AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Holy crap!” I sit straight up and almost knock the phone off the bed in my haste to see who’s calling now.
I pick up my cell and check the screen. “Oh, it’s only Addison.”
Feeling deflated that it’s not Arden, I answer.
My sister wants to FaceTime, which is fine, even though I have serious bed head and raccoon eyes since I neglected to remove my eye makeup last night. I just wanted to go to bed and forget about the weird vibe from the fair.
Plastering on a fake smile, I give Addison a little wave. “Hey.”
“Aww, did I wake you up?” she asks, wincing. “I’m sorry. I keep forgetting we’re six hours ahead over here.”
She looks fresh and beautiful with her raven hair up in a messy bun and clear blue skies behind her. Wherever she is, it’s a gorgeous day.
“No worries.” I wave my hand. “Where are you, anyway?”
“Check this out.” She pans to the Eiffel Tower.
“Ooh, Paris. Nice!”
“Right?” She positions the phone back to just her and the clear sky. “We’re having so much fun over here. Oh hey, wait, Hayden wants to say hi.”
Her fiancé leans into view and says, “Hey, Willow. How are things back in Atlanta?”
A little too enthusiastically, I reply, “Good, good, everything’s great.”
He doesn’t appear to catch on. He just murmurs distractedly, “That’s good. Talk to you later, okay?”
“Sure. Bye.” I wave.
After he ducks out of view, my sister looks at me and bites her lip.
Uh-oh, she knows something is up.
Confirming as much, she sends Hayden to walk around and take some pictures. “I’m going to sit on this bench and talk to Willow for a sec, okay?”
I hear him reply, “No problem.”
I’m sure he knows she wants to talk to me without him standing there listening in.
After he’s gone, Addison sits on the bench and says, “Okay, Willow. What’s going on? Is everything at work okay?”
“Yeah,” I say on a sigh. “Work is fine. There are no problems there at all.”
“Then what is it?”
I blow out a breath. “Believe it or not, it’s Arden.”
“Arden?”
She looks and sounds confused. No surprise there, as the last she knew, he and I were just hanging out and getting along.
When I talked to her last, he and I had slept together, but I wasn’t ready to say anything at that point.
That was a couple of weeks ago, but now it’s time to come clean. I need my sister’s advice, and I sure wish she were here and not thousands of miles away.
But like Arden would say, it is what it is.
So, sighing once more, I tell her, “I guess you could say a lot has happened lately.”
