by Claire Adams
To be honest, though, I was too impatient to plan something like that. Now that I'd made up my mind, I wanted to tell her now.
I smiled to myself and pulled out my phone, scrolling through my contacts to find her name.
A bright light in my rearview mirror caught my eyes. I frowned, wondering why the joker behind me had suddenly turned on his high beams. We were on a highway, for crying out loud, and even though there weren't that many cars out there at that hour, there were enough that he shouldn't have his high beams on. Even beyond the fact that they were sure to blind anyone in front of him, they weren't necessary. This stretch of highway was well-lit with street lamps.
I rolled my eyes but kept checking for Kylie's number, figuring he'd probably accidentally activated them and would turn them off in a moment.
When he didn't turn them off, I gave up searching my contacts for a moment, checking over my shoulder and in my sideview mirrors, and then changing lanes. That was better. The lights were still bright behind me, shrouding anyone who might be coming up on either side of me, but at least they weren't reflecting in my eyes anymore.
At least, they weren't until the jackass changed lanes so that he was behind me again, his high beams still turned on.
My hands clenched around the steering wheel, but I switched back to the right lane. Maybe he wanted to pass me and didn't want to do that in the right lane. I had to respect that.
He followed me back to the right lane, and I cursed out loud. “Fucking asshole,” I muttered.
He probably had something against The Man and was taking it out on me and my flashy car. I loved my Lamborghini, but I was starting to think that it brought me more trouble than anything else. Maybe I needed to think about getting a normal sedan and supe it up a little.
I made a mental note to look into my options and then switched lanes again, hoping that someone would get between the two of us.
But the guy continued to follow right on my ass, and I suddenly realized that not only was he blinding me, but he was also inching increasingly close to me.
“Fucking LA drivers,” I swore, watching him approach in my rearview mirror.
I was reminded of the guy tailing Kylie and me on our drive out of Denver and how scared she'd been. Unfortunately, here, I couldn't just speed up. This stretch of highway was notorious for cops just itching to hand out speeding tickets, and I didn't think they'd take any pity on me if I said that I was speeding up to try to leave behind some dude with his high beams on.
Instead, they'd ask why I hadn't just switched lanes, and when I explained that I had switched lanes and the dude had followed me, they'd ask why I hadn't slowed down to let him pass me, rather than speeding up.
The dude was getting closer and closer to me, though, and I had a sudden moment of panic where I realized that the cars in front of me were getting closer as well. I was afraid that if I had to brake at all, this dude was going to slam into me.
I shook my head, still muttering about LA drivers, and made another attempt to change lanes. If he really wanted to pass me, he could pass me, then.
The other vehicle accelerated even more just as I was changing lanes, confirming my belief that he'd finally decided to pass me. I rolled my eyes and focused on my own driving.
However, the other driver apparently thought I was changing lanes faster than I actually was, and he clipped the back corner of my car as he shot past me. The Lamborghini was thrown forward into a spin. I slammed into the barrier at the side of the road, and all the airbags inflated around me.
I did a quick inventory, trying to stay calm. Or as calm as I could, given the situation. My heart was beating fast in my chest, and it was difficult to breathe. I managed to grab my phone and dial 911.
“I've been in an accident,” I said. “I'm on the highway, driving into LA from Silicon Valley.” I proceeded to tell her all the details that I knew, in between still-panicked gasps for air.
Outside, I thought I saw an ugly blue truck drive past, and I smiled a little to myself at the irony. There was no way that it was the same blue truck that Kylie had been hung up about, but she'd probably be amused to hear that there was another one out there right when I had my accident.
I had probably just imagined the blue truck, anyway. Some strange vision that my mind had conjured since I'd been thinking of that guy speeding up behind us in Colorado. Nothing real about it.
My vision started to go black around the edges, and I could hear the woman on the other end of the call asking me a couple sharp questions, but I couldn't seem to answer her. My tongue felt thick, and I wondered if I had really injured myself. But I couldn't do inventory. I was still in a state of shock.
I fought desperately to stay conscious, but it was a losing battle. Slowly, I slumped forward toward the airbags, the phone falling from my numb fingers as I lost consciousness.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Kylie
Mandy poured me another glass of wine, cocking her head to the side as she stared over at me. “Are you all right?” she finally asked bluntly. “You seem kind of down.”
I shook my head, forcing a smile on my face. “I'm fine,” I told her. I paused. “Do you actually think I could get a restraining order against Andrew if I wanted to?”
“Did that fucker come to bother you again?” Mandy asked, sounding angry. “I don't know what his problem is.”
“He came by to drop off his key,” I hurriedly said. “That was a few days ago. I've just been thinking about it, about what Jasmine said at New Year's about getting a restraining order. Would I actually be able to do that, or do I have to wait until he's done something to me first?”
“He has done something to you,” Mandy pointed out. “He's refused to leave you alone after you made it clear that you wanted nothing more to do with him.” She paused. “I'm sure Josh could help you get a lawyer to look into the situation, if that's what it takes.”
“Josh and I aren't exactly talking at the moment,” I admitted.
