Page 93 of Leah

Uncertain feelings swirled inside of me. Theideaof seeing Carter was exciting, but therealityof it would be painful. I rejected him after those few amazing days, and then I stressed to him about keeping things the way they’d been.

Seeing him would be awkward, to say the least.

Melanie chatted for only a minute before she got off the phone. “He said Carter’s not around, and that he’ll most likely be in his hotel room.”

“Why would he be in his hotel room?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I eyed her curiously. “Is he with a girl or anything?”

“I’ve sort of been dodging the news after everything. I don’t know.”

She waited patiently for me to decide. I could tell she really wanted to go.

I stuck the key into the apartment door and stepped inside. Dropping the purse to the ground, I sighed and said, “Okay. We’ll go.”

She squealed, letting her feelings show. “Yes! Okay, so I’ll be the designated driver, since it’s your graduation and all.”

“No,” I disagreed, shaking my head. “We’ll just take a taxi in and get smashed together.”

A drive there wasn’t going to be cheap, but we deserved a bit of fun.

We changed and fixed our make-up as Melania blasted music and danced around the apartment. She was beyond happy, and I felt myself loosening around her. Melanie was so infectious when she wanted to be.

Then we called a taxi and left.

On our way there, I fought the urge to look him up on the phone.

What had he been up to?

Was he seeing someone?

If he was with a girl, then…

Well, then nothing.

*

The night club was famous and known for its rowdiness. The VIP room itself was brilliant, I quickly came to realize. There was no bar drama, no waiting for an eternity to be served. It had plush seating areas throughout, and while there were a lot of people, it wasn’t obnoxiously loud.

Oh, and it was also filled with some seriously rich people.

“Oh, my God, he’s that guy in that agent movie with the secret double life,” Melanie said on a gasp, pointing across the room to some dude with a chick on his lap.

I laughed and shoved her hand down. “Don’t point!”

“There are famous B-grade actors everywhere, Leah! This is amazing.” She gasped again. “That dude over there got eaten by that fake flying shark from Flying Sharkageddon.”

I held my laugh in. “That sounds like the dumbest movie—”

“It was really awful.”

“I bet everyone tells him he did amazing.”

She groaned. “Fucking look how hot he is. I’d tell him he was amazing in it, too.”

I held in my next laugh and glanced around the room, and then I stilled when I caught Jared’s face. He was seated on the couch, a beer bottle in his hand, chatting to some girls.

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