Page 41 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“Oh, thanks. Do I look old to you?” I laughed.
“I thought you might be Lily’s age, at least.”Thought or hoped? “You’re Zara’s age,” he said in barely a whisper, almost to himself.
“Who’s Zara?”
“Baby sister.”
Oh. He was shocked by my age, I could tell. I was also stunned by the almost eight-year difference, but who cares? My parents had a twelve-year difference between them. Besides, I just met the guy. And who knew if Caleb would “approve.”Since the decision now relied on him, I was probably not dating anyone for the rest of my life.
Sophie yawned, and that was my cue for us to leave. I’d forgotten they had just flown in from Europe and were likely exhausted.
“I think we should head back to the apartment,” I said, standing up. “I need these two to rest for tomorrow.”
“Oh, of course. I can imagine you must be tired,” Lily quickly replied to them. “Make sure to text me a few pics of your final look tomorrow, okay?”
We all said our goodbyes and headed toward the elevator.
“Murphy!” Nathan shouted from the door. I turned around, and he was leaning against the door frame with his hands tucked inside his pockets. “Let me know if I should get a costume or not.”
“You’ll know when I know.” I smiled and stepped inside the elevator.
“Fair ’nuff.” He smiled back a sexy smile. “Cheerio!”
October 30, 2009
I SKIPPED SCHOOLaltogether because I wanted to spend the entire day with Sophie and Cecile. Plus, we needed to go shopping for our costumes. My training with Grant had to be canceled too.
Caleb, David, and I went for an early morning run since my friends were still sleeping. They needed to rest. And I sure needed a run. The whole William thing from last night still had my head spinning. I didn’t wake up feeling sad about it, just angry and disappointed. Running always helped clear my head.
Caleb was extra weird and robotic before we left for our run. I asked him about Nathan’s status, and he told me it was still in process. I was 99.999% sure that Nathan would be cleared, but Caleb wanted to keep me waiting until the last minute—his new way of having fun, I guess.
When I got back from my run, I poured myself a second cup of coffee and sat in my living room to check on my messages.
Tobias:Hey Billie! Why don’t we meet at your place tonight before leaving? I’ll bring a nice bottle of tequila.
It was barely nine in the morning, and Tobias was already mentioning tequila. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the screen with a smile. Meeting up before leaving seemed like a pretty good idea. That way, everyone would get a chance to meet Ren.
Me:Hey, Tob. Sure! How does 8 p.m. sound? P.S. I’m scared about the tequila.
Tobias:Nate and I will take care of you, don’t worry. See you at 8.
Right. Well, we needed to wait for Caleb to feel like letting me know if Nathan could come, but sure.
I was about to set my phone back on the table when another message dropped in.
W.S:Morning, Guille. Did you check out early last night? I know it’s Friday, so you better start canceling any blind dates you might have scheduled for today.
This guy. He thought I didn’t answer because I was asleep when he texted me last night.
Nope.
I ignored you.Besides, didn’t he have that charity gala event to go to? Why did he want me to cancel my plans for him if he wasn’t even available? Scratch that. If he wasn’t evensingle.
He warned me not to google him, which I didn’t. We just happened to bump into that stupid tabloid. My mind battled against the possible scenarios. At first, I thought he asked me not to search his name online because of the fabricated stories going around about celebrities, and his name wasn’t the exception on the headlines. But now I didn’t know what to think. What if he was hiding something from me, and that was the perfect excuse to keep me in the dark?
Or maybe he wanted to see if things worked out well with me before he ended things with Erin for good. Unfortunately, there weren’t many optimistic options to choose from.
It was the hardest thing to trust him! Because why would he choose me over Erin or any other beautiful celebrity, model, or girl he had at his disposal? I’d been stupid enough to believe that I wasthatspecial. And I didn’t want to get hurt again because when he ghosted me a few months ago, it hurt more than I thought it would.
