The Price of Love (A Price Novel Book 1) (5 page)

“Oh, hi! I remember Kenedy telling me about you.” I shook her hand. “You didn’t go with her to Milan?” Of course I had to ask, just in case Slayde knew she had a roommate but thought she had also gone to Milan. I’d rather think that than think he had tricked me into staying with him to try and get me into bed. Which he had obviously accomplished.

“No, I didn’t go. Are you OK? You look upset.”

“Oh no, just a long night last night.” I made myself smile.

She smiled and nodded. “I understand that. Kenedy called last night and said she got your email. She said she tried to call you, but it was late, and your phone must have been off. She asked if I would keep my eyes open for you. Why don’t you come back to our place and get settled in? Do you want to go back to Slayde’s and get your things?”

Hell no!
I wanted to blurt out but thought better of it. “I will later. Can I just come and take a shower? I’m sure Kenedy has something I can throw on until I can go get my things.”

She smiled and led me back into the building and upstairs to their apartment. It was cozy. Not as nice as Slayde’s, but it did have separate bedrooms for each of them, real rooms, not partitions. So at least they had some privacy. They didn’t have a balcony like he did, but their living room overlooked the Seine. They also had an actual kitchen, which was separated from the living area by a bar. It wasn’t huge, but everybody seemed to live kind of cramped up on top of each other in this city.

Unlike my sister, Holly was very friendly. She gave me a quick tour of the place, showed me an extra key above the door outside, told me to make myself at home, and left to go meet a friend for brunch.

I stayed in the shower until the hot water ran out. Then I went into Kenedy’s room and found something to put on. As I lay down in her bed, I could feel my eyes filling up with tears again. I felt so stupid. I felt so used. I would never tell anyone what had happened. Definitely not Kenedy!

That afternoon, I decided it was probably safe to go grab my stuff. So focused on my mission, I left the apartment unlocked. I slipped the key into Slayde’s apartment door and turned it without making a sound. I opened the door and tiptoed into the apartment. He wasn’t there. I relaxed somewhat.

I wasn’t sure how long he would be out. So I got my stuff together as fast as I could. I noticed he had picked up all the clothes and taken the sheets off the bed.
Nice.
I felt sick. I wanted to get out of there, but before I left I saw that he had left a note on the counter for me.

That wasn’t happening, not today, anyway. I wasn’t ready to face him. I was not sure that I would ever be, but I definitely knew it would not be today. I left his key on the counter and hurried out. I felt really shady not saying good-bye or even leaving a note. But at that point, I felt like I didn’t owe him anything. It appeared I had already given him way more than I ever planned to.

I hurried back to Kenedy and Holly’s apartment. Now curious for the future, I looked and found the key exactly where Holly said it would be. I wondered if it had been there all along. Waiting for me to find it and save myself from all of this mess.

Later that afternoon, I decided to unpack my stuff, and when I unearthed my phone and turned it on, I noticed it had seven voice mails and four text messages. Two calls were from my sister, one was from Milly, and the rest were from Slayde. All of the text messages were from Slayde.

Was he an idiot? Did he really not know what was wrong with me? I mean, surely he did.
I guess this is just a game, and he wants me to tell him what’s wrong.
Or maybe he really didn’t understand what the big deal was. Either way, he was a total jerk as far as I was concerned, and I refused to let myself think otherwise.

The next two days dragged by. There I was in Paris, sitting in my pajamas in my sister’s apartment. Totally pathetic. I guess you could say I was hiding out. I lay on Kenedy’s bed, trying to read through some of my research notes and get my head somewhere besides Slayde Price. I was trying not to dwell on the fact that I hadn’t left the apartment since returning from Slayde’s.

It wasn’t that I was saving myself for marriage or anything, but at least for someone I loved. Not some random one-night stand. I was so disappointed in myself.

I was lying on Kenedy’s bed, and I saw Holly come out of her room. She raised her eyebrow a little when she spied me there in my pajamas, and I felt embarrassed. I had to ask myself, how long did I plan to stay locked up in their apartment? A few days? A week?
Maybe I should just go home.
I sure wished I had someone to talk to. Maybe Holly — she seemed nice enough. No, she might tell Kenedy, and the last thing I needed right now was her being angry with me.

