Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
I pictured her dad’s impassive face. Felt his body against mine again. A flush rose to my cheeks. “Yes,” I said, and started coughing. My throat had gone dry. I went back inside and filled a glass with water. “Yes,” I repeated after I swallowed. “He’s great.”
“You’re lying,” Halley laughed. “I know my dad. He probably was on his phone the entire time and threw you out at the curb. Just tell me, Lily. I’ll yell at him right now.”
“No,” I said quickly. “He wasn’t on his phone at all. And he carried my suitcase up. Seriously, he’s been great.”
I wandered into the bedroom and saw my suitcase sitting on the inside of the door where he had left it. He had probably wanted to get on his phone, but I’d kept up an incessant chatter the entire way. I wanted to groan out loud, but then Halley would really call him up to find out what he’d done.
“Tell me about school,” I ordered Halley. “I miss everything so much.”
She heard the sincerity in my voice and pulled a sympathetic face. “It’s great, but I wish you were here.” Then she launched into a minute-by-minute account of the first week that made me laugh and forget about my embarrassment. By the time we got off the phone, the sky was darkening in the east. I had a feeling that if I was facing west, there would be a spectacular sunset on display. I walked out onto the balcony with a glass of chardonnay I found in the refrigerator and settled into one of the wicker egg chairs. I pulled my feet up into the cushion and inhaled the crisp, nearly acidic scent of the drink. It looked fancy. Probably cost as much as my plane ticket. I made a mental note of the label with the half-hearted hope that I could replace it.
In two days, I would officially start my post-college life. I took a deep sip of the lip-puckeringly dry wine and wished it was one of the cheap white wines we used to buy by the gallon. The evening was beautiful. The condo behind me was luxurious. I was about to start an internship people would kill for. But for some reason, as I thought about the man who had made it all possible, I felt a strange longing. It didn’t make any sense to feel that way about him. He was Halley’s dad. Yes, he was intimidatingly good looking, but he was so far out of reach that it didn’t make sense to feel like I had lost out on something. I shouldn’t feel my heart beat faster or desire curl in my belly when I pictured the laconic twist of his lips. I shouldn’t want to know how his thick, dark hair would feel between my fingers, or remember the way his body felt pressed against mine with anything but embarrassment.
What would Halley think?
But that antidote had lost its potency. It didn’t do a thing to lessen the inexplicable longing in my chest for a man I could never have.
For the first time, the thought of my best friend only made me feel lonelier.
5
CON
Naturally, Kim hired a hack to tail me. I spotted the dumb fuck immediately. He was parked just outside the gates of my community, and he didn’t even give me a head start before pulling onto the road behind me. I gave him a curt wave in the rearview mirror to let him know I knew what he was doing. He had the nerve to wave back, and I saw a grin creep across his wide face, the corners of his mouth pushing his cheeks up into round scoops.
I shook my head in disgust. Leave it to Kim to hire some cheap ass PI who would tail me on the freeway and ask my clientele for autographs. I had half a mind to call her up and offer her a hundred grand to get someone less obtrusive. The moron tailed me all the way to work, even trying to follow me into the parking garage beneath my building.
“Don’t let that guy in,” I said briefly to Frank, the garage attendant. “My ex-wife hired him to dig up dirt on me.”
Frank nodded, unfazed. He was used to all kinds of strange requests. He’d been working in LA since the 70s.
Instead of taking the elevator straight to the executive floor like I usually did, I stopped in the lobby. The woman behind the desk widened her eyes in surprise when I approached, and I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been down here. Even on my way out, I took the side alley exit the actors used to avoid paparazzi.
“Good morning.” I glanced at her badge, but it was turned around. “I wanted to make sure that everything was set up for an intern who is starting today.”