My heart sinks into my feet as my eyes lift to the small window that looks out at the brick wall of the building next door.
It’s pointless, though. Even if I could see outside, I wouldn’t see Everett. He’s not here. He’s outside the building I told him I lived in.
The second I walked away from him last night, and he stayed to ensure I got inside safely, I knew I’d fucked up. But it was too late to go back on it. The lie was out.
I didn’t think I was going to pull it off, but when I looked over my shoulder and found him looking down at his cell, I bolted around the corner and hid until I was confident that he’d driven away.
Not my finest moment.
I then called a rideshare and got myself home.
What I should have done was get my car so I could have driven to work today, but that would have involved me concentrating long enough to drive, and I had zero confidence I’d have been able to do that. So I went home and, well…didn’t get any rest.
My heart begins to race, and my hands shake.
What the hell am I meant to do now?
Do I ignore him, get a ride to work, and pretend I didn’t see?
My stomach twists. No, I can’t do that.
If this were days after our hospital visit, then maybe I could have. He was a jerk that day, and he deserved to be left waiting outside a building I no longer live in.
But he was different last night. He’d lost the attitude he’d turned up with at the hospital. He was more…vulnerable, I guess. More himself.
He was open and honest, and he allowed me to see just a little bit of the man he really is, not the player he allows the world to see.
I can’t leave the Everett from last night sitting and waiting for nothing.
“Goddamn it.”
My thumb hovers over the call button, and I close my eyes before I tap it and lift my cell to my ear.
The dialing tone hits me like a ton of bricks, and I take a step back as my nerves continue to build.
“Hello?” His deep rasp flows through me, instantly putting me a little more at ease.
“Um…hi …”
“Is everything okay?” he asks, apparently able to tell in just those two words that it’s not.
“I…um…shit.”
“Bea?”
“I’m so sorry. I lied to you last night,” I blurt so fast, it’s barely understandable.
“O-okay…”
I take another step back and bump against the wall.
Closing my eyes, I tip my face to the ceiling and start my confession.
“I…um…I don’t actually live in the building you dropped me off at. I?—”
“But you went in. I watched you,” he argues, cutting me off.
“No, you looked at your cell and I…I ran around the corner.”