It hit me:
Milly!
Why hadn’t I called her before now? She may not have had advice that I wanted to follow, but at least she would listen to me cry and tell me it was all going to be all right.

I called her cell — no answer. I called our dorm room — no answer. I didn’t leave a message just in case I changed my mind and decided against telling her.

I really wanted to hear a familiar voice. Even if it wasn’t someone I could spill my guts to. Someone I knew would answer my call.
Eric
. Eric was in most of my classes, and we always studied together. He was a nice guy, and I knew he liked me, but I couldn’t think about anything like that right now.

He and I had met the day I moved in, when he helped me carry a heavy box up to my room. We lived in coed dorms, and it turned out his room was three doors down from mine. We’d been good buddies ever since.

Don’t get me wrong; Eric was a good-looking guy. He was really tall, maybe six foot three — ginormous compared to my five-foot-even self. He had a cute smile, soft baby-blue eyes, and sandy-blond hair. But he was a tad arrogant. He knew he was cute, and that had turned me off immediately. So friends were all we’d ever be.

As I knew he would, Eric answered on the first ring. “
Bonjour, magnifique. Est-ce que je te manque?
”

“Enough with the French. But yes, I miss you. What have you been doing?”

“Pediatric rotation.”

“Fun stuff,” I said, but I was actually jealous. I wished I could trade places with him.

“What about you? How’s the relaxing going?”

“So far, so good.” That was all I could think to say.

“Have you met any hot French guys over there?”

I had known he was going to ask me that. “No, Eric, but I met a really nice British girl named Kinley you’d probably really like.”

“Not interested,” he said. I figured he’d say that too.

“Anyway. I just wanted to say hi. I called Mills but didn’t get her. Tell her I was just checking in, when you see her.”

“Will do. Blake’s helping her study.”

That was interesting. I’d have to ask her about that. Blake and I had gone out for a little while before I left for Paris. He was extremely smart and gorgeous but didn’t seem to realize that, unlike his buddy Eric.

Blake had been born in Ireland and still had a thick Irish accent that I thought was incredibly sexy. I had really liked him, but it seemed like he had lost interest, and I didn’t see him much anymore. Milly once said that Eric had had a cow and asked Blake not to go out with me, but I didn’t know that for a fact.

“OK! Have a good night. Or day. What time is it there?”

“Ten in the morning.”

“Oh yeah.” I wasn’t ready to get off the phone just yet. “What is everyone else doing?”

“Aw, do you miss us?”

“A little.”

“Well, come home.”

That was a thought, but I wasn’t going to mention that to Eric. “How are Karen and Josh?”

Karen lived across the hall from Milly and me. She was really sweet. Her roommate had flunked out, so she had a room to herself, which we took advantage of from time to time. She was smart, and we all studied well together. She wasn’t what I’d call pretty, but she was cute and had a great personality. She was at least five inches taller than me, with long dark hair. She had a tiny waist that didn’t match her plump behind. I always thought jean shopping must suck for her.

She dated Josh, a guy we had some classes with. Josh was really cute. His long, curly, sandy-blond surfer hair hung down in front of his baby-blue eyes, so he was always flipping his head to the side to get his hair out of his face. He was going to end up needing to go to the chiropractor when a simple trim could have solved his problem.

One night, while we were studying late and everyone was tired, delirious from studying, Milly took her hair clip and pulled his hair back and told him he could keep it. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the hint. He’d probably end up with whiplash eventually.

Breaking my reverie, Eric said, “They’re all good. Exactly how you left them. Everyone but me. I miss you the most.”

“I’ll be home before you know it. Tell everybody I said hi, and I’ll see you soon.”

“You don’t have to go,” he said, all whiny, which annoyed me.

“Yes, I do! This is probably costing Mom a fortune. Bye.”

“Bye,” he said reluctantly, and we both hung up.

