Chapter Three
Lea
What in thefucking fuck could she possibly have to talk to me about? Did she need money? An organ? An alibi? The possibilities were absolutely endless, and she’d given me no indication what it could be. Vail knew that I’d have to meet with her just to find out. She knew at least that much about me. I hated not knowing things. So she waltzed in here and baited me with a secret and I had no choice but to agree to meet with her.
Fucking Vail Randolph. I’d thought that the strange power she had over me would go away now that we were adults, but I guess it hadn’t.
It wasn’t a surprise to me that her hair was colored a deep, dark green it was almost black, but flickered emerald in the lights of the Pilates room. She’d never had the same hair color twice, so I guess that hadn’t changed. That particular shade made her look like a mermaid that had just washed up on the shore. Both sexy and dangerous.
Her body had filled out too. Filled out in luscious and distracting ways that made me lose my train of thought.
Her face was just as heart-stopping as it had always been and that was the most galling part. Howdareshe still look like that? How dare she still walk around being a gorgeous menace? It wasn’t fair and I wish she’d never showed up in my class. I wish I’d never seen her again.
From time to time I’d thought about her. Well. More than that. I’d been able to comfort myself with the idea that she’d become unattractive and gross or something. It made things easier to decide that she’d grown repulsive.
Yet here she was, unrepulsive as ever. She should be arrested.
I fumed as I cleaned up the room and made sure everything was set before heading to the locker room, keeping my head down.
No Vail sightings as I grabbed my stuff from my locker and rushed to one of the changing rooms to slip out of my sweaty clothes and into a pair of baggy joggers and a workout top and jacket. About ninety percent of my wardrobe was activewear at this point and I wished that I’d had something else to put on to go see what Vail wanted. Armor or something.
There was nothing else I could do, so I put my sweaty hair in a clip, checked my makeup in the mirror, and hoped for the best.
Vail leaned against the wall near the entrance to the gym, wearing a pair of jeans that hugged her body like they were in love with her, and a fleece jacket that was boxy and oversized, but it worked on her. It would have looked silly on me. That was one of the things I’d been jealous of her over. She’d been able to wear things that I’d never be able to pull off, but desperately wanted to.
And it wasn’t like she cared about looking cool. I’d literally watch her pull clothes off the floor that had lived there for days and put them on.
She had always taken lots of time with her makeup, though. A few times I’d asked her if she could show me how she did her intricate eye makeup, but she’d just rolled her eyes and slammed her door in my face.
She’d toned down the eyeliner since then, but she still had a devastating slash of black and a bit of gold shimmer that made her dark brown eyes glow with warmth.
Fuck, she looked so good.
Mentally slapping myself, I approached her and tried to get my shit together.
“Hey,” I said, trying to sound casual and sounding breathless and panicked instead. Crap.
She turned and stared into my eyes in a way that made it hard for my knees not to completely collapse like a puppet with its strings cut.
Meeting with her was a terrible idea.
“Hey,” she said, shoving her phone into the pocket of her jacket and adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “There’s a place just down the street if that’s okay?”
I knew what she was talking about, so I just nodded and went for the door, but she beat me to it and held it open for me with a hint of a smirk on her face. Was she mocking me? Laughing at some sort of secret joke?
I could feel the same teenage resentment bubbling up to the surface inside me. Guess all of that angst hadn’t gone away even though I’d grown up.
Vail and I walked down the street and I wanted her to speak first, but then I couldn’t handle the silence between us for more than a few seconds.
“How long have you been back?Areyou back?” When her mom had divorced my dad, they’d moved away, and I hadn’t known what had happened to her after that. Not that I’d gone looking or anything. I probably could have found her if I’d really wanted to.
“I mean, I only lived here for five years, so it wasn’t like this was home for me. But yeah, I’m back. I guess.”
My next question was going to be about her mom, but I held it back. We were almost at the coffee shop. I didn’t want her to know how eager I was for information.
She probably already knew. Vail had always known me better than I knew her. I was easier to read, I guess. She’d always been an enigma to me, and that was still true.
When we reached the shop, she held the door for me again, with that same little secret smile. I held back a growl of annoyance as I stepped inside and inhaled the wonderful scent of fresh ground coffee and baked goods. This place was trendy and expensive, but it was better than one of those chain places.
