“Awesome. See you tomorrow.”
*** *** ***
Emma
The last thing I expected, after a kiss like that, was to run the trails alone this morning.
The lobby was deserted but for the desk clerk and me. Nothing unusual for the early hour, and I’ve beaten Graham downstairs before. Grabbing a section of the newspaper off of a table in the lobby area, I stood while reading it, sure he’d be down any minute. I was nervous, hands cold and stomach shaky, but I was sure that once we started running, once we started talking, those sensations would subside.
“Ms. Pierce?” I turned to find the desk clerk standing four feet away. “I have a message for you.” She passed a folded sheet of paper to me, Emma Pierce scrawled on the outside. I recognized Graham’s handwriting from the note he left on my nightstand a few nights ago.
Emma –
Something came up and I had to go home. I’m sorry I won’t be able to make our usual run in the morning. I may be gone a few days. I’m not sure. Just didn’t want you waiting around for me.
Graham
For a few minutes, I wondered if there was a hidden message in the last sentence. And then I ran alone, glad for my renewed morning habit, which gave me something nothing else could: the ability to concentrate on little more than putting one foot in front of the other, marking time by counting each stride, until finally I was back in my room, standing under a hot shower.
***
“Earth to Emma.” MiShaun breaks through my inattention. While the film crew is working on backdrop shots in the front of the Bennet house, I’ve been sitting at the kitchen table, staring out the back window, reconsidering Graham’s kiss in light of his abrupt absence and possibly cryptic message.
“Sorry, MiShaun.” I make no attempt to come up with an excuse, having overplayed the lack-of-caffeine defense, when the actual reason has nothing to do with drinkable stimulants. I can’t get that kiss out of my head. Plus, before we kissed, he’d just come from Brooke’s room. I have no idea what he was doing with her, even if I did shove that thought out of my head before we kissed.
“I was going to see if you wanted to go over lines, but if you need to zone out, far be it from me to intrude…” She looks curious. I must be more distracted than I thought.
“No, I’m fine, just… a lot to think about lately, with my parents still here.” The truth is, I’ve all but forgotten they’re here. “I guess we aren’t doing the mall scenes this week?”
“I heard they’re holding off until next week to do mall scenes, since Graham’s in them.”
“Oh, yeah, Graham…” I say this as though I haven’t been thinking of him all day. My finger traces circles on the table. “Why did he leave Austin? Did anyone say?”
“I heard family thing in New York.”
I feel instantly guilty. “What kind of family thing?”
MiShaun shrugs, shuffling through sides. “I’m sure we’ll get the story when he gets back.”
I have all the emotional weight of a ping pong ball, flying back and forth between my own feelings for Reid and Graham, nevermind what either of them feels. On the surface, Reid is paying attention to no one but me, while Graham is often occupied with Brooke. Reid is a known player and Graham—who knows what he’s doing? Last night, he went from Brooke’s room straight to mine, and like an idiot I let him kiss me. This should be clear-cut… but the kiss last night felt so right.
And then Graham disappeared this morning and everything is more confused than ever.
“MiShaun? You’re pretty good at giving advice…”
“You need more? Shoot, baby.”
I swallow. “Okay. So… how do you know whether to follow logic or intuition? I mean, when something looks like one thing, but feels like another—how do you know which is the truth?”
She puts the pages down and levels a look at me. “Is this about Reid?”
“What? No, just a general question, not relating to anyone in particular.” Just two anyones. I should be crossing my fingers under the table.
She presses her lips together, a crease forming on her forehead. Finally, she sighs. “Sometimes, you just can’t tell. But I’ll say this, if what looks like the facts of the matter are conflicting with your feelings, then you need more information before deciding.”
“Even if your feelings seem really sure of themselves?” I ask, knowing the answer.
“Especially then.” She narrows her eyes at me, one eyebrow raised. “You sure this isn’t about Reid? Because this seems like the sort of questions a girl would start asking herself after being kissed senseless by him.”
“We haven’t—I didn’t—”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“So I noticed you being dropped off at the hotel Monday night,” I blurt out. “And the driver looked sorta familiar…” Emily calls this redirecting the subject. She’s a big fan of this tactic when losing an argument with her mom. “MiShaun, are you blushing?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. My people do not blush.” She puts on her prim and proper face and I smirk at her, because she’s wrong about that. “Well. I’m obviously not as sneaky as I think.”
“So what’s he’s like? What does he do?”
“He’s a computer guy. I don’t know the details and I already told him not to bother trying to tell me, because I get disoriented if I have to do any more to my laptop than turn it on.”