Page 26 of Lovestruck at Sundown
The corner of his mouth tugged down. “He always finds a way to win.” He said that almost to himself, but I heard him all right.
“No shit.” I snorted and shook my head. “And now William did something stupid, and I don’t want to see his face.”
It was weird for me to open up so muchto Aaron about my personal life, but I wasn’t ready to let my friends know I was back. And I knew I needed to vent.
Aaron would have to do for now.
“Want me to keep an eye out here?”
“No,” I said quickly. “No, that’s fine. I’ll deal with him later. Go rest. I’m not planning to leave my apartment until tomorrow for school.”
Aaron considered me in silence.
“I’ll be okay. I promise.”
He seemed unconvinced. “Text me if you need to go anywhere.”
“I will.”
He gave a curt nod and left.
I sat to eat and devoured five slices of pizza until I couldn’t think anymore. But it only enhanced that awful hangover-like feeling I’d been dragging all day, and that’s when the sadness crept up on me. So I moved to my bedroom and flopped on the bed, hugging my pillow.
There was a gentle knock on the door. It had to be William. He knew I preferred it over my doorbell.
Knowing he had arrived made me even more emotional because I was afraid of where our conversation would lead. And I didn’t want him to see me like this either. How was I to think straight when I was all over the place?
Pretending to be asleep until I calmed myself sounded like a good idea, but my phone buzzed, and I knew I didn’t have the self-restraint to ignore it.
W.S.:I can hear you crying across the wall. Please let me explain. Let me hold you.
That made me angry again. Why did he have to do this?Why did he have to send those documents and ruin everything? I was now sobbing against my pillows. A couple of minutes later my phone buzzed again.
W.S.:I’m coming in. This is not how I wanted you to find out about your surprise.
Seconds later, a light squeaking noise sounded behind me. I turned around toward the wall that divided our bedrooms, and what seemed like a concealed door revealed itself, and William was now inside my room.
“What … the hell is this?” I sat up on the bed and observed how he closed it back into place, perplexed, and watched the door disappear and become a wall once again, like magic. The horizontal pattern on the wallpaper made it hard to identify before, but now I couldn’t unsee the thin crevice that made out the door’s silhouette. And I honestly had been so tired since I arrived to even notice anything different.
William placed a call on his phone and put it on speaker while sitting on the bed next to me. He curved a hand behind my neck and pulled me in for a passionate kiss. His warm tongue parted my lips, and I allowed him to deepen it by arching my neck.
I abruptly broke it off. “I’m furious.”
“I know.” His eyes stared down intensely into mine, and the way he looked at me disarmed me. Mentally, I was furious, but emotionally he had me at his feet. Still, I needed to focus. “Let me fix this.”
Nodding, I took a deep breath, feeling somewhat relieved because this entire situation seemed like nothing but a misunderstanding.
“How’s my golden boy doing?” The man on the other side ofthe line spoke brightly. The screen read,Warren.
William’s publicist.
“Not very good, I’m afraid,” William replied, his tone dark and gravelly. “I just got off the phone with my lawyer, and he confirmed that you requested a confidentiality agreement, including lab work for my girlfriend when I specifically told you last week that we wouldn’t need one. And I only disclosed this personal information so you could do your job and try to keep my relationship away from the media for as long as possible.”
“William, you know the protocol. I know you think this is—”
“Warren, you’re fired.”
“Excuse me?” The man yelled, losing all composure.
