Page 120 of Make Me Dream of You

“I really do have to leave. I’m already late to meet Bex and Macy,” I say, stepping into the elevator.

“Please.” He stands there, as the elevator doors close, the sharp angles of his face softening, his expression melting like hot candle wax.

The elevator goes down. Down. My phone pings and I glance at it. A text from Noah, saying sorry and he wants to talk.

But I don’t know what to say to him right now. What can I say? He said he doesn’t want me there with him. He’s happy I’m moving out. He wants space, to take a step back from us, and to do whatever else it is he’s been apparently doing behind my back.

My stomach rolls.

I’m still standing, staring at the phone in my hand when the elevator dings and the doors open on the ground floor.

I silence it and drop it in my bag. I’ll talk to him later, when I’ve calmed down. I just need a little time. And I really am already late.

“Bex, your sister’s here! Come on, we’re late,” Macy shouts as she opens the door. She turns back to me smiling, though her hair is frazzled, brown eyes are wide, silently pleading for help. “We’re supposed to be at the first showing in”—she looks at her phone—“twenty minutes.” She lets out a high-pitched little laugh.

“Hey.” I smile nervously as she ushers me in. “Sorry I’m late.”

“It’s okay, Bex is still in the bathroom. I don’t even know if she’s dressed.” Macy throws up her hands and heads for the bathroom.

I sit on the couch, looking around Spencer’s apartment. It’s a white couch. White walls. Glass kitchen table and hard, black chairs. There are a few framed pieces of art on the walls—mostly of sailboats. His family is, apparently, really into sailing—in an attempt to personalize the space, but it all feels very clinical. I guess that’s fitting for a surgeon.

Macy knocks on the bathroom door, and Bex calls back that she’ll be out in a minute.

Light catches my eye. Bex’s phone screen lights up on the floor, half hidden under the corner of the couch. It’s weird she doesn’t have it with her.

I pick it up to set it on the coffee table, but the words on the screen catch my eye.

New text message from Noah (Dick)xon.

Bringing the phone closer, the preview of the text reads: is Liv there with you?

But then the phone unlocks.

All. By. Itself.

Bex and I look too similar, the facial recognition must have done it. And it automatically pulls up the string of text messages between her and Noah.

This is an accident, I’m not trying to read them, but their last few texts are right in front of me on the screen and my eyes just…absorb the words.

Bex:

Promise you won’t tell anyone about it?

Noah (Dick)xon:

I won’t mention what happened at the lake house

Bex:

Thank you

My mind is spinning.

What happened at the lake house?

It could be nothing.

But what if it’s something?

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