Twins Make Four

I pressed send, and then stared at the phone, a tightness forming in my chest with each passing second. It was taking her forever to respond, and I started to think that perhaps she wouldn’t respond at all.

Maybe this isn’t even her real number, I thought in dismay.

But then my phone buzzed from her incoming message. I hastily opened it. It read: Sure. What time and where?

I stared out the window, debating where I’d like to take her.

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“Excuse me,” I said, leaning forward in the backseat toward the driver.

He glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “Yeah?”

“What’s one of the nicest restaurants you know of in this area?”

His brow puckered for a moment. “There’s a new joint a few miles from here. Can’t think of the name of it. It’s a real fancy place though. Kind of pricey, from what I’ve heard about it. The food is supposed to be good though.”

We reached a stop light and he quickly typed something into his phone, finding the name of the place.

“Sounds perfect,” I said. “Would you mind dropping me off there? Thanks!”

I texted the name and address of the place to Scarlet, requesting that she met me there in an hour.

The driver huffed. “Now I have to turn and go in the opposite direction.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tip you well,” I said, as I looked up the phone number to the restaurant so that I could make a last-minute reservation. “Hi,” I said, once someone answered. “I’d like to reserve a table for two, in the name of Tobias Gentry. Do you have anything available for the next hour or so?”

After pulling a few strings, the restaurant made reservations for me. When I arrived, a waiter politely showed me to my table, where I ordered a drink and proceeded to await Scarlet’s arrival.

I sipped my drink, thinking once more about Headmaster Greene’s comment about her, trying unsuccessfully again to figure out what he could have possibly meant. And while I was excited to see Scarlet again, a part of me had grown nervous, contemplating whether I should ask her about the Headmaster. On one hand, I was wondering what she would say. On the other hand, the last thing I wanted was to make things awkward for her if she’d had some kind of unfortunate run-in with him at some point during her time at Hullen Prep.

Maybe it’s none of my business anyway, I thought as I took another sip of my drink.

Besides, I had to keep in mind that there was no guarantee whatsoever that I would even see Scarlet again after this dinner, so maybe there was no need to concern myself about her reputation.

CHAPTER 9

Scarlet

The very second after…Tobias…texted me, I hurried to call myself an Uber to take me home so that I could change for our date. The whole time though, my mind continued to spin, completely stunned that Tobias Gentry was apparently a real person and not just a role being played by my ex.

It had taken a while to sink in, but I finally got it. Tobias was not Preston. I hadn’t spent the night with my ex-boyfriend. I’d spent the night with a complete stranger.

Initially, this realization had left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth. How could I have been fooled so badly? I had never been the kind of girl to take off with random men, but that was precisely what I had just done, and it was going to take some time for me to get over that. I didn’t even want to think about the inevitable moment when I’d have to tell my friends what really happened. Especially Mila.

I could already imagine what they’d have to say.

“What the hell? Are you kidding me? You didn’t even know him for real? Did you seriously hook up with a random stranger you knew nothing about? Scarlet, come on, you’ve got to do better than that!”

I leaned against the backseat, staring idly out the window and trying to make sense of it all.

“You all right, ma’am?” my driver said, peering at me through the rearview mirror.

“Huh? Yeah…” I said, not realizing until then all the noises I’d been making out loud to accompany my thoughts.

I wiggled in the backseat, pulling my party dress from the night before down. It seemed to rise further up my hips with ever bump in the road the car drove over.

I sighed again, and then gave a humorless laugh.