you Dia?” A frown etches on her face as I take a minute to ponder on her question. “Perhaps I should start looking for a new best friend.”

“What! Why would you do that? Of course I’d help you, that’s what bestfriends do.” I mutter glaring at her.

Zara throws an eye roll my way before inching forward, “So you didn’t kill someone, what then has your tongue tied?”

“I…” I blink, wishing the images in my head would just vanish or turn out to be a bad dream. “I think I kissed Xander.”

A shudder runs down my body as the words leave my lips, and Zara simply stares blankly at me.

“You think you kissed him or you kissed him? Or did you dream about it?”

“It wasn’t a dream, I…” Shaking my head, “No, he kissed me, he was the one who kissed me.”

“Okay he kissed you, and you didn’t kiss back right? You pushed him away, because you know he’s your boyfriend's older brother.” Zara deadpans as a matter of fact, and the dread in my stomach returns.

“That’s the problem Zai, I think I kissed him back. I kissed him back, I had meant to push him away but I was too stunned for a moment, and the kiss felt so good. I wasn’t thinking, my mind just went blank and I was kissing him back before I could push him away.”

Zara makes a gagging noise, and I can’t even blame her because right now I can feel my stomach churning with disgust. How did I end up in such a mess with my boyfriend__ex-boyfriends older brother.

“Please tell me you didn’t sleep with him? Where is he? Is he still here, that motherfucker! doesn’t he even have the decency to stop trying to get into your pants, you’re in a relationship with his younger brother for crying out loud, why the hell is he so disgusting.” Zara yells, hissing with annoyance and her eyes dart towards the direction of my bedroom.

“He’s not here, and I didn’t sleep with him. I didn’t but it is still horrifying, I kissed him back Zai. Oh goodness.” I cast my head down with a dejected sigh, burying my face in my palm as a feeling of shame washes through my soul.

What the hell was I thinking? But that’s the problem, because I wasn’t thinking. My mind trails back to last night, the kiss, it felt too good, and I was carried away for a moment. Just a moment of weakness which can only be because I miss my boyfriend, and I sure as hell didn’t mistake Xander for Deion because they might be brothers but they look nothing alike.

While Xander is pale in complexion, blonde hair with his icy gray eyes, a growing beard that makes him look a few years older than twenty six, and his chiseled face, Deion is the exact opposite, but also good looking in his own rights. Deion rarely grows out his hair, he often has a low cut that complements his sharp facial features that one cannot miss. His thick brows for sure are impossible to miss, and also his thick upper lips that curve to form a cupid bow which sits perfectly above his plump lower lips that look so kissable. The stale look in his brown eyes was what had me curious about him in the beginning, what had drawn me to him, aside from the fact that his skin had that perfect golden glow of dawn, and always seemed to cast a shimmer when he’s out in the sun.

So they were totally different, which means there is no way that I made the mistake to think Xander was Deion when they are both different from each other. Deion once told me Xander looked almost like their father, while he took the brown complexion of their mom. So what made me lose my inhibition and caused me to kiss him back? Although I pushed him away eventually, knowing Xander, this won’t be something lost in passing, he’ll want more. He’ll think that now he has a chance with me.

“Well that’s a good thing, you didn’t sleep with him. The kiss was just a fluke. Hey.” Zara hooks her fingers under my chin, pushing my head.

“It was only a kiss right?” I nod at her question, “And you pushed him away eventually didn’t you?” I nod again.

“I did, the minute I realized what was happening, I shoved him away yelling at him to get away from me, and stop trying to come on me. I also told him I'll never date him even if he’s the last man on earth.” Zara’s eyes widen for a second before she doubles over with laughter.

“Oh my god Dia…” She continues to laugh, “I wish I was there to see his face. Why are you still friends with him anyway?” She asks in between her laughter.

“Why are you also still friends with him, aside from him being a pain in the ass sometimes, we both know Xander is a good person, and he’s a good friend.”

“Well, you’re right about that.” Zara concedes, “But, he’s asking to get his ass kicked one of these days, if he doesn’t stop trying to get with you.”

“Anyway,” Zara claps, “the kiss happened, you need to let it go.”

“You know Xander won’t just let it slide.” I murmur, shaking my head.

“We don’t care about Xander, and you need to show him that the kiss was nothing, it was a fluke. Friends kiss, it’s no big deal. Although I know Xander can be persistent so we need to devise a way to get rid of him.” Zara mutters, tapping the side of her with two of her fingers.

“He only gets this annoying whenever me and Deion are on a break.”

“Well, we need to get you and Deion back together then…” She smacks her lips, “Yes, that’s what we have to do.”

“How do you propose I do that, when he won’t answer my calls or reply to my messages.” I ask just as the screen of my laptop on the coffee table lights up with an email notification, and I stand up to grab the laptop.

“Oh…” I mumble, reading the email that just came in.

“What is that?”

“It’s an email from Carvers group, I’ve been asked to come in for an interview.”

“You submitted your application three months ago didn’t you?”

“Yes, Deion convinced me to, he wanted me to work closely with him, more importantly in their company. He thinks it would somehow sharpen my image when he introduces me to his parents, and they’ll see that I am career forward or whatever it is he said. Not that my old job was bad, anyway he said it wasn’t up to standard, and my parents think he is right anyway, because according to him working for the Carvers will upgrade my portfolio, and I need all the knowledge I can get for Dad’s company later.” Zara nods as I explain the whole point of me applying to Deion’s family company.

“So when you said work closely with him, does that mean you’ll be working in a department under him, or working personally for him?” Zara asks.

“He wanted me to apply as his Personal Assistant, we’ll get to spend more time together that way, and I’ll learn more about business and whatnot. You know since I’ll be following him to meetings, and all.” My face shifts with every word I said, because the expression on Zara’s face seems cynical, and I know that look. She is up to something in her head.

“Well, doesn't God work in a mysterious way?” She smiles, clasping her hands together.

“What are you up to?” I throw her a skeptical look as she crosses her leg.

“What I am saying is, you need to go for that interview, and you need to nail the hell out of it. Give it your all, anyway I trust you to ace it.”

“Zara, you’re being weird, spit it out.”

“Okay, I think this is your chance to get Deion back, if you get the job.”

“Still not following Zai.” I wave for her to say more.

“Since you’ll be working as his PA, it is the perfect opportunity to seduce him, remind him why he was pining for you in Uni, show him all the goodies he’s missing, and drag his sexy ass back into your bed.” Zara declares, like whatever she just said will work like magic.

Taking a minute to ponder on her suggestion, she has a point. If I get hired, that will mean I have access back to Deion, I will be closer to him since I’ll have to work with him all day. Seducing him, and winning his heart back shouldn’t be much of a hassle, but if I am seducing him that would mean I am ready for….