Page 27 of Not that Impressed
He ruined someone’s life, and I remember enough to know that he didn’t deny it and he didn’t feel bad.
Like I would ever date someone like that.
“Hey,” Janelle says softly as she opens the door of our apartment. I feel bad. She was just barely feeling like herself again after getting sick and then had to turn around to take care of me. Even though the doctor at urgent care told her it wasn’t necessary to wake me up as long as my symptoms didn’t worsen, she slept in a chair next to my bed all night just in case. “I brought you some tea. Chamomile. Mom said it would help you relax.” She sets down a cup from the coffee shop down the street and a bag that smells like my favorite blueberry muffins.
I smile. “Thanks, Nell. You should go take a nap. I’ll be fine for a while.”
She shakes her head. “I’m here to entertain you since you can’t binge TV or anything like I could.”
“I have a fabulous audiobook to listen to. I’m going to lay back and enjoy it.” I reach my arms out, and she squeezes me gently. “You’re the best sister.”
“Oh, come on. Like you didn’t play nurse to me for days and convince Victoria that she didn’t need footage of me gross and in bed and did overtime to make up for it.” She eyes me as she pulls back.
“Mom put her foot down too or I never would have succeeded in keeping the cameras away,” I point out. She can go mama bear when she has a mind to. “Do you mind reading a few text messages for me and maybe answering? My phone has been buzzing.” I point to where I put it far away from me on our kitchen table so I wouldn’t be tempted. I still get a tiny bit nauseous when I stand up. Walking across the room isn’t worth it.
“Of course.” Janelle retrieves my phone and then takes her seat back on the ottoman, facing me so I won’t try to read over her shoulder. “One from Mom asking how you’re feeling. Want me to reply?”
“Nah. I’ll call her later.”
“One from Libby saying she’s on her way over to entertain you.”
“You should have coordinated with her,” I tease.
Janelle laughs. “One from Grayson Hollis.” She looks up at me with a raised eyebrow.
Janelle and I haven’t talked since I saw Grayson at the game on Sunday. She was hanging out with Charlie Monday night while Libby and I went shopping for Libby’s homecoming dress with the cameras. Then last night I spent half the evening in urgent care and wasn’t in a fit state for conversation when we got home.
“We talked a little at the game on Sunday. He came with Isla and Colin.” I make a face at her hanging out with that try-hard. Janelle scolds me with a frown and I bite back a smile. “What does the text say?”
“‘I heard about your concussion. Hope you get better quick! Let me know if I can bring by food and hang out sometime while you rest,’” she reads. “He added a bowl of soup emoji and a smirk emoji.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
My cheeks heat up. “Let him know I’m off screens for forty-eight hours and you’re reading my texts for me, and I’ll call him when I can.”
She chuckles as she taps it out. There are a few more texts from my assistant and from one of the show’s production assistants, wanting an update on my health, that Janelle takes care of, and then she puts my phone on a shelf near the couch. She grabs her bag and pulls an envelope from it.
“Will asked me to give this to you and to please tell you not to throw it away before you read it, and that he promises he’s not trying to ask you out again.” She hands the envelope to me.
“He wrote me a letter?” I arch an eyebrow as I study my name written on the front of the envelope. The letters are tall and skinny and masculine.
What is going on? Am I permanently brain-damaged and this is an alternate reality I’ve created for myself where Will is some kind of misunderstood, brooding hero from a Jane Austen novel?
She grins. “Because you’re not supposed to be on screens, thanks to the concussion, and he said this would be a long text and he preferred to write this down rather than say it and risk it coming out all wrong, as he says is his curse.”
I furrow my brows at the letter. That’s really … considerate. Which I know Will can be when he wants to be, but what about Grayson? I can’t ignore what Will did because he didn’t like someone.
“It’s kind of romantic … right?” Janelle shrugs, her expression soft.
I study the envelope, still uncertain. “If you knew what I know about Will, you wouldn’t think so.”
She scowls. “What does that mean?”
I relay to her what Grayson told me about what happened between the two of them. Janelle’s eyes widen with every sentence, and she keeps giving little shakes of her head.
“I know Will’s not exactly easy to like,” she says when I’m done. “But that’s really hard to believe.”
“Is it?” I bite my lip. “The first thing Will did before even saying a word to me was judge me based on the show and trash me to Kara.”
“I don’t know, El, you’re right. But Will is also Charlie’s best friend, and there’s no way he’d be okay with Will doing that to someone.”
