Chapter Five
Caleb
It was two thirty in the morning, and I was stretched out on my brand-new bed, in my new apartment, fully clothed, wondering why Paige hadn’t contacted me.
The signs were all there, I thought, analyzing our interaction in the café for the hundredth time. There had to be a reason she hadn’t called.
My phone buzzed with a picture message from Calvin.
“What the fuck?” I cursed, sitting up in the bed.
The image was of Paige with some dude in an alley. Even though the image was shadowy, there was no mistaking the body language. She had a boyfriend.
I paced the studio apartment, racking my brain for another plan to get close to her, when a text came in.
Unknown: I don’t like pop and chick flicks.
It could have only come from one person: Paige, and for some reason, I was pissed at her when I should have been relieved. This was what I’d been waiting for all day.
I dropped back onto my bed. It was the only piece of furniture in the place.
Me: But I think you do like them, just not as much as what you really like.
And I was smiling again.
Why the fuck am I smiling again?
Paige: You aren’t as good as you think you are. Pretty bad actually.
Her retort sent a signal to an itch that hadn’t been scratched for some time—a month to be exact, which was a fucking long time for me. I wondered if she knew how tempting she was.
Good thing I prided myself on restraint. I thought for a moment before replying.
Me: I thought you’d be asleep by now. You looked like you wanted to crawl into your coffee cup this morning. Don’t tell me. You went out with your friends, got drunk, and are now drunk-texting me.
I stood and strolled over to look through my window. The light was still on in her apartment.
Way better view than from my suite downtown.
I had the strongest urge to see her.
Paige: You’re wrong again.
Paige: Are you drunk?
No, I wasn’t, but was she?
I sent Calvin a message.
Me: Is she still at work?
Calvin: Yeah, she’s inside, cleaning up, I’m guessing. Bar’s closed.
I pressed the Call button and smiled when I heard the softest voice through the receiver. “Hi.”
“Hey you.” I grabbed my car keys and headed out. “What are you doing up so late?”
“Working.”
It seemed that either Paige was a woman of few words or she really didn’t want me to know anything about her.
“Are you downtown? If you are, we should meet up.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“It’s after two in the morning. I’ve also been cleaning all night. I’m disgusting and tired. And I mean, so disgusting. Like, I’m so gross right now.”
“Oh my gosh, Paige! Who are you talking to?” A girl laughed in the background.
“Um, uh . . .” Paige did a little laugh, and I pictured her biting on her lip like she’d done in the café. “No one.”
My gut twisted as I pulled out of the parking lot.
“Paige!” the girl squawked, and the line went dead.
It wasn’t often that a girl hung up on me. In fact, a girl had never hung up on me.
As I reached a stoplight in traffic, I texted her.
Me: Meet me at the library downtown. I’ll be sitting on the steps waiting for you.
It was the closest place to her job I could think of without raising suspicion.
The next message I sent was to Calvin, letting him know that I was going to take over then, that he could head home once she left the bar.
After waiting on the steps leading into the main entrance of the library for a half hour with no response from her, I couldn’t help but think she wouldn’t show. I paced and nibbled on my lip, wondering if I should text Calvin, but I’d already told him he could go home. First, one and then two people passed, and each time, my hope would drop. She wasn’t going to show.
At least there was only a slight chill in the summer air, so I wasn’t freezing my ass off.
My gaze lingered to my left, the direction she should be approaching from if she were coming from work. And, as another ten minutes passed, I took a seat in the middle of the stairs and rested my elbows on my knees.
Something to my right on the opposite side of the street caught my eye, and I turned my head. Paige was walking with her head turned toward me, dressed in all black like she had been this morning. She stopped, turned to face me, and then walked across the asphalt in my direction, stopping after her first step up onto the sidewalk.
We stared at each other for a moment, and I could tell her guard was up, but so was mine.
Why is she so careful about what she says when she speaks, about keeping a visible distance from people she doesn’t know, about approaching from the right when I expect her from the left?
It was as if she knew someone was after her.
Judging from what I’d learned so far, she didn’t seem like the stupid kind to show up by herself to meet with a stranger at three thirty in the morning. Unless she was able to protect herself and was also feeling what I’d been feeling since I laid eyes on her. Attraction. Temptation.
“You came.” I smiled.
“Only for confirmation,” she said, hooking her thumbs into the straps of the backpack sitting snug against her back.
“Confirmation?”
“That you are in fact here, waiting. Why are you?”
Curling a finger, I gestured for her to come to me. She looked around, and then she started walking forward. I would never forget the feeling when she approached. Like holding two magnets far apart but then slowly moving them toward each other, so the closer one got to the other, the stronger the force of attraction, and the harder it was to hold them apart, to keep them from touching.
The charge between us intensified as she neared, and I let out a breath. Holy shit! I’d never felt anything like it.
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