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“I’m…not…sure…”
“Trying to have makeup sex,” she says and does that giggle thing that makes me go crazy for her every single time. “I’ve heard it can be hot.”
I lift her up and carry her to the bedroom, place her right in the middle of our bed and start taking off her clothes. The jeans come off first and when she’s only in her lace underwear I look at her face. “I missed you,” I say. “And I’m sorry. I mean, I know Liam might have been responsible for a lot of it, that guy is a jackass if there ever was one—but it was still partly my fault.”
“It was just a kiss,” she says. “It didn’t mean anything. Did it?”
“It meant nothing,” I say. “I was just high and she started saying things, she was actually the one who initiated it.”
“Yeah well,” Mia says. “You’re never talking to any woman named Ashley ever again.”
“What?”
“Did you not hear me the first time, Teague?”
“No, I...I heard it. No woman named Ashley. Got it.”
“Are you done being slow?” Mia says. “Cause I really want to get this makeup sex thing going.”
I grin.
Happy, for the first time in a long time.
The Art of Murder
HOLDEN
I’m getting a little anxious waiting.
I keep looking at my watch but time must have stopped because the hands of the clock are frozen. The restaurant isn’t even that full of people and I still feel like I’m being watched. It’s not paranoia, like my father says, someone somewhere is always following me around and there’s not much I can do except act like every
thing is fine and be cautious of what I do in public. “Instead of hiding, you need to do the opposite,” says my father. “You need to be even more visible and make everything public knowledge so no one can hold anything over you.” We were in his office last night and I spent the whole night planning and talking things out and even though I was smashed most of the time I was still strangely alert. I remember everything my father said, everything he wanted me to do and most of all I remember everything he showed me last night, all the proof that I needed.
“Holden,” Jamie says and I look up from the table and smile.
“Jamie,” I say, getting up and pulling her chair for her. “Thanks for coming.”
She sits on the chair and I sit next to her. “Should we order something?” I ask, gesturing to the menu but she refuses.
“I already ate,” she says.
“You had dinner?”
“Daniel took me out for dinner,” she says. “We went to this Italian place that just opened up.”
“Right,” I say, clenching my hand into a fist at the mention of that name. I’m glad she can’t see it, or feel the anger that I’m feeling inside. I’m glad she can only see what I choose to show her, like the smile on my face and the morose expression. “Jamie, you look beautiful.”
She doesn’t respond.
Harlow drops the heavy file on the coffee table and it falls open right in front of me. “What is this?”
Zaff gestures for Harlow to leave. “This is what you asked for,” Zaff says. “Are you sure you’re ready to find the answers, Holden? You can always back down, believe what you want to believe.”
“Don’t you want to know why I wasn’t talking to you all this time?” I ask Jamie. She looks at me for the first time since she’s come here. “I knew why,” she says. “Because you think that news #HT leaked is true. Because you’ll believe anyone but your best friend and your girlfriend—no wait—fiancée.” She removes my grandmother’s ring from her finger, hands it to me. “Is this what you came here for?”
My already clenched hands have turned into bleeding wounds, that’s how badly my nails have been digging in. “Jamie,” I say. “I came here to apologize. Please take that ring back.”
“Apologize?” Jamie snaps. “You think you’ll apologize for the way you behaved all this time and I’ll just let it go as always? I’m sorry Holden. But this time, I’m truly done with you. So please, take this ring back.”
