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ChapterTwenty-Five
“Rise and shine, sweet girl.”
The voice was like music to my ears, and it coaxed my mind awake almost seductively. My eyes opened to bright sunlight streaming in through the windows and Sandra’s smiling face in front of me.
I sat up on the bed with a jolt, my heartbeat already doubled.
“What time is it?” I asked, reaching for my phone on the nightstand.
“Just after eight a.m.,” Sandra said and stood up from the edge of the bed. “C’mon, I ordered breakfast. Join me.”
My mind buzzed with thoughts, and memories from the night before came back to me in a rush. Just when I thought that there was no way they were real, and it had all just been a dream—both the best and worst dream of my life—I moved, and my whole body ached, especially my legs, and my shoulder, where Dominic had bitten me. The reminder sent red hot coals down my throat, setting me on fire.
“Where is Dominic?” I asked in a breath, squeezing my eyes shut to control my body. What the hell? This was not me. I woke up grumpy, not turned on.
“He left,” Sandra said, folding her hands in front of her at the foot of the bed as she watched me, a smile full of sorry in her face.
My gut turned again.
“Left where?”
“They had a call. The crew didn’t let me in on the details, but it was urgent, and they had to leave right away. They walked out the door about ten minutes ago.”
My heart fell all the way to my heels. The feeling of betrayal turned the blood in my veins ice cold. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream my lungs out until the entire world heard my voice.
He left. They got a call, and he left me here and went to do his job because I wasn’t part of the team. I wasn’t here to actually do something useful, earn my pay, make something of myself—no. I was here just to fill the shoes of the stupid girlfriend, and now that they all believed it, I was no longer useful. Of course. Why would he wake me up, tell me what happened, and let me do my job, too? We weren’t partners. I was a damn fool to believe it for a single second.
We weren’t anything at all, and the fact that I’d thought he was in love with me for a moment last night made me look like an even bigger fool to myself.
How had I trapped myself like this? How had I stooped so low in a matter of twodays?
“Teddy,” Sandra said, calling my eyes to her. But I couldn’t see her through the tears blurring my vision because I refused to let them fall.
“I’ll be right there,” I said, and holding the blanket to my chest, I stood up and wrapped it around me. The door closed behind me softly. Just that small sound broke me all the way.
I don’t know how I managed to lock the bathroom door or sit on the toilet, but that’s how I found myself. I dug my fingers into my hair, determined to pull out every single strand for being so stupid, so naive, so easy to manipulate.
I gave myself five whole minutes to cry and to feel sorry for myself. In those five minutes, I was nothing more than pieces all over the bathroom floor. Another one of those out-of-body experiences, but this one was painful. My soul carried all the pain with it, and I couldn’t escape it if I tried, not for a second.
But my five minutes were up, and then I stopped crying. I wiped the tears from my eyes and stood up, ignoring the pain that was already fading from my limbs. I stepped in front of the mirror to see a pale creature looking back at me, so broken my eyes looked completely colorless. Even my hair looked whiter, and my skin hadn’t flushed like it usually did when I cried. My nose hadn’t turned pink, either. Instead, my skin was paper white.
He’d sucked the pink out of me completely. At least one good thing came out of this whole thing, I guessed.
I washed my face and brushed my teeth, pulled myself together one thought at a time. The plan was already made, and it did make me feel a tiny bit better. It made pretending a tiny bit easier, too.
So when I came out of the room, dressed in my own clothes, hair pulled back in a bun, and my chin up, Sandra wouldn’t see at least half of the feelings going through me in those moments.
She sat at the breakfast table with plates full of food, and she’d set up one of the chairs across from her, too. For me. She’d ordered everything—scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, waffles, four bowls of fruit, milk, juice, coffee…
“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” she said with a shrug when she saw me looking.
I sat down on the chair, and my eyes immediately went to the bracelet at the side of her glass of orange juice.
“Found this on the floor,” she said, nodding at the bracelet.
“It must have fallen off.” I cleared my throat. “I won’t need it anymore, but again, thank you so much for it.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, without meeting my eyes. “Now, eat.”