I had just put the phone down when Holly came in. She gave me a stern look. “Hey, you! What have you been up to all day? You’re still in your pajamas? OK, what’s the deal? Is this about Slayde Price? Because he cornered me in the hall today, asking a million questions about where you were.”

“Wow, speaking of a million questions,” I said.

“Oh, sorry, I’m not trying to be nosy … well, maybe a little nosy. You have just seemed so down, and you were definitely upset when I found you in the hall. I just assumed it had to do with Slayde, and the fact that he was so concerned about your whereabouts confirmed my suspicions about you two.” She winked. Before I could get a word in, she said, “Don’t worry; my lips are sealed.” And she pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key. “Girl, I know your sister, and she has some kind of crazy jealous thing for Slayde Price. Any girl who gets near him is asking for trouble. I don’t think she has any right to be jealous, since she supposedly dumped him, but you know how she is.” This made me a little anxious. Holly was right — Kenedy was going to flip out. I started nervously picking at my nail polish, thinking about how ugly this could get.

“I didn’t know she felt like that about Slayde anymore. She never mentioned to me that he was even here.”

“
Really?
” She looked at me, eyebrows raised. She had her hand on her hip and her head cocked to the side. She pointed her finger at me. “Well, then, you didn’t hear it from me.” And with that, she turned on her heels and went into the bathroom to shower.

I lay back on Kenedy’s bed and stared at the ceiling. She and I hadn’t been that close for years, but we’d talked a bunch about me coming to visit in the recent months, and she hadn’t mentioned Slayde Price once.
Why didn’t she?
That was really odd. Before I could get too deep into analyzing her reasoning, my phone vibrated. Glancing down, I saw it was another text from Slayde.

That was the first text he’d sent me all day. He had called a few times the day before, but I hadn’t heard from him since then. I figured he had forgotten about me.

His text seemed sincere.
Maybe I should text him back.
I kept typing and then deleting the letter
H
.

Luckily, Holly walked out of the bathroom with a towel on her head before I could do anything stupid like actually reply. She stuck her head into Kenedy’s room and said, “Get up; get dressed. We’re going dancing.”

“Dancing? I don’t dance,” I said, allowing a little panic to creep into my voice. I really only danced when I was drunk. Very drunk.

“You do tonight. Come on. I have a hot date, and he is bringing his friend along. So you, my friend, are going.”

“No, I’m not. Sorry, I don’t do blind dates, but thanks anyway.”

“Well, he’s not blind, and you’re going to be glad you’re not when you see him. He is beautiful. Maybe not Slayde Price beautiful, but not many people are. So get dressed, and I am not taking no for an answer, honey.” She was throwing clothes on the bed that I guess she wanted me to wear, and oddly enough, I did what she said. The dress she gave me was way too short. It definitely wasn’t anything you’d catch me wearing back home, but it was cute. I was in a strange city, so I guessed it was OK. It was not like anyone would know me.

As soon as we got to the club, Holly grabbed my hand and dragged me past all of the people in line, and the bouncer let us in. This didn’t seem to make the people in line very happy, but it was nice to feel special. Even if the special treatment was for Holly and had nothing to do with me.

Once inside, Holly led me to a table where two beautiful guys were sitting. They both stood up as we approached.
Very gentlemanlike,
I thought.

Robert was Holly’s date; he was from Sweden. Tall and blond, he had a very strong bone structure. He looked like he could have been in some historic painting. The other guy’s name was Federico, and he was from Italy. He wasn’t as tall as Robert, but he was a little better looking. He had pretty olive skin and brown eyes that were so dark they looked like coal. His eyelashes were prettier and longer than any girl’s I’d seen back at that modeling agency. I’d have to say he was pretty.

Both guys were here traveling. They seemed very nice, as we all sat and talked, but I just wasn’t into it. I wanted to go back to the apartment. All of a sudden, I really wanted to go see Slayde, but I reminded myself that that was completely out of the question.

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Slayde. I turned quickly to look, but I must have been seeing things. I loudly released the breath I was unknowingly holding in, and Holly looked at me funny. I turned my attention back to Robert, who was telling us some story about a tree growing in the middle of the road. I hoped it wasn’t too obvious I wasn’t really paying attention.