Page 5 of The Red Zone
I wasn’t certain whether the smug smile plastered on her face was supportive or concerning. However, upon observing her tickled expression, I had a feeling she’d been waiting for me to say that since the dawn of time.
“Operation Red to the Red has begun,” she mumbled to herself.
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough.”
THREE
MAE
For the most part,I was generally a happy person.
I woke up each morning with a little extra pep in my step that fueled me throughout the day, whereas most people needed an iced coffee the size of their head before they could even consider being a functioning member of society.
Not only was I a happy person, but I liked to believe that I was a nice person too. Okay… so maybe that one was a bit of a stretch. At the very least, I was a decent person.
But when it came to being in the presence of October Calhoun? Yeah, that’s when my pleasant demeanor was shot to shit.
Primarily because I hated him—oh, so fucking hated him—and there wasn’t a damn thing in the universe or beyond that could change that.
Was my reasoning for detesting him asinine? Potentially.
Did I care? Not even slightly.
At this point, after years of feeling nothing but fire fueled ill will at the mere mention of his name, altering my opinion of October would be a blatant waste of eighty percent of my life. And frankly, my time on this silly, insignificant planet was too freaking short to make amends with someone who wasn’t worthy of having my unparalleled presence in their life.
The funny thing was, he had invariably decided for both of us that our feud of the past couple decades was “slow moving with no point of contention”—his words, not mine—but dimwitted, ignorant October couldn’t have been more wrong.
Then again, he was a man… so I really shouldn’t’ve been that surprised by him making conclusions on my behalf without so much as consulting me first.
Moving along…
You see, therewasa pivotal moment that demolished all possibilities of acquaintanceship between October and I. And it all started with… Molly fucking Goldberg.
I didn’t have time to relive one of the most mortifying moments of my childhood right now, though. My life was being derailed six ways to Sunday, and there were more important things in life I could be pissed off about.
If we were getting into specifics, there was the grave reality that my company was one mishap away from collapsing to shambles. I could definitely be pissed about that.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on October barging into my backyard unannounced and uninvited—what if I had been tanning naked, huh?—while all butdemandingthat he move into my pool house.
Who in their right mind had the confidence to be so unabashedly senseless?
Him. That’s who.
Earlier this morning, when I woke to the sound of birds chirping harmoniously outside my window, I had an innate feeling that today was going to be a fantastic day. Then, much to my surprise, the last thing I ever expected to witness in this lifetime happened… my arch nemesis, standing in front of me,nanosecondsaway from dropping to his knees to beg for my help.
It should’ve been enjoyable. Gratifying. Downright entertaining, even.
Yet somehow, my internal victory was trampled over the second I became cognizant of the fact that he was calling in a favor purely for his benefit, and his benefit only.
Of course, it would be just like him to ruin one of the most anticipated moments of my life by making it all about him. I was a fool for thinking otherwise.
The prevailing attribute I’d grown to loathe most about October was that he always—and I mean always—had a way of turning my proudest, most sought-after moments around onto himself. Like the one time in elementary school when I raised the most money for our school wide walkathon, yet because his mom bought popsicles for everyone afterward, he was the one who got treated like the savior of the damn world.
It was an abomination, truly.
“Scarlett!” I shouted while wandering through the front door of her new house, bypassing Abel on the couch. “You’ll never believe what that idiot…” Stopping in my tracks, my words dropped off as the six-foot-three tattooed beast of a human sitting at the kitchen island came into my line of sight. “Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me.”
