Bryant: Does that mean you plan to have it with her at some point?
Taylor: I don’t like hiding it, but…
Bryant: I know. It’s complicated.
Taylor: Can we just take it one day at a time for now?
Bryant: Of course.
Taylor: Thank you.
Bryant: I’m about to go to bed. I’m a little worn out…
Taylor: I wonder why—maybe the same reason I couldn’t walk straight this morning?
Bryant: I wish I could have seen that.
Taylor: It wasn’t flattering!
Bryant: I would have laughed.
Taylor: I would have thrown something at you!
Bryant: So violent…
Taylor: Goodnight :)
Bryant: Goodnight…
I couldn’t help but smile as I climbed into bed—mainly because Taylor was going to be there beside me in a couple of days. As soon as I tried to go to sleep, my mind flashed back to what Danny said to us at Chateau Prime—which made me think of Alexis—the last person I wanted to be thinking about while I was lying in bed. There was definitely something going on with her that wasn’t totally transparent. I wanted to just forget about her and accept that it wasn’t my problem, but I felt like there was a reason she set her sights on me—I had trouble believing it was totally driven by greed. I wasn’t entirely convinced that she was hitting on Danny—he was happily married and there was no way that fit into her game plan if what Taylor overhead was true.
There has to be something I’m missing… Fuck it. I’ve wasted enough time trying to figure her out—there’s not a damn thing she can do to me right now because I sure as hell have no intentions of marrying her.
Chapter Eleven
Taylor
The next day
I woke up feeling rather refreshed. My muscles didn’t ache when I got out of bed, which was a huge improvement over the previous day, and I got enough sleep not to feel like the staggering dead. I even got up early enough to beat Anna to the shower, and I was downstairs with a cup of coffee in my hand when I heard the shower start again. Our mother was always the first one up, but it took her longer to get ready. I sat down at the kitchen table and flipped through the assignments I had been working on—I always liked to proofread them in the morning after I had some time to let the information settle in my head a little bit. I didn’t see any glaring errors, so I was rather relieved. My mother came charging down the stairs with a purpose, but she came to an abrupt stop when she got to the kitchen.
“You’re up—and you made coffee.” She looked at me and smiled. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” I nodded. “I wanted to look over my assignments before school.”
“I thought you would be sleeping as long as you could—especially with the late hour you got in a couple nights ago.” She poured a cup of coffee and eyed me suspiciously.
“Mom…” I looked down and sighed.
“I know, you’re twenty-three now. You don’t have to give me the song and dance. I’m not judging.” She sat down across from me. “So, what’s his name?”
Straight to the point—I should be used to that by now.
“It’s really nothing.” I shook my head back and forth. “It’s all school-related.”
There goes a lie—but I don’t know how to tell the truth about Bryant. It’s way too complicated for the kitchen table—or anywhere.
“Okay…” She nodded, but the suspicious stare didn’t fade. “Well if you need to talk, I was twenty-three once too—and if you are dating, maybe we can compare notes, because…”