Page 76 of Moonstruck at Midnight
“I think it’s best if I head back.” This little conversation with Caleb was fun, but it was making me nervous. Good nervous. I think. That’s why I needed to leave.
“Take it easy on the wine,” he added. “I’ll be with the guys if you need anything.” He winked and walked away.
Okay.
I sat at the table, and Ben and Nolan played a silly drinking game that made Lily laugh. My phone buzzed again. Thomas.
“Hey.” I wasnotin the mood to talk to him. At all.
“Hey babe, how’s the shoot going?”
“Great, thanks,” I said curtly. I hadn’t forgotten about how he’d hung up on me the night before. He sounded calm right now, but I wasn’t happy.
Nolan shouted something from the game they were playing, and Lily and Ben burst out into laughter.
“Where are you?” he asked with a demanding tone.Here we go again.I told him I was in the Hamptons, shooting. He then wanted to know who I was with, so I explained I was with Ben and Nolan and that we had asked Lily to model for us.
“Hmm.”
“Is there a problem?” I asked as Ben shouted something back at Nolan. They were having fun with their game, and Lily was entertained watching them. I could’ve been enjoying it too, but what are you gonna do?
“I wasn’t aware you were doing the project with two other guys.” He sounded disappointed. And I found that odd since I was sure I’d mentioned it a couple of times already.
“You don’t seem to be paying much attention to what I have to say lately,” I told him. The three of them kept laughing in the background.
“Doesn’t seem to me like you’re working on a school project.”
I explained how we had been shooting since ten in the morning and were taking a well-deserved break.
“Have you been drinking? You sound, I don’t know—tipsy. I don’t like it.” His tone got more severe with each question. And so was my impatience.
“I’m currently drinking my third glass of wine, yes. And no, I’m not drunk.” He was right. I wasa bittipsy, but we were doing nothing but sitting down and talking. There was absolutely no harm in that.
He kept cross-examining me, as per usual.
“Where exactly in the Hamptons are you?”
I wasn’t going to answer anything more than exactly what he asked. “Sagaponack.”
“Okay, but where? A house? A restaurant?” He pressed.
“A house.”
I was aware of how my brief responses might’ve been annoying to him. But I had spoiled him. He always expected me to over-explain myself, to make him feel at ease. For me, it was an automated thing I did just to avoid him getting mad. I wanted him to understand that the number of questions he asked bordered on the excessive side.
“Whose house are you in?” His hastiness grew—by choice.
“It’s my neighbors’ house. You know, the ones who invited me to their Midsummer party,” I added, purely for theatrical purposes.
“Why would you go there? And drinking with your school buddies? What the fuck? I don’t like this.” Things were escalating quickly. I stood up from the table and walked away to the garden for privacy again. I could see Caleb and his sixth sense staring my way, but I gave my back to him. He always knew when something was wrong.
“You don’t get to talk to me like that, Thomas. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what I’m doing here, and still, I keep answering all of your questions. When are you going to answer mine?
“I don’t have many friends, and I can never see them, or when I do, you don’t feelcomfortablewith it. I could list a few things that make me feel extremely uncomfortable, yet I’ve never questioned or doubted you like that.”
“Like what?” he mused.
“Like … something’s clearly going on with you, but you don’t talk to me about it.At all. Like how you give me small pieces of truths to put together like an impossible puzzle, so I can have something to hold on to while something else comes up. Like how I’m just so tired of guessing whatyou’rethinking. Like how ridiculous it is for you to be jealous and mad about me working on a school project, which I loved working on, by the way, not that you care about any of that.
