AllFreeNovel
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Sandy?
A figure briefly darkens the doorway, then strides across to where we are standing. It is a man, about sixty. Obviously wealthy, or at least he wants us to think he is. Thinning hair, slicked back. Even in the low light, I can tell that he is well-tanned. He wears a single, thick gold chain around his neck.
“I have been waiting for you in the car for forty minutes,” he growls through clenched teeth. “Who are these people?”
“This is my roommate, Belinda,” she explains meekly, in a voice that sounds very much moreSandythan Seattle. “And this is her boyfriend, Spencer. Guys, this is my father, Preston Gardner.”
“What have you been doing here?”
Seattle extends a hand as far as she can and opens it. In her palm are several black wood screws, still with bits of plaster caking the threads.
“What is this?” Preston sneers.
“My final project,” she answers quietly.
“Fine, then we can go?”
“Soundsthrill,” she answers with a sigh. “I mean, sounds good.”
Preston spins on his heel and stalks quickly out of the room.
Seattle leans toward me urgently.
“I wanted to tell you, but you left,” she explains. “Daddy says I can go back to PAFA if I promise not to embarrass him again.”
“And?”
“Well, I definitely promised!” she chuckles weakly. “I mean, it’s kind of my thing? Making a scene? What else am I going to do at this point, learn how to draw?”
“No, I guess that would be sort of a U-turn,” I admit.
She nudges me with her immobilized shoulder. “So, I’m really glad I got to see you before I left. You have been a really nice roommate. And you’re a really good artist! I hope it all works out.”
“Um, thanks,” I mumble, awkwardly returning her hug, more confused than ever.
Now I feel sort of shitty for all the terrible things I thought about Seattle. I guess she was just your average pretentious art school poser. Ironically, she turns out to be better than most of them, at least better at pretending to be a poser.
“Nice to meet you too, Spencer,” she calls out as she begins to shuffle rapidly toward the door. “Oh, and if you want to see the pictures, follow me on Instagram! It will bewindows!”
When she is gone, I hear Spencer sigh.
“So I guess you were right about her not really being a suspect,” he murmurs.
“Yeah,” I agree. “Not really the type.”
Chapter 21
DIEGO
We had to get a big calendar and put it on the wall to get the schedule straight. Even though we are all synced up with electronic calendars, not all of us (okay, Trevor) could keep it straight all the time. A visual aid really helped.
Lindy’s initial strategy for bed sharing totally works. I mean, I wouldn’t mind having her in my bed every night, but the rotation makes sense. Everybody gets a turn. The waiting is delicious.
Personally, I like to watch. So when she is fucking Zeke or Spencer or Trevor, backlit by the moon through the half-circle windows, I can get a really good view. It’s not a lot, but it is something.
The rest of the schedule is escorting her to class. She picked up a lab on Thursday evenings in order to get the collaboration class paintings done. They are huge, and needed a large studio.
She only has Thursdays to work on them, because of the lab-sharing schedule, and I can see how tense she is in between those days. I get it. She is brilliant, and having to wait to work on her vision is very frustrating.
