“Aye. Can you wake up, please? It’s important.”
“Is Jan okay?”
“Jan’s fine. It’s something else.”
“Okay. One sec.” I heard rustling and then a male voice lazily demanding, “Come back to bed.”
Momentarily distracted from my own drama, I asked, “Is that Harry?”
Instead of answering, I heard her speak to the man. “I need to take this.”
“Then come back to bed.”
That definitely sounded like Harry. A few seconds later, I heard a door shutting and Sierra spoke. “Sorry. What’s up?”
“Did you sleep with Harry?”
“We, uh, we’ve kind of hooked up a few times. I’ll tell you about it later. What’s up?”
My heart sped again as I tried to think of the right words to explain the situation. “Did … did something happen last night, Sierra? Was there … was there a girl with Sebastian?”
“What?” Sierra’s tone was sharp. “What do you mean? How do you … Look, I don’t know who’s been talking, but there was this haughty trust fund baby chasing Bastian around the party all night.” She sounded breathless with agitation. “He couldn’t have been clearer with her if he tried. He told her over and over he had a girlfriend and to back off, and it got so bad I had to threaten the crazy, drunk bunny boiler.”
I stood up, my legs shaking as a tentative relief started to flood through me. “When did you last see Sebastian?”
“Lily, what is going on? You know he would never cheat on you, right?”
Guilt riddled me at Sierra’s absolute certainty. “Is … is he around?”
“I don’t know. You woke me up. Try his cell. Will you tell me what is going on?”
“I will,” I promised. “I need to speak to Sebastian first.”
“Okay. Note that I am worried, though. Please call me back when you can.”
“I promise.”
We hung up and I stared at my phone, trying to catch my breath. Finally, realizing Sierra might go to Sebastian before I could call, I hit his name.
He answered after three rings. “Morning, Sawyer.” His voice was raspy like he was either waking up or he hadn’t slept. “How’s Jan?”
“S-she’s … she’s fine.”
“What is it?” Sebastian was suddenly alert.
“I … I … I’m trying not to jump to conclusions about something.” My tears started to come before I could stop them. I had to take a minute to get them under control.
“Okay, you’re scaring me,” he replied thickly. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I … I’m s-sending you something, okay? It was sent to me this morning.” Swiping at my tears, I tapped into my messages and attached the photo Zac sent me. “Okay. I’ve sent it.”
“All right. The suspense is killing me, though. Why are you crying, angel?”
Sniffling, I lied, “I’m not.”
“Oh. Well then, you’re doing a very good impression of it. Okay … got it.” He went quiet a moment and then suddenly burst into loud, furious cursing. I flinched, switching the volume down on my phone since I had him on speaker. Finally, he began pleading, “Lily, God, Lily, I swear to God, this is not what it looks like. This woman is an old friend, she was harassing me all fucking night, I thought I’d gotten away from her, and I was trying to get to sleep and she crept in through the fucking slider doors while I was sleeping and accosted me. I threw her out, like, seconds after this photo was taken. Who the fuck took the photo? What the … Lily, God, Lily, please tell me you believe me.” His voice caught on a sob. “Please.”
I squeezed my eyes closed in utter relief and the tears spilled over. “I believe you.”
