“Did it? Because I?—”
“Nope, stop talking.” She waved a hand at me. “Do me a favor. Let’s never speak of this again, okay? Okay.”
With that she stormed past me and went straight for the bathroom, leaving me standing there feeling like a massive idiot. Especially since I didn’t even truly believe what I’d said.
Maybe I wasn’t worried that Lila would get the wrong idea.
Maybe the ideas already swimming through my own damned mind were the things starting to scare the shit out of me.
TWENTY
Lila
“How amI supposed to face him?” I hissed, holding my phone close to my face and pacing across the hotel patio. Meanwhile Charlie gawked at me from the other end of the line.
“I can’t believe you two actually almost hooked up.”
“We were literally one move away from hitting the bed.” I groaned just thinking about the events of last night. After I had finally come out of the bathroom, my tail between my legs, Harrison was already in bed either pretending to sleep or actually conked out. Either way, I was grateful I didn’t have to face him. After securing a pillow barrier between us, I lay awake on my side of the bed for hours, replaying every second of the humiliating experience before exhaustion finally took over.
“Oliver called it,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Oliver? I’m going to kill him,” I spat. “Put him on the phone. Do you know what that little troll did?”
Charlie opened her mouth to guess, but I continued before she had the chance.
“He told Harrison that I had acrushon him. I mean, what the hell? I know they’re best friends, but I thought he had some sort of allegiance toward me.”
Charlie winced.
“What?” I demanded, taking in her guilt-ridden face.
“I told Oliver I thought you might like Harrison,” she admitted.
My lips parted as I stared at my backstabbing best friend. “How could you?”
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t like this whole thing to betray you or something.” She said, waving her hands and pacing on her end as well. “I just said I noticed you always looked at him. I don’t know, Lila. You’re my best friend. I know what you’re like when you find a guy attractive. I thought it was harmless to tell Oliver. I didn’t think he would actually say something to Harrison.”
“They’re best friends!” I whisper-shouted. “And roommates. Also, Oliver can’t keep anything to himself. Of course he was going to tell Harrison.”
“Sorry,” she said weakly.
Sighing deeply, I massaged my forehead with my free hand. “It’s not your fault,” I muttered. “You weren’t completely off the mark.”
“I know,” Charlie said sadly, trying to give me an encouraging smile.
There was no use obsessing over what had happened last night. What was done was done. And it wasn’t like Harrison hadn’twantedme. I could take a little solace in that fact. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was going to say to him, mind you, but we only had two days left on this trip. Unfortunately, if the past two days were any indication, these next two would feel more like two weeks.
“Anyway.” I finally sighed and slumped into one of the deck chairs. “Enough about me and my predicament. Tell me about Fiji.”
Charlie gave me all the details for the next twenty minutes before graciously wishing me good luck and ending the call.
I set my phone on the table next to me and stared out at the sea lapping against the shoreline. My brain urged me to go get an espresso, but my body was still too wired just thinking about last night.
Would Harrison pretend like it didn’t happen? Would he want to talk about it? Both options sounded equally unappealing. If he never mentioned it again, then I would know for sure that I had absolutely zero effect on him. But at the same time, bringing it up—just to be essentially rejected again—also sounded awful.
And the worst part was that my top-secret crush, the one I had never told anyone about, was somehow public knowledge. Or at least public lore. Which wasn’t even fair, because it’s not like I could control it. Trust me, if I had the power, I would certainly not be crushing on a guy like Harrison. Despite how far we’d come on this trip, there was no way he could ever be the kind of guy that I needed.
He definitely didn’t remind me of my ex; that would be a cruel and unfair comparison. But his harsh attitude didn’t exactly mesh with the way I wanted to live my life.
