Page 79 of The Plan

“Rumors say she’s dating her coworker Asher Brown. What's your take on that?” Where are they getting this from? Sheisn'twith that asshole, I know because I made August ask Hazel but how did that rumor even start?

“She isn’t dating Adam fuckface.” I storm away and climb into my car before they can get any more questions in.

I walk into August’s apartment, and my eyes quickly land on Vid at the kitchen island. She’s in a blue oversized hoodie with her hair in a slicked-low bun. My eyes travel down her bare legs, and I can’t tell if she’s wearing anything under, but I’m going to assume she is.

I place her virgin piña colada in front of her with a slice of tres leche. She glances down at the sweets, and then her eyes cut up to me. She sends me a questioning look, but I only walk around the counter to get her a fork.

When I was walking past the bakery, I thought of her, so I bought a slice of her favorite cake and her favorite drink. It’s no big deal.

She doesn’t question me and takes a sip of her drink as I hand her the fork. “Thanks.” She keeps her eyes set on the counter, but I can still see the dark circles forming under her eyes.

She still hasn’t been sleeping. I kept making up excuses for her to come next door, and she ends up taking naps there, but they usually end with her waking up screaming. Every other time, she’s at August’s, so I come by to keep an eye on her. If she caught on, she didn't say anything.

“You're not going to work tomorrow, right?” I try to convince her otherwise one more time. She sends me a knowing look and takes another sip of her piña colada. We have a game tomorrow, and she’s decided she’s ready to go back to work. We’ve been arguing about it, but she won, like always. I decide to give up on making her stay because I’ll be playing at the game, so she’ll be closer to me there than back here.

“What is it?” She just shrugs again and twirls her fork in the milk of the cake. Something is obviously wrong, but I hate how quiet she’s being. I lean my elbows on the counter so I’m at eye level with her from across the counter.

“He’s dead.” She whispers it like it’s a secret, but it’s all over the media, mainly because we were involved. I don’t like to say we’re celebrities, but we technically are, and the media sure does treat us like it.

“Yeah, I—”

“I killed him.” She sounds like she’s in some kind of shock and can’t believe it. I watch her carefully as she buries her face inher hands, shaking her head. “I'm a doctor. I’m supposed to help people, and I—”

“You didn’t kill him, Vid.” I quickly cut her off from her thoughts. She uncovers her face and looks at me like she wants to believe what just came out of my mouth.

“I did, Sire. One of my friends from the hospital said they heard around, and he died from an infection caused by the stab wound. I—”

“Well, you have a shitty friend, and they're wrong. I went to the hospital. He died from some brain shit. I was the one that beat the shit out of him, Vidia.”

She looks between my eyes, trying to see if I’m lying, and I really hope she can’t tell that I am. That son of a bitch did die from something related to her stabbing him, but I’m not going to let her blame herself for this.

After a few seconds, she just nods, then looks back down and takes a bite of her cake. “Is that why everyone is saying you’re facing manslaughter charges?” No, but that lie will work in my favor right now.

“Yeah, but I’m not.” She nods again and looks a bit relieved. When she takes another bite of the cake, she rubs the back of her neck like it’s in pain. “August’s couch isn’t too comfortable, huh?” She shakes her head no and keeps her eyes on the cake.

I look over her shoulder at Hazel and August, who are clearly trying very hard to keep their hands off of each other. “Come on.” Vid looks up at me, confused, and I nod my head to the horny couple on the couch.

She shakes her head, then grabs her cake and drink. Hazel innocently smiles at Vid as we leave, and when she turns to me, we flip each other off at the same time, and both slightly smile at the weird coincidence. Although neither of us would ever admit it out loud, we both know we could never really hate each other.

When Vid waits for me at my apartment door, I nod toward the elevator. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“I have to pick someone up. Come with me.” She looks between August’s door and me while twisting her ring nervously.

“Nothing is going to happen, Vidia.” Her eyes come off from the floor, and she looks up and nods as she walks toward the elevator with me. As soon as we step in, my phone dings with a message.

Lis:

So do I need to bail you out of jail or do the twins and I need to come up with a plan to break you out again?

I laugh softly at the memory of getting arrested in high school. I was stupid for taking a joy ride in a cop car while high, but we’re going to blame that on my addiction. That’s not the part I laugh at, though. I was only detained for a few hours thanks to having a district attorney for a mom, but the twins and Lis came up with a very shitty plan to break me out. It involved distracting cops with donuts, and I love them, but all three of them are idiots.

Not this time but keep donuts on standby in case

I tuck my phone into my pocket, and when I look over at Vid. I notice her going to say something but stopping herself. “Hm?”

She looks over at me while shaking her head. “No, you're probably busy.”

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