Page 20 of Pomegranate Kiss (Charmed in Charleston #2)

Chapter Twenty

C hristmas had already arrived, which brought Cam back to Savannah for a spell. She’d been dreading the return the moment she got into her car to drive back on Christmas Eve for the normal family festivities. Christmas Day they celebrated with their friends in the area and occasionally an auntie or uncle, since most of their extended family still lived in Bangladesh. But Christmas Eve was just her and her parents, a more intimate dinner.

Cam’s stomach churned like she came down with food poisoning the second she stepped out of her car.

Truly, she’d been feeling ill ever since she’d made her exit from Notes Nightclub. Lex hadn’t said yes to the blonde’s proposition, but Cam didn’t want to be there if she did. Cam was determined to take this step, and watching Lex walk off to fuck another girl in the bathroom would be the sort of pain that would scare her away.

And she’d been living scared long enough.

Cam tugged at the sleeves of the button-down sweater she wore, her palms breaking into a sweat. The cooler breezes of winter caressed her cheeks as she headed up the driveway toward her parents’ house. Her chest sank when she caught sight of another car in the drive, the gunmetal Porsche that belonged to Mom and Dad’s favorite new friend.

Of course, they hadn’t given up. They were determined to marry her off to Nazir, and no matter her winces or dismissals, her parents came on even stronger with countless arguments to sway her opinion of him. Pointing out her fast-vanishing years of marriageability, emphasizing how much money Nazir made—all the comments made her want to scrub her skin. What should’ve been a quiet Christmas Eve, the perfect opportunity to have the conversation with her parents, was now ruined by the betrothed she’d never agreed upon.

Cam steeled her expression to hide the irritation coursing through her veins. She cracked open the door, the scents of turkey and stuffing wafting her way. While her mother cooked Bangladeshi recipes most days of the week, on Christmas Eve she always treated the family to a Western meal. Cam had been in charge of bringing the pie, a cherry one she carried in her arm.

Not like she’d be able to stomach a bite. She was nervous to begin with, and the fact Nazir already arrived spiked her anxiety to eleven. However, Lex’s words had imprinted on her. Cam had talked to Danny a ton over the break. While her friend never asked her anything directly, she mentioned a lot about how Lex had settled down and taken the job at Inkspirations, working there full time now.

She and Lex might’ve each lied to themselves, but one thing they’d never done was lie to each other. She withheld news Lex needed to know out of fear, but she was done letting that hold her back.

Still, easier thought than done.

“Mom? Dad?” Cam called from the doorway. “I’m home.”

Her mother bustled to the door, a huge smile on her face and her eyes alight with pure joy. Cam’s stomach twisted, unable to help feeling like she’d been ambushed again.

“You’re finally here,” she gushed. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Yeah, that couldn’t mean anything good. Before she could say anything, her father appeared, smile lines crinkling his warm eyes as he strode forward with his hand on Nazir’s shoulder.

Even after she’d given Nazir minimal responses, refused to sleep with him, or even kiss him, she hadn’t missed the hungry way he scanned over her. It didn’t help that he took all her avoidance and disinterest as a sign she was some demure, meek thing. Little did he know a week ago she’d come harder than she had in months when Lex fucked her to completion. Even if she’d lost the chance with Lex Dukas, the past few weeks turned on a light in a lost room inside her that had been dark for years.

“ Noyoner moni ,” her father started, and she knew she was in trouble. If he busted out endearments, something in this arrangement must have changed, something to make both of her parents light up like that. Something she would undoubtedly despise. “Nazir has come to us with wonderful news today, and we can’t wait to share it with you.”

Nazir stepped forward, out of her father’s grasp, and approached her. He reached to clasp her hands in his, and Cam wanted to tug hers away. He smelled like expensive cologne that made her gag, and the way he talked was too oil slick, how he stared at her too possessive.

“I thought it would be appropriate for the holiday celebrations,” Nazir started. Her palms sweated harder, but with the way he gripped them tight she couldn’t pull away to wipe them down. “Today I asked your parents for your hand in marriage, and they accepted. You’re beautiful, Camilla, talented, and you’ll make the perfect wife.”

