Page 50 of Little Twisted Things

His brows furrowed. “I planned on staying the night.”

“Not tonight.” I walked into the kitchen.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked. “You seem angry at me or something.”

I gripped the edge of the sink. He hadn’t seen me angry yet.

“Why would I be angry at you? Did you do something to warrant that?” I asked.

“No. But you seem off today.”

“It’s the headache I have. I just need to go to bed and sleep it off.”

“Okay.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind and pressed his lips against the back of my head. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Take something for that headache.”

“I will.”

I walked him to the door.

“Sweet dreams, my love.” He placed his thumb on my chin. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Alex.”

28

Sunny

My eyes flew open and darted around the room while a wide grin crossed my lips. Finally. I threw the covers back and climbed out of bed. Opening the closet door, I stepped inside and sifted through all the clothes.

“Ugh. Really, Dahlia?” I said out loud.

I picked a pair of black leggings and a black tank top. This would have to do until I went shopping. Stepping into the bathroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. This will not do. I went back into the closet and pulled down the box from the top shelf, sifting through the different colored wigs until I found mine. Dark, long, wavy. I slipped it on my head. Pulling out the boxes of different colored contacts, I grabbed the brown ones and popped them into my eyes. After putting on some makeup, I brushed my teeth and headed downstairs.

“You and that painting.” I shook my head as I passed it in the living room.

Dahlia’s phone pinged with a text message. Glancing at it, I saw it was from Alex.

Good morning, beautiful. Thinking about you.

That conversation could wait. I had more important things to do. Grabbing the remote on the table, I pressed the button, and Good As Hell by Lizzo blasted through the speakers. I danced around the room, singing into the remote as if it were a microphone.

The phone rang, and Tess was calling. Turning off the music, I answered it.

“Hey.”

“Dahlia? Are you okay? You were supposed to be at the gallery thirty minutes ago.”

Shit.

“Uh, yeah. I got into a little fender bender on the way in. I was just going to call you. It took a while to talk to the cops.”

“Oh no. Are you okay?”

“My neck is really sore, and I have a burn where the airbag hit me.”

“The airbags went off? I wouldn’t call that a little fender bender.”

“I’m just really shaken up,” I lied.