Page 46 of Moonstruck at Midnight
“Okay. Thank you, Lily. I’ll see you soon.” I hugged her and walked out with Caleb. I didn’t want to make any eye-contact with him. That’s how he read me.
“This was in your mailbox.” He gave me the white envelope with my name written on the front,Guillermina Murphy.I thanked him and turned around to unlock my apartment door, hoping that was the end of our interactions for the day. But it wasn’t.
“What happened on Saturday?” he asked sharply.There you go.“I heard your conversation with Miss Young. Who slapped who? Did that asshole say or do something to upset you?” He stared into my eyes, letting me know that he wasn’t backing down from this.
“He was a bit drunk. His girlfriend showed up and made a scene. He’s not in a good place; at least that’s what his family keeps telling me.” I tried escaping into my apartment.
“Red, come back here,” he snapped. I stopped, took a deep breath, and dropped my bag and envelope on the foyer table.
“Nothing hap—”
“I need to know,” he insisted. “It’s my job to take care of you, and I can’t do my job if you don’t talk to me.”A job.Ihatedit when he said that. He was probably looking for stuff to put on the boring reports they prepared for my father.
“I bumped into him and his ex arguing when I was leaving the party. She—slapped him for some reason.”
“Are you sure that’s it?”
“Mhm,” I hummed calmly.
“If I find out that he hurt you …” His burning gaze promised retaliation. William was for sure getting blacklisted. I could see his name right there beside Thomas’s.
“Caleb, you need to calm down. He did no such thing, and you need tolistenwhen I talk to you. Nothing happened. I’m fine.”
He looked uneasy.
“I knew we shouldn’t have allowed you to go on your own,” he said, rubbing his forehead and looking away.
“Caleb, I had a good time, and nothing happened, okay?” My insides churned as I kept lying to him.
“No more going anywhere alone, especially if you hang out with—them. If your father found out that we weren’t there with you on Saturday—”
“But he won’t,” I interrupted. “And you’re not going to tell him, so there’s nothing to worry about becausenothinghappened.”
Caleb finally backed down. He took a deep breath. “I should’ve been with you at the coffee shop today, I—”
“It was nobody’s fault. And David’s a total badass.” I chuckled as I remembered the photographer landing on his butt. Caleb snorted, unwilling to yield a smile.
“I hate to see your face like that,” he said, lowering his brows.
“It doesn’t hurt.” I lied. Again.
Caleb pressed his lips into a line, looking defeated. “We’ll be downstairs. I’ll need to report the paparazzi incident to your father. I don’t know where those pictures are going to end up, so he needs to know beforehand just in case they show up somewhere.”
I nodded. “I understand. Thank you.” I smiled, but he didn’t. He turned around and left. I knew he genuinely worried and wanted what was best for me. But I hated lying! And not only did I lie to Caleb, but I also had to leave things out when talking to Thomas about the party.
I blamed it all on William and his stupidly perfect face that I wished I could slap again.
I SAT IN THE LIVING ROOMto open my newly arrived mystery correspondence. There were two smaller envelopes inside. Each had a number written on it, 1 and 2.
There was also a snack-sized Ziploc bag with two film rolls in it. I followed the exact instructions and opened the envelope with the number one on it first. There was a handwritten letter inside that read:
Guille,
You’re on the right track to becoming a great photographer,älskling.But I think my shots were way better,so I made you a copy of the best photograph I took last Saturday.In case you want to learn a thing or two about how to take a good picture.
W.S.
P.S.I have a copy,and it looks great on my nightstand.
