"You did?" Carter said.
"It’s a studio. Clean and small but cozy…"
As she talked about the new apartment, Carter's food turned to rocks in his stomach, and his good mood evaporated.
Did Allie really not want to be with him?
43
Allie
Carter seemed hurt when she said she was moving out. But what could she do? His family wouldn't let her live in the penthouse indefinitely.
Her phone buzzed as she sorted through her belongings.
She swiped on the screen. It was another threatening message from Bryce. She had been receiving several an hour since his brother, Trent, had been fired.
I know it was you and that Holbrook who cost my brother his job
No one will hire him now, and now I won't be hired there either
You will pay for what you did
You and that Holbrook
I'm watching you
I will make him pay
I will destroy him
Allie felt sick. She didn't want to go to the police, and she also didn't want to tell the Holbrooks. They might fire her too! Especially since she didn't say anything about Bryce's threats months before. She hoped that Bryce was just angry. Maybe he would go drink and let off some steam then be fine. Besides, there was no way for Bryce and Trent to hurt Carter. He didn't even go out to clubs much anymore.
She tried to calm herself down as she packed up her meager possessions, then she checked and double-checked her spreadsheet.
Moving to a new apartment was pricier in New York City than it was in North Carolina. It was even more expensive because she didn't want roommates, not after Arnold. The settlement was enough that she had decided to splurge. She found a three-hundred-square-foot apartment for a thousand dollars a month.
It's only for the rest of the summer,she promised herself,then I'm out of here.
But what about Carter?
He will probably break up with you by then.That was what Brandy had said, right? Allie didn't belong in Carter's world. She was just acting out some fantasy. As soon as Carter got over the thrill of being with an edgy outsider, he would realize that she wasn't like Liz or Kate or his mother or Ginny or any of the well-heeled women from his upscale town.
"Do you have furniture?" Carter asked as he picked up her boxes and stacked them in the hall by the door.
"I'll have to buy some."
"Take one of the beds here, at least," he told her.
He looked concerned, she thought. He was clearly unhappy that she was leaving.
"I'm not stealing your family's furniture," she said.
Carter tapped out a message on his phone. It beeped, and he stuck the screen in her face.
"See?" he asked. "Uncle Walter says you can take a bed and some sheets. He's going to have this place redone later this year, so just take a whole bedroom set."
"I don't have room for a bedroom set," she replied. "It’s a tiny apartment. I was thinking of just buying a fold-out couch and sleeping on that. They're so much money, though…"