Oh fuck no.

She was going to vomit.

The panic descended a moment later. Her parents stared at her, genuine joy plastered on their faces, and Nazir beamed. All of them expected her to acquiesce, that they could rewrite her life without her permission. Repulsed was the only way to describe this combination of rage and illness warring inside her. Repulsed and betrayed.

She’d always been the obedient daughter. She didn’t get into trouble in high school and had ignored her own wants and needs for years, catering to the whims of her parents. It hadn’t been until her time with Lex that she’d awakened to needs of her own, to desires that made her feel at home in her own skin.

In the wake of the discovery, these people staring back at her were strangers.

“Camilla,” her mother said, casting a careful look to her. “I know this is a surprise. Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Yeah,” she said, pulling her hands out of Nazir’s grip. She stared past him to meet the gazes of her parents. Heat flushed through her, flames scourging every last doubt and making things clearer than they had been in years. “I was hoping to talk about this in private, but I guess I don’t have the option.”

She sucked in a deep breath and balled her hands into fists. “I can’t marry you, Nazir, because I’m in love with a woman, and I’m tired of pretending to be someone I’m not.”

Her nails bit her palms as she squeezed her fists tighter. Cam’s words dropped into the air like active missiles, leaving silence in their wake. Nazir’s brows drew together, and he cast a questioning glance to her parents, who both looked like they’d been spat out by a monsoon. The joy abandoned her mother’s eyes, and her father’s smile vanished.

Her gut clenched at the shift in their features, and the world spun, but she remained planted on the ground. The truth spilled out, and there wasn’t anything she could do now. A helpless laugh bubbled in her throat at the hysteria churning inside her, and it slipped out.

“What exactly is funny about this, Camilla?” Her father asked, his voice colder than she’d ever heard. Even when she’d done normal kid things to test their patience, he’d never spoken to her like that. “You’re embarrassing your fiancé with this ludicrous lie. Don’t you think we’d know if we’d housed a sinner all these years?”

His comment smacked her in the face, yet the tide of adrenaline kept her moving forward.

“Apparently you had no idea because I’m a lesbian, and I always have been. No amount of disappointment is going to change this,” Cam challenged. Nazir already stepped away from her as if she was poisoned, as if being gay was a disease he could catch. The disappointment reflected in his eyes, and disgust shone in her parents’ gazes. These people had raised her, loved her, and taken care of her throughout the years.

And now they looked at her like she’d committed first-degree murder.

Bile rose in her throat, and the room swayed again. She’d always known, deep down, her parents would react this way if she came out. They would never accept her like this. And the Arctic wasteland in their eyes proved every fear right.

“Get. Out,” her mother intoned, a dark fury in her voice that didn’t just hurt, it destroyed her.

Cam backed away to the door, clutching tight to the pie she’d brought. Out of all the ways she’d thought tonight would end, this was the scenario she’d feared. By some miracle, she managed to shut the door and make it to her car even though her arms and legs had already numbed. When she crashed into the driver’s seat, she lifted her phone with trembling hands.

The phone rang a few times.

“Hello?” Danny sounded on the other end.

The first sob slipped from her throat at the familiar voice. “Danny, are you around tonight?” Her voice was raspy, shaking, but she forced the words out. She didn’t know what she’d do if her friend said no.

“Tell me the time and I’m there.”

***

Cam’s drive home had been through blurred eyes, and she’d pulled over a few times when the sobs wracked through her too hard. Once she reached her apartment, the tears had subsided, drying like a plastic film across her cheeks. Good. Maybe she wouldn’t be an absolute wreck when Danny came over. The guilt throbbed in her gut at taking Danny away from her first Christmas Eve with the Dukas family, but her best friend had sworn sideways Christmas Day was when the real celebrations took place.

She moved around her apartment like a zombie, her bones aching and her eyes pulsing with phantom tears. Her mother had ordered her out like a stranger from the home she’d grown up in. Where she’d been living the past few months. From the place she’d always believed she’d be able to return to. Fuck, she didn’t even know what she would do about school. Maybe she could take out a loan to swing rent for her last couple of months to complete her degree.

