Page 110 of Moonstruck at Midnight
Just before Caleb turned to look at me, I straightened myself on my seat and ran my hair behind my ears, trying to appear less like whatever it was I looked like, which was not my best.
“Are you feeling better, Miss Murphy?” Caleb asked with a worried, bordering-on-gray sort of tone.
“Ah, yes, thank you, Caleb. Just a bit tired, that’s all,” I said, lifting the corners of my lips into a modest smile.
I needed to talk to him! But I couldn’t find the right time to do it.
“Glad to hear that, um”—he frowned and turned his gaze to the floor—“we’ll be downstairs if you need anything.” He nodded at my father, glanced at the flowers, and turned on his heel to leave.
“He’s soo attentive, inne? By eight in the morning, he’d awready brought yer medication,” Mimi commented cheerfully.
“Indeed,” my father agreed with the most subtle frown I’ve ever seen between his eyes.
I excused myself to take a bath. I texted Ben and Nolan afterward about why I didn’t show up at school.
My friends texted back, insisting on paying a visit after school to talk about the project. But I felt like they wanted to check up on me, which I thought was sweet of them.
I texted David directly and asked him if he could take the film from Saturday’s photoshoot to develop. He came upstairs fairly quickly, and I gave the film to him. My father was sending a few emails from the living room couch. I joined him and grabbed a book as I waited for him to finish with work.
“You see, this is why you didn’trecognizeanyone,” he said, closing his laptop and taking the book away from me. “Why don’t we watch a movie?”
My father stood up and browsed through my DVDs but couldn’t seem to find anything of his liking. “You really need to get Netflix, kiddo. These DVDs will be obsolete soon. The tendency is moving toward online streaming.”
He clicked his tongue repeatedly until he finally picked a title. “Roman Holiday?” he asked, trying to please me, knowing it was a favorite of mine.
But no. Too romantic.
Not exactly what I was aiming for. Besides, I’d just recently seen it. Something bloody or haunted would probably get the job done, but I had nothing of the sort.
“Star Wars?” he asked with shock, shuffling the titles on his hands. “All six of them? When did you get these?”
“You’ve always insisted on how they qualify as classics, so I added them to my collection.” I shrugged. “I actually did like them. A lot.” I’d never thought I’d be into sci-fi, but I loved the story.
“Which one did you like best?” He seemed very eager to listen to my answer.
“Hmm, from the old ones, Episode V. And the new ones Episode III.”
“I think Episode II beats Episode III, but I’ll agree on Episode V,” he conceded.
“The Duel on Mustafar just won me over.”
“Yeah, that’s a pretty great scene. So, Episode V, then?” he suggested, taking the DVD boxed set out of the drawer.
“Perfect.”
The doorbell rang at around six in the afternoon. David had escorted Ben, Nolan, and Heather up to my apartment.
“Hey, Billie!” They exclaimed in unison with big smiles.
“Hey, guys! Come in, come in.”
Heather walked up to me and gave me a big hug. I thanked David with a nod and closed the door behind us. My father was busy in the guest room, making a few calls.
“Whoa!” Ben cried as he saw the flowers Thomas had sent me.
“Someone’sverysorry,” Nolan teased.
I laughed with a smile that quickly twisted into a grimace. “You bet.”
