Accidental Meeting (Accidental Hook-Up 3)

It makes it worse that they must know about the picture that was leaked. The image of Shane that I took. Even if they are aware that I wasn’t the one who shared it that doesn’t matter. They must be mad about it. It scares me to face that. And not only that but this is Lady Saffron Jones I’m meeting. An actual wealthy heiress. Someone who is way out of my league. I don’t even know how I will talk to her.

Then there is his father. Some criminal. A man who ordered guys with guns to come and get his son to speak to him. Like, what sort of person is this? Shane might have told me that he’s changed, or in the process of changing, but he still scares the living hell out of me. I guess I’m just small town, and all of this is different.

“So, what’s happening with them?” I ask, needing to change the subject.

“Like, romantically?” Shane pauses thoughtfully. “I honestly don’t know.”

“It must be something, right? If she’s giving up her money and status for him.”

“I don’t know if that’s actually what she’s doing, I’m sure she’s still wealthy enough, but I know what you mean. They are both shifting their lives for one another. It’s romantic really.”

God, if I really think about it, their love story is much harder than mine. Shane and I have had a difficult time to get together but it’s nothing compared to them. They have waited years to be together. We only had to wait for six months. Their lives went in completely different directions for such a long time.

“Yeah, I suppose it is.” I nod slowly. “I hope I don’t ruin that. Unless I bring them together in their hatred of me.” Anxiety knots deeply in the pit of my stomach. “Oh God, they are going to really hate me, aren’t they?”

“No, they aren’t. They understand exactly what happened.”

I think about Rae for a moment and my heart hurts. I miss her, despite everything that she’s done to me, I miss her friendship. I haven’t heard from her ever since she betrayed me, I haven’t tried to contact her and she hasn’t reached out to me either. That hurts. She should at least apologize to me for what she’s done.

Still, she doesn’t care about me, she proved that, so I need to forget about her.

I wonder what she’s doing right now… No, I don’t. I need to shut those thoughts down right away. She chose her path in life and it didn’t involve me, so my path shouldn’t involve her either.

I have managed to recover from leaving behind my other friends, and they are people I have known forever, I’m doing fine without them. I will be okay without Rae as well; I just know it.

“Here we are.” Shane points to an innocuous looking building, just another house on a street.

“This is where your mom lives?” I ask, shocked. “Wow, she really has changed for your father. That’s crazy.”

Shane grins at me and he leans across to knock on the door before I have a chance to change my mind. Fear spikes, it stabs my violently, I have to really resist the urge not to clutch onto my stomach to keep it inside.

The door swings open and the lady from the news bursts into view. She doesn’t look like the same person though, she is more dressed down and she looks calmer too. I suppose she was in the middle of a stressful situation when I first saw her, and all the pictures of her shown were really posh, showing her at her best. The truth is something different. She’s looking friendly, nice, actually approachable.

“Hello there.” She opens her arms wide, inviting me in which I wasn’t expecting. “It’s good to finally meet you. I was very surprised when Shane called me and told me that you had come back.”

I rest against her and bask in her comfort. A hug is better than a smack. “Hello.”

She pulls back to look at me and grins. “You are so beautiful. I have seen all of your movies.”

“Oh, you have?” I cock my head, surprised. “That’s… I don’t know what to say about that.”

“You are very good! You don’t need to be worried about that.” She steps back and indicates for us to go inside. “Come in and I will make some tea and coffee for us all. Biscuits too, if you want anything.”

“You don’t need to worry about that, Mom,” Shane insists. “We just popped in to say hi.”

I chuckle, glad that she’s making me feel so relaxed. I wasn’t expecting this at all. My shoulders roll forwards a bit, I let go of some of the stress building on me. I nearly, almost, calm down.

Well, I do until I see Shane’s father sitting on the couch, glowering at me.