Page 40 of The Ghost of You

“You know I always thought it was odd how Becca acted when she came to visit you in college.”

I sigh and head to the door. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“She was jealous of you, you know.”

I snap my head around at that. “Becca was never jealous of me. She had everything she ever wanted. If she didn’t she got it at the drop of a hat. She had money, friends, beauty. I don’t think there has ever been a day in her life she hasn’t gotten what she’s wanted.”

“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think.”

I can’t take any more of this shit, so I storm out of the studio before Seraphina can say another word to me.

* * *

Four dayslater and I am still fighting flashbacks from my past. Yoga hasn’t helped. Meditating hasn’t helped. Working hasn’t done shit either. I even picked up extra shifts at Jimmy’s so I could stay busy, yet all I can think about is my conversation with Becca and what Seraphina told me after. There is no way Becca was jealous of me. How could she have been? I had braces and acne. I was fat. I put on more weight than the typical freshman fifteen. I had to work two jobs in college to pay my way through. She got to sit at home and get pampered.

But Seraphina has always had a weird sixth sense about reading people. Maybe I was missing something.

I yawn as I pull into my driveway after yoga and see my landlord standing outside my door next to a woman with perfectly coifed blond hair and a power suit. I haven’t heard from my landlord in a month, not since the water incident. And the last I talked to him, he was in Florida.

I get out of my car and grab my yoga bag out of the back. My landlord tries to tell me something, but I can’t hear him over the noise of Noah’s table saw in his garage. I glance over and can just see a sliver of him as he leans over cutting two by twos. His thick biceps lay each cut on a table and my mind goes to the way his hard chest felt under my hands. His warm breath caressing my lips before he almost kissed me.

God, why am I thinking about Noah now too?

I turn away before I redirect my path to his garage and pull him away from his work and kiss him like I tell myself I am not dying to do.

“Anna.” I hear my landlord as I get closer to the front door and further from Noah.

I wave to him and the woman. “Hello, Mr. Casallero.”

“Please call me George.”

I flatten my lips and nod.

“Anyway, I was stopping by with Ms. Wilmot here to show her the property.”

“What?” I ask, confused.

Mr. Casallero clears his throat. “Remember I told you I was thinking of selling.”

“Uh, yes you mentioned it briefly when you failed to send someone out to fix the water problem.”

His cheeks redden and anger passes over his features. “Well everything is in working order now, I heard.”

“Excuse me, Ms….?”

“Cooper,” I say in answer to the woman.

She sticks her hand out, and I reluctantly shake it. “I was hired by George here to list his property for sale.” I go to speak but she doesn’t let me interrupt. “Now before you worry yourself over losing your home, I want to let you know I am looking to list it as a rentable property with current tenants in place. You won’t have to move. At least not right away, depending on the buyer.”

George cuts her off. “Ms. Wilmot, I talked with you about listing it as a single-family home.”

She turns to George and straightens her jacket, giving off a sense of power. “We did talk about that, George. But as you recall, I said you would need to remodel the home to list it that way.”

“Well, then they can’t stay,” he answers, brandishing his hand toward me and the building.

“I have a lease,” I say to them both.

“Well, I’ll break it,” George spits back.

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