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“Yes.” She stood with her hands on her waist. “Why would he tell a stranger such a sob story? Oh please,” Ella muttered and turned towards me again. “I think he has something up his sleeve, and we will try and find who the secret woman is.”
“Can you just calm down a bit? It might just be a random woman. There’s no reason you should worry about that.”
“But I am. I want to know the kind of woman my brother would lie to just to get in her pants.”
I coughed hard and took another sip of the wine.
Ella turned toward me, worried. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes,” I said, touching my heart gently as I took another drink. “Just had something in my throat.”
“Oh, be careful next time, and trust me, we really have to find who this strange woman is.” She said as she turned and began to scratch her jaw.
“Or we could concentrate on what we are doing and consider returning to our apartment. I am sure it was just some passing conversation.”
“Of course, once you finish up on your drawing, we will go, but before then, I will dedicate the little time we have to find who this mystery woman is,” Ella nodded as she turned to me again and wiped her hands excitedly. “It will surely be an interesting few days ahead.”
With that, she began to walk out of the room while I sat there, looking at the food as if I were staring at poison.
I pushed the plate away and covered my face using my hands. Shit, I have to make sure Ella never finds out that the mystery woman is me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MASONBLACKWOOD
I wiped the sweat off my face as I ran on the treadmill to clear my head. It had been a long two weeks. Finding a new place to set up my site and wracking my head on why Lucy had continued to hide from me after our wild night.
My thoughts about her had gotten so bad that I had to skip one of the meetings to run back home two days ago, but it seemed Lucy wasn’t around.
I had seen Ella, and each trick I had carefully applied to ask of Lucy without arousing her suspicion about anything between us had been thrown off.
She had bluntly continued. Lucy was working on the final draft of Mom’s portrait and didn’t want to be disturbed by my ego, and each day my yearning for her increased double fold until I couldn’t think clearly.
I believed she was trying to avoid me after what transpired between us, but the reason for that still eluded me.
I took a heavy breath and increased my speed on the treadmill, running as fast as possible while trying hard to catch my breath.
A few moments later, I stopped the machine, laid my hands on the device, and began to pant. “Fuck.”
I climbed down from the machine, feeling my whole body burning. I reached for the table, took a bottle of water, and began to gulp it down.
I then reached for the rails, took a towel, and wiped my face with it. I took it with me and headed into the bathroom for a cold shower.
*******
“We will be leaving for home soon,” Ella said as she entered the sitting room, where I sat chatting with Mom.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Mom muttered, “I wish you guys could have stayed longer.”
I turned to them, confused. “I thought her friend was yet to finish the picture.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen it. It is gorgeous.”
I turned toward Ella and glared at her, “But Ella here said she wasn’t done.”
“Yes, I did so three days ago. She finished it the next day.”
“This is the first day I am hearing about it being done. Where’s she now? Lucy, I mean?”
