[007] playing coy

                             Things had quickly gone downhill the moment Kendall and Roman were set to be in charge. Like... really fucking bad. Waystar's stock was plunging dangerously low, and Kendall was freaking the fuck out. Roman was too, although he didn't necessarily show it. It was obvious that neither of them knew how to do shit without their dad around. And they were both careful to hide the news from their father while they tried to fix everything.

                              Roman was stressed out and whenever he felt that way, he decided to call up the one person he knew could cheer him up. 

                             He immediately noticed that Alice was a little more cheerful than usual. Despite things going well at Moderne, he knew that couldn't have been the reason. More than likely, it was due to another man in her life. Roman was curious to know who the new asshole in Alice's life was going to be this time.

                             And he was going to coax the answer out of Alice the best way he knew how.

                            "Thank you for this. I certainly need it. You don't even want to know how stressful today was," Alice scoffs before taking a large sip from her glass, head tipped back. "Although, I can imagine that it's still a lot better than yours. Sorry to hear about how things are going at work."

                             "We're pretty fucked right now. If Dad hears about it, he'll chop our dicks off and keep it swimming around in some jar," Roman huffed. "So let's just hope he doesn't."

                              "Yeah, we wouldn't want your dick to be swimming around in a jar before you know how to actually use it," Alice scoffs, earning the middle finger from Roman. She just sends him a sweet little smile before grabbing the bottle of whiskey Roman had been using, pouring out more for herself.

                             "Speaking about dicks, who's the new guy you're fucking?" Roman questioned.

                            Alice raised the glass to her lips, pausing at Roman's sudden question. "Why do you fucking care?"

                             "Because you always tell me about the losers you date. What makes a difference this time? Is it someone I know?" Roman pressed on, his eyes never leaving Alice as she sauntered over to the couch. He quickly joins her, placing his own drink down onto the nearby table.

                            "Maybe," Alice shrugs.

                            "Don't fucking play coy with me, Allie. Who is it?" Roman questioned.

                            "Don't tell me you're jealous. You know you're the only man for me," Alice ruffled Roman's hair, giggling when he pushed her hand away.

                            Roman huffs. "I'm being serious. Tell me who it is. I bet I know him too. What? Did you go and get lucky with a married man this time?"

                             At Alice's sudden silence, realization dawns on Roman all too quickly. He couldn't believe it. Alice had actually gone as far as fucking a married man. "Allie, are you serious?"

                             "If you give me some fucking lecture, I swear to God -," Alice began to say.

                             "I'm not going to give you a lecture. Now who's the married guy?" Roman persists. Now he had to know who it was.

                             "Harvey Grosvenor," Alice announced.

                             "Isn't he that fashion guy?" Roman furrowed his brows. He knew a little bit about Harvey, just the fact that he and his family started one of the top fashion brands in the world. Oh, and he had a pretty hot wife. 

                            "Bingo. You do know your stuff," Alice grinned.

                            "I have you to thank for that," Roman admits with a shrug. The only reason he knew anything about fashion was because of her. Roman hardly ever admitted it but he paid attention to when she talked about boring shit like that. "Why would you fuck him out of all people?"

                            "Because he was nice. And he's hot. I don't care about the fact that he's married. What his wife doesn't know really won't hurt me," Alice shook her head. "Besides, it's not like I'm going to be in a relationship with him. I'm just fucking around. And when I get bored of him, which I eventually will, I'll leave him."

                            "Remember when you said that about Max but he left you?" Roman shot back. He couldn't help but feel a little spiteful, that familiar jealousy creeping back in. What did that married asshole have over him? Besides the obvious.

                            "Hey, asshole," Alice frowns, punching Roman's arm a little too hard and making him wince in pain, "I was going to leave him first. He just beat me to the punch. He wanted one good lay before he got away."

                             "What's it like? Being with Harvey Grosvenor?" Roman asked, although he immediately regrets asking the question. A sick, perverse part of him wants to hear all about it. But another, smaller part of him wants to spare himself the torture.

                             "Why do you wanna know so badly? Do you want to hear about all the times he made me cum? How many times I made him cum? All the positions we did together?" Alice inquired, her smirk growing bigger than before.

                             "I mean, if you're up for it. You know I like hearing about all of your stories," Roman remarked.

                             "I'm sure you'd love to hear about it so you could get off, you pervert," Alice retorts.

                             Roman's eyes darken, turning glossy with desire. "Shit, that almost got me hard, Allie."

                            Alice snorts before climbing onto Roman's lap with that ridiculously hot smirk of hers. Her eyes also grew dark with desire too and she decided to take it a step further by pressing her body even closer to his. Roman felt like he was dreaming. "Oh, yeah? How hard are we talking here? Really hard or nearly there?"

                            Roman's breath hitches in his throat as he looks up at Alice, his hands going straight to her waist. Alice smiles before grabbing his hands, moving them down to her hips. She never looks away from him, wrapping her arms around him to make sure that he wasn't going anywhere.

                            "Do you think I'm stupid? I see the way you look at me sometimes, Rome. Don't you want me?" Alice questions, trailing her fingers along his jawline and even moving down to the tie he wore.

                           "I have Grace," Roman argued.

                           "Since when does having a girlfriend or even a wife ever stop men before?" Alice raised a brow.

                           "We're supposed to be friends," Roman pointed out.

                           "We can be special friends. That is... if you aren't scared," Alice teased.

                          "I'm not scared," Roman stubbornly argues.

                          "Liar," Alice replied in a sing-song tone.

                          "I'm not lying," Roman retorted.

                          Alice smirks, leaning in even closer to where Roman sat. "Did you ever think about me when you masturbate?"

