Page 42 of Heartstruck at Dawn
That wound was still healing.
Me:No blind dates for today. Just a good ol’ regular date.
W.S:You don’t even know Nathan. Seems blind enough for me.
That was fast, even for Tobias. I was sure he’d been the one to tell him. Or maybe Nathan told him himself. I didn’t know how close they were. What I grasped from last night was that Nathan is Joel’sfriend, but I didn’t really care. Of one thing I was sure: William didn’t like the idea one bit.
Good.
Me:We did get to know each other last night. Don’t worry.
W.S:Cancel. I’m taking you to the party.
Thatpissed me off. I wasn’t going to take orders from him when I didn’t even know the truth about where he stood with Erin. I wasn’t going to take orders from him. Period. He was so used to having his way that it was automatic for him to demand things from others. His approach wasn’t helping the situation.
Me:Stop telling me what to do.
W.S:You cannot go with him.
I ignored him, and that seemed to do the trick because he stopped texting me. So I took a shower and got ready. I hated to admit that my overall mood had been affected by my conversation with William, but I couldn’t allow that to ruin my plans with my friends. We had our entire day mapped out. We wanted to go for brunch and costume shopping afterward.
By the time I came out of my room, Sophie and Cecile were already sitting in the living room, all dressed up and ready to go—staring at me.
“What’s wrong?”
Sophie parted her mouth to speak but Cecile pulled her arm, and I obviously noticed.
“What’swrong?” I asked once again, my voice firm this time.
Cecile clicked her tongue and said, “Sophie googled William.”
“And?” I took a couple of steps forward but stopped as if undecided about wanting to know or not.
Sophie flipped her phone to show me her screen. I narrowed my eyes and scurried their way. The article was from a week ago and the photos were taken in London. They showed different shots of Erin and William walking around, sitting in an ice cream shop, feeding each other ice cream and kissing. They weren’t wearing the same clothes from the tabloid we saw. This was another outing.
The photo gallery was endless. I scrolled down hoping to get to the bottom of the page, but there was only more of the same. More kissing, more cuddling, more laughing.William is still in a relationship with Erin. There was absolutely no way for me to think otherwise now.
“Thanks.” I shut my eyes as if someone had poured acid in them and handed Sophie her phone back.
“Billie, I’m sorry. I di—”
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “Thank you for telling me. It’s best that I know the truth. Now let’s go. We’re running behind schedule.”
They stood up from the couch and followed me, but as I opened the door for us to leave, William stepped out of the elevator. He dashed our way, rolling the sleeves of his soft-looking gray sweater up to his elbows, revealing his perfectly toned forearms, and giving off major alpha male vibes as if readying himself for a brawl.
With me.
Okay, so ignoring his last text wasn’t as effective as I thought it was.
A tidal wave of his mouth-watering cologne moved in my direction, and I braced for impact. Or maybe he’s the one who should’ve been doing that because I could feel the fire running through my veins and he might as well have been covered in fuel.
Not the safest combination out there.
Poor Sophie froze on-site and gaped for more than a few reasons when she realized it was him. Cecile grabbed her arm and pulled her back inside the apartment to give us the privacy it was so obvious we would need.
William looked, well … pissed. It was like looking at myself in the mirror. But his features softened up when he said, “At what time do I pick you up?” He aimed for a smile, but it wasn’t the most genuine smile I’ve seen on his face.
I ran a hand over my forehead with exasperation as I watched him standing there—demanding shit because it was not his place to do that. I was not going to cancel on Nathan. He was an ice-cream-lick-from-Erin’s-lips-caught-on-camera too late.