A knock sounded at the door, and Cam’s heart sped on instinct. She didn’t think she’d ever forget how Lex dropped by her door late at night to spring that kiss on her when things had begun unfolding between them. However, she’d fucked up that relationship too, just like she’d screwed up the one with her parents. Cam wiped at her eyes as she headed for the door.

Danny stood on her porch, concern glowing in those green eyes. “Hey, Cam, what’s going on?”

Cam opened her mouth, but fear gripped her tight by the throat. Danny didn’t blink an eye at having a gay sister-in-law, and she suspected Danny already knew or at least figured something was going on between her and Lex. Yet all she could see was the aching, brittle coldness that had blasted from her parents after she delivered the news. Fuck it. She was Novocain-numbed from the pain.

“I came out to my parents tonight,” she murmured, the words she couldn’t steal back. A cool calm descended over her in the wake of all the tears, courtesy of the numbness that followed the adrenaline crash. “They called me a sinner and then told me to get out.”

Danny closed the space between them and threw her arms around her. “Oh, honey,” she said, a hoarse scrape to her words. “I am so, so sorry.” When Danny squeezed her tight, some of the warmth managed to penetrate through the chill devouring insides.

Heat welled in Cam’s eyes again, and she sank against her best friend. She buried her face in Danny’s shoulder, gripping her back so tight she might leave marks. “They accepted a marriage proposal from that rich douchebag without even asking me,” Cam mumbled, her shoulders beginning to shake as the tears streamed down her cheeks anew. “I know they were worried about me, that they wanted to be happy, but I couldn’t marry him. I couldn’t marry a guy . I wanted to tell them for a while now, but it slipped out.”

Danny stroked her hair, and Cam cried even harder, unable to hold back this pain tonight.

“That’s fucked up,” Danny said, keeping an arm around her shoulder as she began to walk them both toward her kitchen. “Let’s get some tea made, and we’ll talk. But for what it’s worth? I think you were really brave today, Cam. And you’re my best friend no matter what way you swing.”

Cam’s throat squeezed tight. That acceptance was what she’d craved from her parents, what she’d hoped for in a secret part of her even though the cynic knew they never would. She leaned against her kitchen counter, the tears slithering down her cheeks. Danny bustled about to set her electric kettle on, grab them mugs, and place the bags of earl grey lavender they both loved in them.

“You already know, don’t you,” Cam said, “about me and Lex?”

Danny nodded before she let out a reluctant sigh. “And I love you both, whether you end up together or not. Lex was a tough nut to crack, but ever since you left, she looked so damn miserable that me and her brothers pretty much corralled her into talking. Like, drinking herself into oblivion and turning down hookups in a very un-Lex-like fashion.”

“We both avoided talking about our situation while we were together, and when our six month arrangement ended, I was so scared to tell the Anti-Commitment Queen I wanted something more that I never told her about going back to school,” Cam muttered, scrubbing her face with her hands.

Danny plucked the steaming kettle up and poured the water into the mugs before passing one over to Cam. She picked it up, the scorching heat of the porcelain about all she could feel right now.

Danny blew across the surface of hers, leaving it on the counter. “She’s not faultless here. Adrian’s told me she had a history of falling for the wrong girls, ones who used her for some kicks until they all left. Until she pretty much walled everyone off, even most of her family. At least the Dukases know her well enough to claw their way back in.”

No wonder Lex pushed her away. Cam never told her what had changed. Hell, if she hadn’t gone through this situation with her parents tonight, she didn’t know how long she might’ve clung to the masquerade. And leading her on wasn’t fair to either of them.

“Do you think it’s too late for us?” Cam asked, her voice skating a whisper.

Danny’s eyes softened with sympathy. She clutched the mug as she took the first sip from the steaming liquid. “I think only you and Lex can figure that one out. But I’m rooting for you.”

Cam leaned in against her best friend, and Danny snuck an arm around her shoulder. The Chernobyl levels of fallout from tonight would radiate through the next few weeks, months, years, but right now, these were the people she would rely on. From the day she’d ended up in Charleston, she was meant to make this place her home. The support from Danny in her worst hour made the promise resonate deeper.