Page 25 of Heart Strings

Chapter Eleven

Abigail

I couldn’t believe it had already been a week and two days, and that tomorrow was the day I would have to leave Miami and go back home to New Orleans.

I had spent every single day doing something with Al. We had visited his parents, explored Miami, gone to the beach, explored some more, gone to a different beach, visited his house, played with his band, gone shopping… Just about anything you could think of to do in Miami, we had done, and I had loved every second of it because Al had been there almost every minute.

The sight of the date on my phone made me sigh when I tapped a button to wake it up. I leaned against the car door, letting the melancholy catch up with me for the first time all week. Tomorrow was Sunday. Spring break was over. Miami was over.

Was Al over?

He and I desperately needed to talk about that. About us. About what we were going to do when he went on tour, and I went back to NO to pursue the dream I had my whole life - my fate. Just…not yet, because we had already arrived at his house.

“Remember,” Al cautioned, “Sierra is here. I just want her to see us together, grab those Vaporized things I promised I’d give you, and get the hell out of here. She’ll probably leave you alone - she likes taking her anger out on me.”

It might be silly, but I actually really wanted to see this woman who could cheat on her man and yet also be clingy at the same time. I’d heard so much about her and done so much to help make her angry - Al had shown me some of her texts, especially the ones after he posted our beach selfie - and it only felt right to meet her at least once.

That was why this time I followed him inside instead of waiting in the car after Al turned off the ignition.

“Oh my God, finally! Where the hell have you-” A dark-haired, makeup-covered, buxom woman stepped around the corner and came into sight. “Oh,” she sniffed. “Of course.”

Maybe it was her snooty, penciled, high-held eyebrows, or her demeaning, dismissive voice, or even just everything I knew about her, but I disliked Sierra instantly. In fact, I found that I almost hated her without even really knowing her. She just gave off those vibes…something about her spiritual energy.

“Sierra, Abigail, Abigail, Sierra. Abigail is my girlfriend now, Sierra. Which actually kind of means you’re trespassing in my house,” Al mused. If he could take Sierra’s attitude with this much calm, he must have been very accustomed to dealing with her.

“Yeah, right. It’ll be an Irish girl one week, then a Latino the next, and then you’ll come running back to me like always.”

Wow. I hadn’t known I could hate Sierra more than I did already.The arrogance.Instinctively, I stepped close to Al, wrapping my arm around him and feeling him hold me in the same way, so that we could face this ridiculous human being together.

“Sierra, I’m not joking, or lying or whatever you’ve been telling yourself to avoid the truth about us. I’m with Abigail now. You and I had something once, but it’s gone. It died when you cheated on me.”

Sierra stopped with her mouth open, her eyes darting from Al to me as she looked for a way to retrieve this situation. “I- you can’t-”

“I can. Get yourself and your slutty clothes out of my house!”

I guess that drove it home because Sierra let out a veritable shriek of rage and dialed someone on her phone. “Hey, Babe,” she said with emphasis on the ‘babe.’ “Can you come pick me up? Yeah, you know where. You’ve been here before, of course.”

Al squeezed my fingers so tightly they hurt. “In my house? Really?”

Sierra sniffed, gave Al a wide smile, and traipsed off to a bedroom down the hall on the left.

“Gross,” I muttered. “And did she really just call the guy she’s been cheating with to come pick her up?”

Al clenched his jaw. “I just want her ass out of my house. I don’t care who gets it out. And then I’m changing the locks!”

A loud crash echoed down the hall, and I winced.I would too. She’s crazy.For the first time, I really understood why Al had hired me to play his girlfriend. And then I became his real girlfriend? Maybe… We had never put a label on us. Just one more thing we would have to talk about before I got on that plane tomorrow.

A shortish, somewhat portly man walked into the house unannounced twenty minutes later, glared daggers at Al and me, and headed back to help Sierra. All I could think was,She cheated on Al for that?Who could ever cheat on fun-loving Al and his absolutely delicious body with that guy?He must have money….a lot of money.I nodded slightly to myself when I spotted the expensive-looking muscle car outside.

Sierra and the guy carried box after box of clothes out to the car while Al watched them like a hawk, and I didn’t doubt he expected them to try and steal something. As far as either of us could tell, they didn’t, and both left muttering between themselves while leaving the door wide open.

“Good riddance,” Al called out as he shut the door and leaned against it, listening to the roar of a powerful engine and the squealing of tires as the car sped down the driveway.

“Well…we did it,” I said, trying to cheer him up. “We got her to leave.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like as much of a victory as it should. I mean…that guy? Really?”

I snorted. “Did you see that car? That’s all it was. Money. She’s drawn to that, just like you said.”

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