They never popped around girls like Melody.
“What is it you heard?”
“That you’ve been seen coming out of a guest’s room. He’s been ordering double meals a lot and sometimes you’re the one placing the order.”
“Old news,” she said. It was how to play this.
Hunter was right, it couldn’t stay hidden long and there was no reason to do it.
Arik was moving into his rental home next week. She’d been dating him for a month now. Maybe a little longer.
What they had wasn’t fizzling, only getting more intense.
“The perfect Natalie Bond is fraternizing with the public. Interesting. Never thought I’d see the day.”
“I’m hardly perfect.” Because if she were, she’d walk away from this conversation. Instead, she stood her ground. “And fraternizing has its perks if you know what I mean.”
She left Melody standing there frozen, unable to speak as she tossed a laugh over her shoulder. The minute she was out of sight, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
That was sooooo unlike her and uncalled for.
It’d start more rumors, she was positive.
But did she care? Really deeply care all that much?
In the past, she’d shout yes of the world.
Her time with Arik made her believe she didn’t have to be so... perfect. So composed. So rigid.
Hunter wouldn’t fire her.
Heck, he’d told her to enjoy it. To live some. That this island works in mysterious ways and to embrace it while it happened.
If it weren’t for the fact she knew her boss so well, she’d think he was beaned upside the head with birds flying around tweeting.
And maybe because he’d gone through it himself years ago, he felt he could pass on the advice confidently and she’d listen.
She tried to bury herself in work, but her mind refused to cooperate, dragging her back to the conversation and the way she’d reacted. Too honest, too vulnerable, too much.
Not her!
She picked her phone up and called her mother.
“Hi, Natalie. Everything okay?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.”
“Now I know there is a problem. You’re never unsure of anything.”
Did everyone really believe that about her?
Half her life she doubted every move, every action, every thought.
It was why she practiced the veil of calm, cool, and composed.
“Hardly that,” she said.
“Who ruffled you?”
