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“Grams, I am not—”
“Oh, hush now. You know damn well how you can be. At least now you won’t have to wait alone while I meet with Mr. Clarkson. Celeste can keep you company.” A knowing smile played on her mouth.
“Actually, I thought I’d come with you.”
“You will do no such thing, dear. I am quite capable of attending a meeting about my personal business.” She turned to Celeste. “Now, be a doll and sit with Zane, will you? I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
She backtracked toward the double doors, her movements slow and jerky, but in true Miriam Washington style, she kept her head held high and her expression poised.
“So Miriam is your grandma,” Celeste said. “I would never have made the connection.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I sneered.
“Well, she’s so sharp and witty… and you’re… well, not.”
“What the—” Celeste’s smirk grew and the anger inside me deflated a little. “You’re joking.”
She gave me a small nod. “I didn’t make the connection, but I can kind of see it now I’ve seen the two of you together.”
I didn’t realize we’d moved toward an empty table until Celeste glanced at the two seats. She was doing that weird thing again, sucking me into her orbit.
“I’m not staying,” I bit out.
“Oh. But I thought your grandma said—”
“What are you doing, Einstein?”
“W-what?” Celeste balked.
“This. Us.” I wagged a finger between us. “We’re not friends.”
“I know. I just thought after last night…” She inhaled a sharp breath. “You know what? Forget it. I have to get back to work.”
She spun on her heel and walked off. And I didn’t like it.
I didn’t like that she’d turned her back on me.
Fuck.
She was making my head spin.
But I didn’t want to sit around and talk about my feelings either. Especially not with her.
I needed to get out of there, to put some distance between us. I couldn’t trust Celeste. And I definitely couldn’t trust myself around her.
I didn’t leave though.
I slid right into one of the seats and watched her as she collected people’s empty mugs and plates, adding them to her tray. Celeste had a smile for each and every one of them, stopping to talk to the occasional person. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see the effect she had on people. She was like a ray of sunshine, lighting them up, making them beam. Even the miserable looking bastard in the corner sat a little straighter when she moved past his table. She said something to him, and he laughed, a look of disbelief washing over his face as if he couldn’t quite believe he’d done it. They all soaked up her warmth, her infectious smile, and soft laughter. As if her volunteering here somehow made her one of them.
Un-fucking-likely.
I wondered what they would have to say if they knew that she drove home to a gated estate in a car worth more than the average income in the country.
Celeste could pretend all she liked. She could volunteer and hang out with her friends in Darling Row. She could cut class and kiss bad boys up from across the reservoir and play the lonely little rich girl. But the truth was, she would never know what it was like.
She would graduate high school, go to some Ivy League School, and fall in love with some pretentious asshole with a stick the same of the Hudson River up his ass.
That was her destiny.
