The Relationship Pact(38)

“I’m actually graduating in May with a degree in landscape architecture. I was afraid I’d end up hating it by now, but I think I love it more every day.”

I lift the bracelet from the display and turn it over in my hand. It’s silly and costs a whopping fifteen dollars, but it reminds me of Larissa. It’s delicate and pretty and makes me smile when I hold it.

“You’re fucking stupid,” I mumble to myself.

“Where did you go, Hollis?” Judy calls.

I walk around the corner and see her standing by the cash register. She’s holding a box.

“I’m right here,” I say.

“Here.” She presses a box big enough to fit an entire cake into my hands. “I made you a snack for later.”

“You didn’t have to make me a snack.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Judy …” I look at her warily.

She shushes me with a wave of her hand. “You call me Judy again, and we’re going to have a problem. I’m Grandma. I told you that. Don’t make me get a switch.”

I can’t make sense of her or the craziness inside me—least of all rationalizing all of it at one time. So I laugh and ignore as much of it as I can.

“Well, at least let me pay you for it. And my sandwich and this bracelet.” I hold the jewelry up in the air. “I’d like to get this, please.”

She smiles. “For your girlfriend?”

I give her a playful warning glare. “No. For my friend.”

She winks at me. “But I need to make sure she’s good enough for you. Bring her by so I can meet her.”

The box starts to slip in my hands. Luckily, I catch it just in time.

This is the first fucking thing I’ve caught all year.

Her mouth opens to talk, but the phone rings instead. “I need to get that.”

“What do I owe you?”

She swats my shoulder. “Go on. Enjoy your day. And come back and see me before you leave town.”

I watch her walk to the back again and lift a phone to her ear. After a few minutes, it becomes apparent that she’s not going to come back. I have to wonder if it’s not an excuse to get me to leave without paying.

I sit the box on the counter with the bracelet on top. Then I take out my wallet. I fish out thirty dollars because I’m not sure the price of any of the food or what’s in the box and lay it on the cash register.

“Hollis!” Judy chastises me from across the store.

I laugh. “Have a good day, Grandma!”

“You little rascal!”

I pick up the box and stick the bracelet in my pocket. The bells chime as I leave.





Twelve





Larissa





“What do I do now?” I ask an empty kitchen.

I’ve asked myself this question a hundred times since Hollis kissed me senseless and then left like some kind of libido assassin.

My head continues to spin from his abrupt switcheroo—going from a difficult yet playful pain in the ass to a straightforward yet confusing man who I’d like to kiss me again.

And that piece of the puzzle is why it’s complicated.

And frustrating.

It’s also why I was up all damn night.

My lips stung from the memory of his being pressed against them. I tasted the heat of his mouth until the sun came up. I can still, even all these hours later, recall exactly the way his palms were prickly but his fingertips were soft as they gripped my cheeks.

I liked it. I like him.

Even at the Landry’s house when he was quiet, I was glad I was there with him. In the car when he was refusing to cooperate, he made me laugh. And even when he walked away and left me hanging, I wasn’t upset.

And Lord knows I wasn’t mad about him coming back to kiss me, nor was I anything but shocked that he shared the crux of his refusal to talk.

I tidy up the countertop and rinse my bowl. I’m too preoccupied to get it in the dishwasher, so I leave it in the sink next to the plate that housed my cheese and crackers at two this morning.

I check the clock on the oven before making my way to my bedroom.

“You just have to keep your head about you,” I tell myself. “You can’t really walk away now. But you can remember that this isn’t a repeat of your past boyfriends where you should be worried. You know how it ends. And you hate it.”

I groan. Flashes of Sebastian and his superiority complex come blitzing through my mind. I’m reminded of Charlie and the way his phone would be lit up like a Christmas tree after away games and of Benny’s mercurial position on monogamy.

“Yes, I freaking do hate how it ends. And it always ends with those guys,” I say with a groan. “At least the ending with Hollis is planned out. That makes this doable.”

My stomach twists as I slip on the emerald-green dress I chose to wear tonight. It’s a stretchy velvet that gathers on my left shoulder and leaves my right one bare. The waist is hugged with two braided pieces that cinch me in and deepen the curve of my waist without the strangulation of a corset.

Even though I bet Hollis is hot as hell in a suit, I’m not wearing a corset.

I glimpse down at my phone to check for missed calls. It’s only the two-hundredth time I’ve looked since he texted me around midnight that he would be here to pick me up this evening. I was quick—maybe too quick, in retrospect—to return his message and then waited for a follow-up that didn’t come.