Believing Lies (19 page)

Just tell her you don’t want to go. She’ll get over it . . . Hold the press!
Three days away might be exactly what I needed right now: A distraction. Sure, it wasn’t my ideal trip, but it would have to do. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”

“Perfect. I’ll pick you up this morning. How about in an hour?”

“The sooner the better.”
Time to get out of Dodge
.

“Sienna?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Mother. Goodbye.”

I walked into Sophie’s room without knocking. She was still sound asleep, so I tickled her upper lip, right under her nose a few times. I giggled when she slapped herself in the face.

“Ow!” She opened her eyes and then instantly narrowed them. “Bitch.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Can’t it wait?” she grumbled, still half asleep.

“If it could wait, I wouldn’t have woken you up,” I replied matter-of-factly. “Just listen and you can go back to sleep. I’m going to Minnesota, and I’m leaving in about an hour. I’ll be back Wednesday night.”

My news woke her up all the way. “What do you mean you’re going to Minnesota? What are you going to do in Minnesota?” she drilled me.

“I’m going with my mother to visit Constance.”

“That snatch-a-roo?” She gave me a “what the hell?” face. “Your aunt makes your mom look like sunshine and daisies. Are you on crack or something?”

“Yes. I’m on crack,” I sarcastically replied. “Anyway, I need to pack, so get off my back.”

“Will you use a sack? Is the sack black?” She giggled at her own joke. “Ooh. Will you ride a yak?” I smacked her on the arm, but she kept on giggling.

“Laugh it up, Dr. Seuss.” I paused, remembering one important detail. “Oh yeah, I’m not going to take my phone, so call my mother’s if you need me.”

“Take your phone. I refuse to call your mom’s.” Her face said she was dead serious, but I wasn’t going to budge on this.

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“I just don’t want to.” Trying to lighten the mood by joining in her little rhyming game, I added, “Now shut up before I poke you with a tack.”

“It’s only funny when I do it,” she told me dryly.

“Hey! I can be funny too.”

She shook her head. “Not often.”

“Whatever. Anyway, will you do me a favor and throw my new bedding in the washer and dryer before I return?”

“No problem.”

“Love you,” I called back to her as I left her room.

In the hallway, I could hear her yell back, “Love you too.”

***

My reasons for leaving my phone behind could be considered an act of cowardice or of brilliance. If Adam actually called me, I didn’t know if I wanted to talk to him yet. Worse, I might pick up the phone to call him, and that would just look desperate. Also, if I took it with, I knew I would spend the whole time checking it and would be disappointed if he didn’t try to contact me. It was lose-lose no matter what way I tried to spin it. However, now that I was in Minnesota sans phone, I was really starting to regret the decision because being cut off from Sophie sucked donkey balls.

By day two, I knew this trip was a big mistake. Not only was I scrutinized by my mother the entire time we were at my aunt’s house, but Constance kept giving me backhanded compliments the entire time, such as, “Oh Sienna, your hair looks so nice compared to when you had bangs the last time I saw you. You’re face just doesn’t go well with bangs, dear. Don’t worry, not everyone has a pretty enough face to pull off bangs.” My favorite was “You are so thin. Did you lose weight? You must have because you were looking a little hefty in the pictures Clarice showed me last year.”

On the plus side, my absence would allow Sophie time with Conner without me making it awkward for them. Mainly, leaving town assured that I wouldn’t see Adam. If I saw him, my real emotions would show instantly, and I wanted everyone, especially him, to think I was fine. I refused to let him see that he hurt me, so until I knew I could mask my emotions completely, I would avoid him like the plague. Even though I could control whether or not I saw him, I was having a really tough time controlling how much I thought about him. I just couldn’t seem to get him out of my mind.

I was still angry, and I used that feeling to keep me strong. For the most part, being angry was working for me. I knew I was overreacting. He never promised more, and I’d been aware of his M.O. from the start. Most of my anger and sadness came from the knowledge that things would never go back to how they’d been. Sex really could mess up everything. But the line had been crossed, and there was no turning back. I’d just have to live with the repercussions.

