Page 74 of Landon & Shay: Part Two

“This is humiliating,” I groaned, pulling my shirt over my face to hide my shame. I couldn’t believe this was happening. The angles that they got of me that day were awful, too. It appeared that I had resting bitch face, which was the complete opposite of who I was. I was a happy girl! It just so happened that they caught me during a not-so-happy moment.

This was all Landon’s fault.

If he wouldn’t have showed up, wanting to have an easy conversation, I would’ve been able to have a completely normal iced latte face toss moment, without bystanders capturing it on camera.

What was even worse about the whole situation? The headlines were running with a story that I threw the drink because we were fighting over Landon.

Could you believe that? They painted him as the guy all girls were fighting over, when the reality of the situation was, we were fighting over Jar Jar freaking Binks!

The anger that simmered inside me was far too strong. There I was yet again, being completely embarrassed due to Landon and his fame. Only this time I wasn’t invisible in front of two models. This time, the whole world was seeing me.

“I wished they would’ve grabbed some of the pictures from the whiskey party of me instead of these. At least in those, I looked hot.”

“You look hot here, too,” Raine remarked. “Come on, Shay. Don’t let this get to you too much. The internet will be on to the next dramatic moment in a few minutes. This will be swept under the rug in a heartbeat.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am. So, come on, chin up. What’s on your agenda today? Other than avoiding the internet at all costs.”

I lowered my shirt and sighed. “Well, job searching once again. I found a few barista positions I’m going to go try to grab. Plus, I’m going to shoot for some waitstaff positions.” I felt somewhat ashamed even saying those words. I was a woman in her thirties with a master’s degree in fine arts, searching for waitstaff jobs.

Raine must’ve picked up on my unease. She placed a comforting hand on my knee. “You can do it, Shay. I know things look a little bleak right now, but the ship can’t always be sitting out at sea. You’ll start moving toward the shore soon enough. Keep your head up.”

I smiled and thanked my friend for the words of encouragement. To be honest, I needed it. Losing my job couldn’t have come at a worse time, seeing how bills were already tight. I didn’t really have time for a break in my pay, and I was currently beating myself up for allowing my emotions to get the better part of me.

“I’m okay.” I smiled at my friend, not wanting her to worry too much.

“No, you’re not, but I know you will be. Now come on to the kitchen. I’ll make us a pot of coffee.” She paused and gave me a wicked grin. “On second thought, let’s make it tea.”

She stood from her chair and began waddling away toward the kitchen. Once we arrived in there, I reached for the tea mugs, as Raine cradled her stomach in her arms. She seemed winded from the small walk and cringed as if the baby was fussing.

“Is he kicking around?” I asked, smiling to my friend.

“More like playing the freaking drums. I’m telling you, don’t get pregnant. Everyone on Instagram makes this shit look cute, but they don’t post pictures of themselves peeing in Target lines and having hairy vaginas because they can’t bend over. The other day Hank shaved for me, because he’s Hank and perfect, but I think he shaved a lightning bolt down there, because when the baby is born he wants to say, ‘You’re a wizard, Harry,’ because he’s a freaking lunatic. I tried to tell him that a shaved lightning bolt in Lily Potter’s pubes isn’t what made her son a freaking wizard, but he was like, ‘Babe, you just have to believe me. Your vagina is magical.’ I hate him so much sometimes.”

I laughed. “That’s a very Hank thing to do.”

“I can’t stand that man,” she grumbled as she walked over to her tea cabinet and pulled it open. I swore, she had more tea than anyone should’ve ever had. I wasn’t even sure that Raine liked tea, to be honest. She’d bingedThe Crowna few months back, and ever since then, she’d picked up about two packs each week. You would’ve thought she was British—until you heard her hideous British accent.

After she heated up the water, she leaned against the countertop, taking deep breaths as she rubbed her stomach. “Do you think we can talk about the big elephant in the room?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I sighed. “You mean the fact that Landon showed up to my job and has been so persistent about talking to me, and the fact that the more he shows up, the more I want to talk to him to get answers to questions that don’t really matter, because I’m over him, and I’m not an emotional teenager anymore who needs to know why she wasn’t good enough to come back for, and the fact that I shouldn’t look back, but should only look forward, even though I can’t stop thinking about the night we’d slept together, and ever since then I’ve been having sex dreams about him, and secretly wanting to sleep with him while sober in order to see if the sex was just whiskey-drunk good or if it was good-good, but I know that’s a terrible idea, because if I slept with him again, I’d be opening a door that shouldn’t be opened, but I mean, isn’t it already open seeing how we’d already banged? I mean, people just have sex, right? It doesn’t have to mean anything other than banging. There don’t really have to be feelings involved, because I don’t think I really do feelings on that level anymore, so I don’t know. That’s it. That’s all I have to say.”

Raine’s mouth hung open as her eyes widened in shock. “Holy crap, that was the longest run-on sentence I’d ever heard. Honestly, I don’t think you even blinked once or took a breath.”

“I know, but I just wanted to get the elephant in the room out of the way, because I’m pretty sure you’ve been able to tell what was on my mind ever since it happened. So, there. It’s all on the table now.”

Raine blinked repeatedly, still appearing stunned.

“What?” I asked.

Her eyes moved across the room and she pointed. “I was talking about the huge fucking stuffed elephant Hank ordered from Amazon the other day. He’s been buying stuffed animals as if we are having a freaking zookeeper.”

Oh.

She meantthatelephant.

Right, of course.

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