Page 101 of Moonstruck at Midnight
My brisk walk turned into a run as the minutes went by, and still no sign of him. Grant and Tobias had just started training, and my alarm hadn’t gone off, so I was good.
I had decided before not to ask Tobias about William, but I couldn’t deal with the curiosity. I jumped off the treadmill, washed my hands, and ambled out of the bathroom. Grant was setting up a few of the small cones he usually brought, and Tobias was taking a water break, so he was free for me to ask away.
“I’ve never seen you train at this hour before.” I casually led the conversation to where I wanted it instead of asking Tobias directly about William.
“Yeah, I’m taking up Billy and Joel’s training spot for now,” he replied, panting. His face was red and sweaty from the workout.
“Oh, I’m sure they couldn’t keep up with you, Grant,” I said humorously, trying to dig for information. Grant laughed, and Tobias grinned, brushing away the sweat from his face with his forearm.Come on!Spill!
“I’m sure they’d find any excuse to skip a class. But you know they started today with that project they’re working on together, so I’ll be training them at whatever available time they have.”
“Project? What project?” I asked, faking dementia. I knew I wasn’t supposed to ask around, but maybe I could win our bet.
“You know, the—”
“Hey, hey, hey! No cheating, Billie. I see what you’re doing there.” William had trained him well. Apparently, he forgot to talk to Grant. I almost got him.
“What bet?” Grant asked with a curious-filled smile.
“Billie has to guess what William does for a living or risk going on a boring date with him. I’d be fishing for information to get out of it too if I were you.” He joked.
“Oh, really?” Grant looked surprised.
“Don’t react to anything,” Tobias ordered. “Look at her. She’s analyzing our every word and gesture.” I was.
My phone buzzed.
W.S.:Hej älskling. I forgot to mention yesterday I won’t be seeing you at the gym for a while. I’m sure you bumped into Tobias. I’m busy right now, but I’ll text you once I’m done. I’m gonna need you to take that last guess soon, okay? You know I hate waiting.
I looked at the top left of my screen.8:15 p.m.
“Oh my God, the cake!” I shouted. My alarmneverwent off. I quickly checked the alarm settings, and it was set to thirty-six freaking hours!I hate iPhones! This would’ve never happened with my Blackberry!
“Wait, Billie! What’s wrong?” Tobias urged. But I ran out and desperately clicked on the elevator button without replying.
The elevator arrived, and as the doors were closing, a shrilling alarm startled me. It was the building’s fire alarm system.Fuckfuckfuck!
I ran out of the elevator and unlocked the door to my apartment. Grayish smoke flooded out from the kitchen. I couldn’t see fire, only smoke everywhere. My first instinct was to fill a bowl with water. I planned to open the oven’s door first and then throw water inside it.
My father is going to kill me!
He was surely making me go back to live with him after this. I kept thinking about the firefighters coming in and howembarrassingit would be with all my neighbors. Especially with William. He would surely give me shit for burning a simple cake mix through all eternity.
I needed to fix this.
I desperately browsed through the cupboards with a cough that wouldn’t cease, looking for something useful that could hold enough water. I rarely used the kitchen, and I didn’t know where Mimi usually kept things other than the basics.
I finally found a plastic bowl big enough to work and filled it with water. I grasped it with one hand as I reached for the oven door with the other.
The handle was scorching to the touch. I recoiled fiercely away from it—my hand throbbed with pain—both the plastic bowl and the water ended up on the floor. The smoke was getting denser by the second, I could barely see, and my cough only got worse with every passing second. That’s when I saw the flames inside the oven.
Oh, nonono!
I thought about how there must be a fire extinguisher out in the hallway. I quickly turned around to get it, but I lost my balance when my foot stepped in the empty plastic bowl, making me slide and fall on my back.
The air was knocked out of my lungs from the blow, and I couldn’t pull any air in. I couldn’t breathe. My hand throbbed from the burn.
As I tried to summon short and shallow breaths into my lungs, Caleb’s face came into sight through the smoke. His horrified expression was the last thing I saw before passing out.