                        Roman's mind genuinely goes blank, his mouth hanging open. He's thankful that he's lost the ability to speak because he probably would've accidentally told the truth. Seeing the stunned look on Roman's face was enough to make Alice finally giggle before she climbed off of him and sat down on the couch instead.

                      "Fuck, Allie!" Roman groans, closing his eyes as he tried to relax. "I fucking hate it when you do that!"

                      "I'm sorry but you're just so easy," Alice continued to laugh, reaching over for her drink.

                      "You're a bitch," is all Roman can say, focusing on making his boner becoming a no-ner. All he had to do was think about his dad and it went down pretty quickly.

                     "If by bitch, you mean pretty, successful, and amazing, then I am a total bitch," Alice countered.

                    "Do you all of this with Harvey?" Roman replied, saying Harvey's name with an extra amount of venom. Now that he knew who Alice's new boy toy was, he knew exactly who to focus his hatred and jealousy on. And if they ever crossed paths, Roman was going to shit on them.

                    "No, Harvey and I have actually fucked," Alice shot back, causing Roman to scoff. However, he can't properly argue against that. "And we're probably going to fuck again. And again. And again."

                    "Are you going to the big old gala coming up? Connor's in charge of running it and he's already losing his mind. I'd really love to have you there," Roman then offered.

                    "Of course I'm going. My parents are so I don't really have much of a choice," Alice answered with a shake of her head. With her parents still being friends with Logan, they were eager to support Logan and Waystar any way they could. And Alice went along with it for the sake of also earning Logan's favor.

                    She needed the little extra boost with Moderne, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

                    "So you wouldn't even bother to go for me alone?" Roman pouts. "Ouch, that hurts."

                    Alice smiles, reaching over to kiss Roman on the cheek. "Aw, you know I want to go there just for you. But I doubt Grace would like us spending too much time together. She already thinks I wanna fuck you."

                      "Can you blame her? I mean, look at me. Everyone wants to fuck me," Roman shrugged.

                        The arguments between him and Grace were no laughing matter, however. They fought about a lot of things (Roman's lack of affection, Roman hardly ever wanting to have sex, Roman and his overall weird behavior, etc.) but the main thing they argued about was how close he was with Alice. He was closer to Alice than he was with Grace. It was as if they were the couple and not him and Grace. Grace was convinced that something was going on between them which Roman always denied. And, in a way, it was the truth. Nothing was really going on.

                      But he felt a lot more for Alice than he did for Grace.

                      "And yet you can't even put the tip in," Alice snorted.

                      "What if we fucked?" Roman suddenly asks.

                      "What?" Alice turned to look at him, completely surprised by the question.

                      "What if we did? Then... you'd have to marry me... or something. It'd be official between us. You'd want to get married to me, right?" Roman met her gaze, eager to know how she'd feel about her. They had similar talks about this before but it was always played off as a joke.

                       It wasn't this time around.

                      "Oh, yeah. I mean, you're definitely a last resort. If everything else in life fails, I'll marry you. At least I know you'll have my back. It'd take a while but I could get used to the no sex thing," Alice nods in agreement. 

                     Whenever Alice thought about her future, she always pictured Roman there. Alice truly couldn't imagine a life without him there, no matter how much of a little freak he was. And if that meant getting married to him, Alice wasn't completely opposed to the idea. She didn't imagine herself being single forever. She'd have to get married sometime so it might as well be with her no-sex having best friend.

                     With all the men Alice had slept with, she probably thought it'd be time for her to retire soon enough.

                     "It's not like I'm never gonna have sex. Besides, I've had sex before," Roman weakly argues.

                     "Yeah, like twice," Alice rolled her eyes.

                     "I regret telling you about both of those times," Roman frowned.

                     "Are you saving yourself for someone special? Is that it?" Alice questions with a raised brow.

                    Before Roman could answer, his phone rang and he reluctantly left Alice's side to go and answer it. While he was on the phone with whoever, Alice wandered out of his apartment out of boredom. She had been to his apartments a lot, mostly when it was just the two of them. Okay, so it was only the two of them. None of them had any friends other than themselves. 

                    She decides to wander inside of Roman's bedroom, finding everything to be neat and in order. Obviously, Roman wasn't capable of that and it was probably one of his maids. It's a miracle that any of his maids stayed longer than a month with the way Roman was. She then lied down on his bed, her hair sprawled out underneath her and her arms outstretched. Alice turned around slightly, instantly smelling traces of Roman's cologne. It was one of the few smells that comforted Alice. Perhaps it was because of how familiar it was. Whenever she smelled the expensive cologne, she was reminded of Roman.

                    "Look at the two of us. All alone... in my bedroom... It's so fucking hot," Roman spoke, now watching Alice from his bedroom doorway.

                   Alice sits up, smiling over at Roman. "Now I know you've definitely fantasized about this before. You gonna join me or what?"

                    Roman smiles, instantly joining Alice in the bed. They were lying next to each other and Roman takes the initiative to move closer, running his fingers through her hair. It was something he often did, whether she was awake or asleep. Alice liked it, even if she never told him how comforting it was. Her lack of argument was more than enough of a guess for him.

                    "Do you promise me that you're not going to become Harvey's mistress? I don't think I can handle that," Roman remarked.

                   Alice chuckles. "I won't become his mistress. Like I said, things won't last long. You know you're the only man for me. No one else has stayed this long. No one except for you."

                 "We're stuck with each other, remember?"

                 "Yeah, I know. It's not so terrible being your friend, Rome."

                "Ditto."

                 And yet, Roman was continuing to wish for more between them.

( 🥀💔🍸 )

word count: 2326
notes: here's chapter seven! yes this was technically another filler chapter but the gala's going to be next chapter and there'll be a lot more drama then! jealous roman is really going to come out by then so it'll make things very interesting!