Page 13 of Ruthless Sinner
"Try not to think about it." Harper nods. "No point dwelling on something that hasn’t happened.” There’s a silentyetat the end of those words.
“No. I’ve had enough on my plate with getting ready to start work this week.” Jan, the creative director of the art show, is the kind of obsessive perfectionist you don’t want to piss off. He already issued his warning that if we crossed him, we’d be out on our asses quicker than we can take our next breath. “I’m excited to start, but there’s a lot to learn. It’s taken upallmy time.”
“I can see that." She glances over at the stacks of boxes in the corner. They contain all my things from college that I didn’t have the chance to unpack. The whole area is filled with them. "Need some help?"
"I wouldn’t say no.” I giggle. More hands mean less work. In my case, it would save me time I really don’t have.
"Cool, then I’m in. Is this everything?"
"Pretty much, but I accidently left two boxes behind."
"Oh no." She presses her lips together.
"Jill said she’d send them to me when she’s back from Europe." Jill was our housemate. Jill, Harper, Avery, and I shared a house near the UCLA campus.
It was nice not to live in the dorms and even nicer to have a place we called home for the duration of our stay. Jill is going to continue living in the house because she’s going to be working in L.A.
As my boxes only contain non-urgent things like old art supplies and sketchpads, I thought I’d wait until she returns from her trip to get my stuff.
"Well, little lady,”—Harper claps her hands and rubs her palms together—“you have me for another hour or so. How about we see how much we can sort out together?”
“I’d love that.”
She issues me with a sassy smile. “It also gives me an excuse to talk about your handsome hero again.”
Of course, she had to sneak in some ulterior motive.
“Harper—”
“Don’t youHarperme.” She wags her pointer. “You know you want to. Did you see his muscles? You can tell the man definitely works out.”
I don’t get to answer, and I barely get another word in. The next two hours are spent with Harper harping on about my handsome hero. Thankfully, we get through a chunk of my boxes, but she talks non-stop about him as if she’s known him for a lifetime.
I had a hard enough time shifting him from my mind as it was. Now, thanks to my best friend’s impeccable memory of his Greek godlike anatomy, I’ve been fully indoctrinated to only think of him.
When she leaves, the memory of him stays with me.
ChapterFive
Serenity
Thank you, Harper. I still can’t get the man out of my head.
As the day wore on, my thoughts of my handsome hero only got worse.
It’s really unlike me to be so fixated on a guy, but I think there was some silent connection that hooked me. Something I’ve never actually felt with anyone. It’s fascinating, and dare I say it’s a welcome distraction.
I was back in Boston for a few days over Christmas, but before that, I had the whole nightmare with Avery’s death and the accident last summer.
Today was the first day I didn’t spend the majority of time thinking about it and feeling guilty.
I suppose, too, that this is the first guy to interest me since Jared, my ex.
Jared successfully managed to truly bamboozle me. I met him in my second year of college. He was in his senior year, studying law. Dad loved the idea of him, and there was something about him that connected with my love for art and classic literature. Until I realized that was all a shit show. Dad has a chain of law firms, and Jared wanted Dad to hire him at the L.A. branch. The entire two years we were together was about that. I discovered the truth when I was introduced to his ex-fiancée, who he’d just broken up with. He was engaged to her and with her while he was with me. She spilled the tea because of their breakup.
I remember feeling so broken after that shit show.
I haven’t dated anyone since. The accident occurred a few months after that, and I’ve been okay physically for the last eight months, so I can’t even blame it on that. The real problem was that I shut down my heart to life and living.