My mood did cause me to snip back at my mother and aunt more than I usually would have, but they mostly deserved it, so I didn’t let myself feel too bad. My craptastic time at my aunt’s did end up teaching me a very important lesson: Running away from my problems wouldn’t solve them. It was time to come to terms with the fact that I was a one-night stand. I needed to move on and get over it. Now it was time to convince my heart of that.
Two heartbreaks in less than two months. Must be a record or something
. I was going to stay far away from men in general.

Wednesday evening finally arrived. When my mother dropped me off at my apartment, I’d never been so relieved to get out of a vehicle. The whole ride back consisted of listening to classical music and her talking about social functions she was attending this month.

I hastily said goodbye to Mother and went into the building, dragging my suitcase behind me as I made my way through the lobby, up the elevator, and to my door. I was fumbling with my keys when I heard loud laughter coming from inside the apartment. I finally got the key to cooperate and walked in to find Courtney sitting in the living room with Sophie. I was so excited to see her that I dropped my suitcase and purse and tackled her in a huge hug. Then I playfully slapped her arm before getting cozy on the other side of the couch.

“You came early and didn’t tell me! How long have you been here having fun with Sophie while I was going crazy with my mother and aunt?” Before she could answer, I turned to Sophie. “You should have called me,” I chastised, pointing my finger at her. Both of them laughed at my outburst, and I joined in.

“Calm down, dumbass,” Sophie said between laughs. “She just got here about an hour ago, and you didn’t have your phone with you. I told you I was NOT calling your mom’s phone.”

“No crap, Sienna. Theatrical much?” Courtney said, smiling. She looked super cute in a pair of jean shorts and a white baseball-style T-shirt with blue sleeves. Her black stick-straight hair was in a pony. She wasn’t wearing any makeup except mascara, but she’s pretty enough to pull off the no-makeup-thing due to a naturally clear complexion.

“I’ve had a crappy few days, and I’m just happy you’re here. I didn’t expect you until tomorrow, so I got a bit excited. I missed you, so sue me.”

“Yeah, I’d miss me too if I were you,” Courtney joked.

“Smartass.”

“You wouldn’t love me any other way.” She gave me a lopsided grin. She was absolutely right.

“So, bitches, I’m think we should celebrate. I just so happened to buy margarita mix,” Sophie said slyly.

“Tequila,” I moaned. “Screw it. Why the heck not? I’d enjoy watching you row a bathtub again.”

Courtney looked confused. “Row a bathtub? Is that slang for something?”

“We’ll fill you in,” I let her know, standing up. “Time to get our drink on.”

As we started mixing the margaritas, the intercom buzzed. “I’ll get it,” Sophie said.

“Were you expecting anyone else to join in on our little celebration?”
Please don’t say Cassie. Two nights with that chick would be too much
.

“No. Just us,” Sophie answered. “Courtney hadn’t eaten since this morning and was complaining that we had no food, so she ordered pizza,” she clarified.

“Awesome! I’m starving.” I really was. In an attempt to get home faster, I’d told my mother to not stop anywhere to eat on the way back.

Sophie quickly went and pressed the buzzer to let the pizza guy in and came back into the kitchen to get some cash from her purse.

“My treat,” I said, grabbing my wallet.

Sophie set her purse down. “Sweet. Thanks.”

“Yeah. Thanks, hun,” Courtney chimed in.

There was a knock, and I went to go get our pizza. I opened the door, and instead of seeing a person holding a pizza, I saw a drop dead sexy man with messy black hair and piercing brown eyes that took my breath away.

“Adam,” I whispered on an exhale, stupefied.

As soon as the shock of seeing him wore off, my initial reaction was to slam the door in his face—so that’s exactly what I did. He reacted fast, putting his foot in the way just in time to stop it.
Good job on not letting him see that you’re mad
.
Why don’t you start screaming at him while you’re at it, Einstein?
As soon as I finished mentally chastising myself, Conner came up behind him.

Conner started apologizing before even looking through the wedge in the door. “Sorry Babe, I told him to wait in his car, but he had a mind of his own.” Surprise and a small amount of embarrassment colored his face when he saw it was me standing there, not Sophie. “Whoops, you’re not Babe.”

“No, Conner, I’m not Babe. I’ll go get her,” I replied with a small smile. I turned on my heels and left them behind me to go get Sophie. “Your boyfriend is here,” I calmly told her. “And he brought Adam,” I added sharply, yet discretely. “Please tell me you didn’t plan this,” I pleaded under my breath.

