Page 33 of Heartstruck at Dawn
Caleb couldn’t avoid a short and wry chuckle from escaping him, but he quickly reigned in his emotions to where he wanted them—all to himself. “No, we can’t. Not if I want to keep my job.”
“You know you’re ruining my favorite spot in the park, right?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Murphy. I intend to keep my job,” he repeated. “And those are the conditions your father gave me. I need to keep my distance.” Ironic. His job consisted of the very opposite of keeping his distance from me.
“Miss Murphy?We’realone, Caleb,” I reminded him, looking around. “And you’re going to keep calling me that?” That was some next-level bullshit.
My attempts to make him come around were useless. He had made up his mind about the situation.
“There’s a reason why I never called you Red in front of anyone else who wasn’t Aaron. I know your father. It was stupid of me to think he would ever be okay with us being together,” he said with a scowl.
That was just mean.
“Well, I like it better when you’re stupid.” I walked away. “Let’s go, Cohen. It’s getting cold.”
My muscles felt stiff. Resuming our run wasn’t an option. I pulled my cell phone out and texted my father as we walked back home.
Me:I don’t have many friends. Caleb was one of my closest ones. And not only did you take that friendship away from me, but you lied to me. You weren’t supposed to make Caleb feel worse.
I sent my father the text as my throat threatened to close in on me. I had never been this angry with my father before. Not like this.
There was still time before my class with Grant started, but boy did I look forward to punching things around because I discovered I also had a temper. And not only that, but I was having difficulty hiding it.
My life before New York was so different—easygoing. Maybe I’d always been this way, but there hadn’t been any significant events to trigger me into anger.
I was angry and disappointed not only with Caleb but more so with my father.
Why was he deceiving me like that? He didn’t think I was capable of making my own choices. How could my friendship with Caleb harm me in any way? If anything, Caleb had saved me countless times of what I thought was a permanent feeling of dread. My father must’ve known that. He knew everything.
I needed Caleb to be Caleb.
But for now, he was going to be Cohen.
He needed to feel what I felt when he refused to stop calling me Miss Murphy. And maybe, that way, I would eventually make him come around. Or perhaps our friendship was destined to end. Permanently.
What was the use of him promising to stay if we couldn’t even talk?
My mind kept going around in loops during Grant’s class. He sensed I was distracted but kept training me as usual.
Tobias walked in while Grant removed my bandages. “Hey, Tob,” I greeted him with a weary smile. It was odd that Tobias hadn’t asked me if “everything was okay.” I was thankful, though. Was I wearing a sign that said:Don’t mess with me?
He countered his greeting with one of his big, bright, and sincere smiles instead and sat on the bench, waiting for Grant to be done with me. “Any plans for the weekend?” Tobias asked, resting his elbows on his knees, making small talk as I gathered my things.
“Um, yeah. I have this Halloween costume party tomorrow,” I replied. “How about you?” I didn’t want to sound disrespectful by not asking back, but all I wanted was to have a scorching shower to match my frustration and have some peace at home.
“Well, there’s a charity gala tomorrow, and William wants me to go with him. It’s one of those boring events where you need to dress up and say hi to a bunch of people you don’t know.” He chuckled.
It bummed me out that William was busy tomorrow. He hadn’t texted me either. I didn’t know at what time he’d be arriving. I foolishly thought I could find a way for him to come with me to CJ’s party. I knew I could trick William into inviting himself and make it seem like it was his idea.
I guess I was stuck withCohenand David as my plus twos.
“Oh, I know all about those events,” I replied. My father had taken me toplentyof those types of functions in his past ambassador days—more than I would’ve liked. I didn’t miss them. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you can find yourselves some girls that would be willing enough to attend an afterparty at your apartment once you’re done with the pleasantries.”
Tobias laughed because that was probably what he had in mind.
“Tobias, let’s go!” Grant shouted.
He rubbed his hands and stood up. “Have fun tomorrow.”
