Page 27 of Awestruck at Dusk
“I haven’t.”
“So he’s celibate now?” He scoffed. “He can’t go a couple of days without getting laid, believe me. We grew up together.”
All the curses I ever knew or heard of were plastered on my frontal lobe as I shouted them inside my mind. So I bit my lower lip to hold in the cocktail of emotions—trying to prevent my features’ translucency from giving any of that away.
I knew William had a past. One I knewnothingabout, but I could only imagine. And Ididn’twant to keep feeding my imagination, but I was afraid Nathan would start hitting me with William’s stats about his bedroom’s extracurricular activities any second now.
What Nathan said could be true, but I hadn’t seen a single girl coming in or out of his apartment other than Alice and Luna. Whatever Nathan claimed William liked doing and the frequency of it wasn’t happening in his apartment.
And I knew Nathan was sick and tired of listening to how everything lately had something to do with William. It must’ve been annoying for him, especially after learning what he told me last night about their weirdrelationship—if it could be cataloged as such.
“We would be having this same conversation if it were Tobias living next door,” I added. That statement seemed to put Nathan at ease. But it was the truth. Somewhat.
That the depth of the discomfort might’ve been different, yes. That I’d rather have anyone else living beside me instead of William … absolutely. Was there anything I could do about it? No.
“The only thing I can do is tell you how I feel,” I told him. “Would you rather have me make some stupid excuse instead? I wanted you to know the truth.”
Nathan laid on his back and threw his hands behind his neck. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at the ceiling. “I’m just nervous about Zara arriving today.” He pulled a hand from behind his neck and rubbed his face.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m sorry too. I get it.”
I do.
I moved closer beside him and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Me trying to be more—quietdoesn’t mean I’m not enjoying myself, okay?”
“Why don’t you show me,” he said with a cheeky smile.
“What?” I said with a nervous laugh.
He moved on top of me and said, “How you make your best effort in keeping yourself quiet.”
Dresses
NATHAN LEFT ATaround 10:00 a.m. They needed him at the office for a quick conference call with a client. He promised to be back at noon. I hoped he did. I needed him to be here when Zara arrived. I’d offered to go pick her up at the airport, but Nathan told me with a somewhat sharp tone that William had that taken care of. Cooper, William’s driver, would be picking her up.
I took a shower and changed into black jeans and a long-sleeved, emerald dressy blouse.
The doorbell rang, and I rushed to see who it was. It was still early, so it couldn’t be Nathan or Zara.
“Halò,” Mimi said with a warm smile, putting a couple of grocery bags on the floor and opening her arms as she invited me to a hug. I threw myself into her embrace.
“Hi! I didn’t know you were coming today,” I said, surprised.
“Oh, yer father didn’t want me coming back until Mundae. But I’m bored awready. And I missed ye, dear.”
“Oh, I missed you too, Mimi,” I said, breaking away from her arms. My father gave Mimi some well-deserved vacation after what happened. He was so worried about her. He offered her indefinite time off at first, but she refused. “Come in, come in. Don’t you have keys anymore?”
“I do, but I didn’t want to startle ye. I thought it was best to announce myself,” she said. I grabbed the grocery bags with one hand and took them to the kitchen.
Having Mimi around always made things feel better. She immediately offered to cook something for me, and I accepted. I was starving and hadn’t eaten a thing.
The doorbell rang again. It was Aaron standing outside my door with a rack of clothes beside him.
“Hey,” I said, offering him a sad smile. Looking at Aaron was hard. He reminded me of Caleb. And by the look on his face, I think I reminded him of Caleb too. The wounds were still too fresh. Raw.
“This arrived for you, Miss,” he said, raising a brow and looking at the rack of clothes. “It came with this envelope.”
Aaron rolled the rack inside and handed over the envelope. I thanked him, and he excused himself and left.