Her shocked expression answered my question before she even opened her mouth. “Oh my God. No! I’ll get them to leave before they come in.” She didn’t have a chance to make good on that promise because it was too late.

“Ladies.” Adam greeted us. I could tell he was almost directly behind me by how close his voice was.

Sophie ignored Adam’s greeting, instead focusing on Conner. “Dammit Conner,” she chastised. “I told you to give her time. You promised not to bring him here yet.” She was fuming. I couldn’t see the two men behind me, but with the death glare on her face, I wouldn’t have wanted to be the one on the receiving end of that look. I knew she meant well, but her reaction and comments were not helping me seem unaffected.

“I’m sorry, Babe,” Conner replied as he walked to her. Only Adam remained behind me now. “We’re going to Zach’s party, but I needed to stop here to give you your phone. You forgot it at my house this afternoon.” He handed her phone to her. “I swear I told him to stay in the car while I ran up. He didn’t listen.”

“Obviously,” she commented tensely.

“I was going to tell you it was both of us through the intercom, but you buzzed us in without using it.”

“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Courtney requested, bewildered at the scene playing out before her.

Sophie shook her head in a quick “no” gesture, signaling to Courtney that now wasn’t the time to explain anything. I’d momentarily forgotten that Courtney not only didn’t know about any of this drama, but had never even met them before.

The buzzer notified us that the real pizza guy was here. “I’ll go get that,” Courtney said, exasperated. I handed her my wallet, which I hadn’t realized I was squeezing in a death-grip up until that point.

The kitchen was deathly quiet for a moment before Sophie finally broke the silence and attempted to also break the tension. “Thanks for bringing my phone.” She gave Conner a soft, yet quick kiss. “But you two really should get going now. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She was calm and soothing with her tone, which relieved me. After all, Conner hadn’t really done anything wrong.

“No problem, Babe. Talk to you then.” He looked at Adam. “Come on, douchebag.” Courtney came back into the room holding a delicious smelling pizza, which she simply set on the counter. “Are you two leaving or staying for pizza?” she asked, seeing Conner moving away from Sophie.

“Staying,” was the firm reply from behind me.

Conner stilled, pursing his lips. “What he meant to say was that we’re leaving,” His features softened. “We have somewhere to be anyhow, but thanks for asking.” He extended his hand to her. “Before we leave though, I’m Conner.” He hooked his thumb in Adam’s direction. “And that asshole’s Adam. You must be the famous Courtney we’ve been hearing about.”

“Guilty as charged. It’s nice to meet you both. The girls have mentioned you boys quite a bit.”

Deciding he was no longer going to stay behind me, Adam came up next to me. The sight of him, looking all sexy and confident, pissed me off. The urge to throw my arms around him and kiss him silly pissed me off even more. As much as I tried to look away, I couldn’t tear my eyes from him.

“I hope you heard all good things,” Adam said to Courtney, seemingly oblivious to my stare.

“Surprisingly yes, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s more to the story.” Courtney was fishing for info.
Time to get Adam out of here
. I would tell Courtney everything later, but I didn’t want Adam involved in the re-telling.

“There’s always more to a story,” Adam quipped. He turned his head and cocked it to the side, looking me straight in the eye. “Isn’t that right, Princess?”

I furrowed my brow in mock confusion. “No idea what you’re talking about, Adam. And stop calling me Princess.”

He gave me the one word answer that I knew he would. “No.”

Courtney caught the fish she was waiting for. “Princess? Why Princess?”

“Truthfully?” he replied with a raise of his brow.

“Yes, truthfully.”

“Well it’s not something I can explain without the whole story.” I didn’t like the look on his face. It was mischievous, to say the least.

Courtney leaned against the counter. “Ooh. I love a good story. Pray tell.”

Adam spoke without hesitation. “I met her the same day Conner and Sophie met. I noticed her the moment she walked into The Turning Point. She stuck out like a sore thumb in a dressy outfit, pearls and all.”

“She must have been with her mom that day,” Courtney observed.
Lucky guess
.

They looked to me for confirmation. I simply gave one curt nod, affirming Courtney’s theory.