Page 44 of Kiss Me Ever After
“Ugh, seriously, you two are disgusting. Get a room.” Alex barged into the kitchen, breaking the moment. He went straight to the fridge and hooked out two bottles of beer.
Justin laughed. “See?” He gestured to his best friend. “This is what I’ve been trying to tell her.”
“And later, you’ll get everything you want.” Reluctantly, I pulled away. Justin’s suggestion of getting everyone to leave was sounding more and more tempting.
“Everything?” The puppy dog eyes he gave me made me giggle.
“Well, almost…” I winked.
“Honestly, can you be any more nauseating?” Alex pretended to vomit.
“Can I help it if my best friend hasn’t got laid in a month, and there’s no fresh meat at this party for him to get his hands on?” Justin spotted the second bottle of beer. “Wait, or is there?”
Alex blushed. “One of Amber’s summer work experience girls might have brought her older sister along tonight.”
“Really? I think you should introduce me.” Justin swiped one bottle from Alex’s hand and shoved his friend in the back.
“Wait, you’ll need to take her a drink.” I replaced the beer with another one and winked at Alex. “Good luck!”
Justin gave me a lingering kiss before he followed Alex out of the room. “Remember,everything!”
I chuckled to myself and went to get another drink. When I heard a noise from behind me, I turned around.
“Oh, it’s wonderful to see Justin happy again.” Candace Barkley came towards me, waving a bottle of water in her hand. “He’s totally landed on his feet by moving in here.” She gestured around the kitchen.
“I never knew he wasn’t happy.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. Who had invited her? Certainly not me. We’d never been friends. I seriously doubted Justin would have either. But I wasn’t about to let Justin’s ex get to me.
She moved in closer, almost conspiratorially. “I’m sure you know about his home life. It’s nice for him to escape it.”
I pulled in my lips. “If you mean did I know about his mum’s boyfriend being abusive, then yes. It’s one of the reasons he’s here.”
“Don’t get used to it though, hon. He won’t be here forever.” Her eyes turned to flints as she looked me up and down. “Once he knows the truth.”
“The truth about what?”
“You’ll find out one day. And when you do this whole little fairy tale happy ending will implode.” She waved one finger around in a circle, as if casting a spell.
The others had warned me to ignore Candace, particularly Justin. He told me she was a troublemaker, never happy herself unless she was making someone else’s life a misery. I guess me getting together with her ex-boyfriend was something of a trigger for her.
“Maybe he’ll find this is a much more satisfactory situation than he ever had with you.” I fixed her with a hard stare, hoping she’d get the message and leave.
“Even if it is, he’ll come back to me.”
“How can you be sure?”
Candace smirked. “Despite his facade, he’ll always do the right thing by someone. After the incident in the cafe, you should know all about that side of him.” She sucked in some water. “And that someone will be me again.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Honestly, I didn’t care either.
“You will shortly enough.” Candace swiped a bag of crisps from the table as she turned to leave. “Thanks, Lennon, good chat.”
Then she flounced out of the room, leaving me wondering what the hell she was going on about.
Amber and Curtis came in.
“What did she want?” Amber glanced behind her to make sure Candace had gone.
I shrugged. “She was being really cryptic. Something to do with something that will make Justin leave me and go back to her.” I shrugged, confused by even saying it out loud.
