Page 52 of Cruel Destinies

When he scurried back to the kitchen, I hissed, “Itoldyou!”

Ashlyn shook her head again, a bashful smile on her face. “So, what are we doing next?”

“Hmmm.” I tapped my chin. “Hold on.”

After digging my phone out of my bag, I did a search for local events and found one nearby. My face split into a grin as I tucked my phone into my lap. “Perfect.”

“So?” Arya asked, her brows raised.

I pursed my lips. “Nope. It’s a surprise.”

Ashlyn sat back, folding her arms. “How about you give us a hint.”

I leveled a mischievous smirk at Ashlyn. “You like music, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah. What about it?”

I raised my brows twice, then sat back with a self-satisfied smirk.

“That’s it?” Arya asked, stirring her water with her straw.

A chime from my lap made me pause and look down. It was a picture from Julian. Too curious to resist, I opened the message.

It was a picture of him wearing the kitty sweater with Rainbow curled up on his lap. Entirely too cute! I couldn’t help but snicker.

“What’s so funny?” Arya asked.

I glanced up at her, feeling like I’d just been with a dirty magazine caught by my Gram. “Oh, nothing.”

Ashlyn snatched the phone out of my hand faster than I could react.

“Hey!”

“This one’s fromJulian,” Ashlyn said, smirking at me as my face burned. “Oh, he’s hot. Apparently, he likes pussy.”

“What?” Arya exclaimed, jumping out of her chair and going around me to take a look.

Another chime sounded, and I squeezed my eyes shut in mortification.

“Ooh, and this one is from—who’s Professor Douche?” Ashlyn asked, scrunching her face in curiosity.

My heart leapt with panic. This was so not the way I wanted them to find out about my involvement with Caesar. And, fuck, what did he say?

I snatched my phone back like my life depended on it and shoved it into the front of my pants, crossing my arms over it.

“You know that won’t stop me, right?” Arya threatened, though she went back to her seat without putting up a fight. “Have you been holding out on us? Who are these guys?”

“Are you actually seeing a professor, or is that just some weird nickname?” Ashlyn asked.

I had never been so thankful that I didn’t use Caesar’s real name in my contacts. There’d be no explaining my way out of that, even with the truth.

I didn’t like lying to my only two friends, but I didn’t know what to say without knowing what Caesar had texted.

I cleared my throat. “What—um—what did he say?”

“I don’t know. You took it before I could read it.”

Oh, thank God!

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