Chapter 4 ♥Pay Up, Money Bags
It was late, but after a shower, Elsie’s fingers itched to finish up the sketch of Will and turn it into a T-shirt. Knowing Will, he’d sue her if she tried to make a profit off the image, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make a T-shirt for herself and wear it around. She studied her drawing, absurdly proud of how she captured both his attractiveness and his bad temper. After uploading the drawing to Photoshop, she perfected the digital version, adding color and polish. She found the perfect font for ‘The Me Monster’ and cackled in delight. Feeling guilty for wasting so much time on a revenge project, she ended up pressing and packaging up ten shirts to take to the post office in the morning. It was two a.m. before she finally shut down the computer and turned off the light to the office, just as the front door clicked open and shut.
Jane was sneaking in and Elsie crept up behind her, following her down the hall.
“Late night?” she asked.
Jane screamed and whirled on her sister. “Don’t do that! And what are you still doing up?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
Jane blushed. “We went for a walk, that’s all.”
“Quite a long walk.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Will tagged along. He was afraid to go back to the house by himself.”
“What? Is he afraid of the dark or something?”
Jane laughed. “No. It has something to do with Charlie’s sister. She’s been at his new rental house for a week, helping him set up.”
“And Will’s scared of her?” Elsie couldn’t imagine Will being scared of anything. Annoyed, yes. But not scared.
Jane shrugged. “I can’t see why. I met her. There’s nothing scary about her. She’s this petite little thing, and very friendly. We talked for a half-hour while the guys watched football. She said she was headed to bed when we came back to clean up the party.”
“Weird.” Not that any of it mattered. All she’d meant to do was ask about Jane and Charlie and somehow it came back to Will. Ah, of course it had. Jane was no fool. Elsie followed Jane to her bedroom and leaned against the door frame. “A two-hour walk, huh.”
“Yep.”
“Just walking?”
Jane rolled her eyes. “Stop it, Elsie.”
“So how much of that two hours was spent making out on our porch?”
Jane sputtered out a denial, but the deep blush on her face told the real story.
Elsie laughed and said goodnight.
***
There was a light rap on Will’s door and he froze in the middle of taking off his jeans. He should have been quieter.
He zipped them back up and went to his door. “What is it, Caroline? I was asleep.”
“Room service,” a high falsetto called out. “Open up.”
“Charlie!” Will unlocked the door and whacked his friend on the arm. “It’s about time.”
Charlie had the sense to look sheepish, and Will crossed his arms. “You need to be careful with Jane. You’re leaving in a couple months.”
“You worry too much.”
“And you worry too little.”
A door opened down the hall, and Caroline poked her head out, squinting her eyes against the light coming from Will’s room. “Did you two just get in?”
Charlie nodded. “You should have come with us. We had a great time.”