Mandy raised an eyebrow at me. “You guys are still in your lover's spat, then?”
I sighed and raked a hand back through my hair. “I'm just feeling confused about our whole situation still,” I admitted. “And I don't feel like it's fair to either of us to keep talking to him if I don't know what I want out of our relationship.”
The truth was, I knew what I wanted out of our relationship. I wanted Josh to be my boyfriend. But I also wanted the assurance that if things didn't work out between the two of us, it would still be possible for us to remain friends.
Mandy rolled her eyes. “Sure, like you don't know exactly what you want out of a relationship with him,” she said, echoing my thoughts. “You've liked Josh as more than a friend for years now. Don't bother trying to deny it.”
I blushed and ducked my head. “How was it so obvious to everyone except me?” I asked.
Mandy smiled gently at me. “You aren't the most subtle person I know,” she said. “I just don't understand why you went along with Josh's 'friends with benefits' idea if you realized that you already had feelings for him.”
“I'm actually the one who suggested that we keep it as friends with benefits,” I admitted. I shook my head. “I was worried that if I asked for anything more than that, I was going to ruin our friendship. I didn't want to do that.”
“So instead, you ruined your chances at a relationship with him?”
“I guess so,” I said, taking a healthy sip of my wine.
“Hey,” Mandy said, putting a hand on my back. “I shouldn't have said it that way. I don't actually think you ruined anything. I'm sure if you and Josh talk things over, you'll be able to come to some sort of resolution.”
“How are you so sure?” I asked fretfully.
“Because it's no secret that Josh has been into you for just as long as you've been into him, if not longer,” Mandy said, snorting out a laugh. “I don't know why you think this is so complicated.”
I was shocked by the very idea of tha
t. Josh had been interested in me for years? I tried to think back over our interactions, wondering if there were any signs that I might have missed. But I kept coming back around to the fact that he had left me there in Nebraska because his work was apparently more important than I was.
“I think you have it wrong,” I told Mandy slowly.
“Trust me, I don't,” Mandy said, shaking her head.
“Josh always speaks his mind, though,” I argued. “You said I'm not exactly the most subtle person that you know, but Josh is 10 times less subtle than I am. If he had feelings for me, I would have known about it already. Even if he had somehow managed to keep them a secret through the years, he would have told me on the road trip, when we first started sleeping together, that he liked me as more than a friend. He wouldn't have been able to hide it.”
“I don't know how an artist could be so oblivious to human emotion,” Mandy teased.
“It's not obliviousness if those emotions don't actually exist,” I countered.
“Maybe you're just too close to the situation,” Mandy suggested. “You can't see that he's in love with you because you're afraid that it's just wishful thinking.”
“He's not in love with me,” I said, frowning. “Maybe he has some feelings for me. But I think it's a lot to be assuming that he's in love with me.”
Mandy stared incredulously at me. “You really don't believe me, do you?” she asked. She shook her head. “Oh, Kylie.”
“I bet Jasmine wouldn't believe it, either,” I told her, folding my arms across my chest.
I was starting to feel as though I'd had a little too much wine to keep up with this conversation.
“Call her,” Mandy challenged. “Call Jasmine and ask her. I bet she'll agree with me. Josh isn't being subtle at all. It's obvious that he likes you.”
I pulled out my phone, preparing to do just that. But I paused indecisively, unable to make myself call her.
“What's wrong?” Mandy asked, as my hesitation continued.
I smiled sadly at her. “I want to believe you,” I said truthfully.
“Aww, sweetie,” Mandy said, pulling me into her arms.
I finally called Jasmine, knowing full well that the only reason I was even considering making this phone call was that I was a bit tipsy already. I had a feeling I would regret it in the morning, but for now, I had to know.
“I have a silly question,” I asked, the phone on speaker mode. I wasn't sure how to say this, but I figured the sooner I got it over with, the less I'd have to repeat myself. Finally, I blurted out my question, with minimal backstory. “Josh and I had a friends with benefits situation going on during our road trip. Do you think he could ever want something more?”
Jasmine made an incredulous noise. “Finally,” she said. “The two of you have been dancing around one another for ages. It's about time you had a good fuck and got rid of the tension.”
I sputtered wordlessly.
“Honestly, the two of you are sickening to be around,” Jasmine informed me. “You're going to be one of those couples that's together all the time. You're going to be nauseatingly in sync with one another. Do you realize that you even match outfits a lot of the times that you're out together? Like, if you're wearing a blue shirt, he'll be wearing his blue flannel or something like that. If I didn't know better, I'd think you planned it.”
“Exactly!” Mandy exclaimed, clapping her hands with excitement like a small child.
I shook my head. “Why didn't you guys ever say anything?” I asked.
“I actually didn't think it would take you this long to realize that you had feelings for him,” Mandy admitted. “Anyway, the timing was never right for the two of you. Either you were with someone else, or he was with someone else, or you were trying to get over someone else, or he was trying to get over someone else. I wasn't going to break up another relationship that one of you had, just because I thought you guys would be perfect for one another.”
