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“I came here for this,” she says with a smile, taking a folded envelope from inside her purse. She places it face down on my desk and slides it toward me. Never taking my eyes off hers, I pick the envelope up and open it.
Inside, there’s a check.
“It’s your payment,” she continues, “you deserve it.”
I raise my eyes from the check and look at her, having no idea on what I should say. Is she for serious?
“And I want to apologize. I know that sometimes I can be quite intense, and I guess I overdid it this time. I just lost myself in the role, you know? Being an actress isn’t easy, Cara,” she tells me gravely, almost as if she believes she’s offering me one of life's secrets.
“You were in a reality TV show, Misty…” I tell her, my brain overheating as I try to crack her thought process.
“Yeah, that really helped me hone my acting skills,” she giggles, patting Cupcake’s head with one hand. “But, anyway. I’m really sorry for all the stress I might have caused - but it was all in the name of love, right?”
“Maybe,” I sigh, leaning back against my chair. Even though Misty might be a complete lunatic, I can’t hold a grudge against someone like her. She’s a lunatic, yeah, but a lovable one. And I guess that, in a twisted way, she really believed she was doing the right thing. I just wish she hadn’t, ahem, lost herself in the role she was playing.
“Maybe?” She asks me, placing both her elbows on the desk and leaning forward.
“Yeah. Things aren’t that great right now, and I haven’t heard from Liam.”
“Oh, Cara, Cara… You really need to step up your game,” she nods sagely, looking at me as if she were my mentor, ready to make me see my true potential. “Do you know what you need to do?”
“What, Misty?” I ask her, genuinely curious about what a troubled mind like hers will come up with.
“Easy. Very, very easy - just put on something sexy and go find him. Nobody can stay mad at their true love… Especially if she’s dressed in nothing but a trench coat and lingerie.”
“Are you… serious?” Does she really want me to go after Liam with a trench coat? I want to make things right, not to have a restraining order slapped on me.
“Of course I’m serious! Trust me, I’ve done that a lot, and it worked every single time!”
“Alright, Misty…” I chuckle, wondering if a trenchcoat and a lingerie is all of Misty’s arsenal when it comes to seducing a man. “I’ll skip the trench coat, but I think you’re right… I have to find him.”
“Of course you do!” She giggles happily, jumping up to her feet. She walks around the desk and, now standing in front of me, she grabs me by the hand and forces me up. “And you have to do it right now!”
“Right now…?”
“True love can’t wait, Cara!” She cries out, working herself into a frenzy as she pushes me out of my own office. Ah, screw it - she’s right.
I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and do something about it.
True love can’t wait.
Cara
I can’t believe I’m actually following Misty’s advice. But, hey, she was right, wasn’t she? Aside from that trench coat thing, that is.
After leaving my office building (or, rather, after Misty forced me to leave), I grabbed a taxi and headed straight toward Liam’s apartment building. It was a short ride, yes, but my heart was hammering against my chest the whole time. I never thought I’d feel this anxious for a man, but there you hav
e it - sometimes love sneaks up on you like this, no warning shots at all.
Misty’s words still echo in my head, too. She talked of true love, whatever that means, and these two words have been buzzing inside my head ever since I left the office. I mean, what the hell is true love? Is it about trust, sex, or something else? Is it about these butterflies inside your stomach, or that dizziness you feel when your crush looks your way?
I always thought that love - let alone true love - was nothing more than a fantasy. A trick played by a smart cocktail of hormones, carefully prepared over millions and millions of years. A biological sleight of hand, if you want.
But ever since I met Liam… It’s hard to explain, but now I understand how people get shot through the heart with that elusive arrow. More than just biology, it’s a feeling that transcends all that… Sure, it’s possible that I simply lost myself in an illusion, but something inside me tells me that’s not the case.
Whatever there is between Liam and I, it’s real.
And it’s exactly because I’m certain of that realness that I’m now inside an elevator, making my way up to the top floor of his apartment building. With my arms folded over my chest, I tap my foot against the floor of the elevator anxiously, watching as the numbers climb up in the electronic panel mounted over the doors.