“I thought there must be some reason that the two of you weren't dating,” Jasmine said. “You've been good friends forever. I figured you must have decided early in your friendship that you were only ever going to be friends.”
“Instead, we were both oblivious,” I said slowly.
“Oh, no,” Mandy cackled. “Josh realized that he had feelings for you years ago, I'm pretty sure. Not that he ever told me that in so many words, but it's true. He's more in touch with his feelings than you are, apparently.”
I rolled my eyes as Jasmine laughed, too.
“So what happens now?” Jasmine asked. “Are you guys actually going to get together finally?”
“No,” I sighed.
“Why not?”
“He ditched me during the road trip,” I said. “Obviously, he cares more about his money and his work than he does about me. I mean, the whole road trip was just about him showing off his money. The fancy car, the fancy hotels, the fancy dinners, that was all fun, but that wasn't what I wanted out of that trip.”
“Did you tell him that?” Mandy asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Huh,” Mandy said, looking thoughtful. “Josh isn't the kind of guy to show off his money. For a billionaire, he's pretty normal.”
“You should have seen him at the Tennessee Valley chicken place in Denver,” I said, shaking my head. “Everyone knew who he was, and he offered to buy them all dinner. He even made this speech about how it was the holidays and he wanted to spread the holiday spirit.”
Jasmine burst out laughing. “That should be his silly superhero persona,” she said. “Bringing cheer to the world, one bucket of fried chicken at a time.”
“You guys had Tennessee Valley chicken?” Mandy asked. “I haven't been there in years!”
“Neither had we,” I said, smiling fondly. “We also had Black Fortress burgers, and they were disgusting. I don't know how we used to eat those things all the time.”
There was laughter on both sides of the line this time.
“I'm sure you'll figure things out, if you want to,” Mandy said quietly when we had all sobered again. “I can't imagine Josh just letting you go.”
There was a buzz, and I frowned down at my phone. “Jasmine, I have another call coming in,” I told her.
“Yeah, go ahead,” she said. “I'm in the middle of making dinner anyway.”
I said goodbye and hung up with her. Then, I picked up the other call, taking it off speaker phone since I didn't recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Is this Kylie Summers?” asked the woman on the other line.
I frowned. It didn't sound like a telemarketer. The woman sounded frazzled and in a hurry.
“Yes, this is Kylie,” I said.
“Kylie, this is Linda McMahon. I'm Josh Green's personal assistant.”
I burst out laughing, unable to help myself. “Josh has a personal assistant?” I asked. “And are you responsible for scheduling all the times that I get to see him from now on?”
There was a brief pause. “Actually, I was calling to inform you that Josh has been in an accident tonight,” she said gently. “He's at Memorial Hospital. You're listed as one of his emergency contacts.”
I stared blindly into space, trying to process what she'd just said, wondering if this wasn't a prank. The one thing that stuck in my mind was that I was listed as one of Josh's emergency contacts. I pictured one of those field trip forms that we'd had to fill out when we were kids at school, and I imagined Josh having listed me on one of those.
Slowly, the truth started to sink in. Josh had been in an accident. Josh was in the hospital. His assistant continued explaining the situation to me, but it was difficult to focus on what she was saying.
“I'll be right there,” I said dazedly to her when she finished. Then I hung up the phone.
“What's going on?” Mandy asked as I got up, grabbing my keys and wallet.
“I have to get to the hospital,” I told her, already ordering an Uber. “Josh was in an accident.”
“Is he okay?” Mandy asked, sounding just as worried as I felt. She started grabbing her things as well.
I shook my head. “I don't know,” I said. “That was his personal assistant. She says they're still doing tests to figure out the full extent of the damage and that they'll give us more details when we get there. But probably, he's going to need to go into surgery. I guess we'll find out the rest when we get there.”
Mandy briefly grasped my hand, pressing it gently. “It'll be okay,” she said firmly.
I wished I could be so certain.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Josh
Sounds were the first thing to filter back into my consciousness. There was the low hum of a machine somewhere to my left and a beeping sound. Wherever I was, it was bright. I could tell that, even with my eyelids closed. I stirred a little, and my whole body ached as though I'd been in the same position for too long.
I forced my eyes open, wincing at the bright whiteness that surrounded me. But slowly, my eyes adjusted to it as I blinked. I moved my arm, seeing that there were tubes sticking out of it. There were tubes coming out of my nose as well.
I panicked, moving to tear them all out. But then I froze, noticing the person sitting in the chair beside my bed. It was Kylie, and she was fast asleep. Just the sight of her was instantly calming. Her neck hung at an awkward angle that I suspected she'd regret later. Given how exhausted she looked, even while she slept, though, maybe she wouldn't regret it. Maybe this was necessary.
I looked around the room, realizing I must be in the hospital. I wondered how long Kylie had been there for. I wondered how long I had been there for.
And then, I remembered the accident.
The asshole with the high beams on clipped my car and sent me spinning into the guardrail. My world had exploded around me when the airbags deployed. They had saved me from cracking my head open, but slamming into the bags had been no picnic, either.
