Page 78 of Awakening

My chest rises and falls hard as I try my hardest to control my breathing. “I’m sorry about that. Drunk assholes. I can’t believe she knocked your memory like that.”

“It’s okay. Like you said, they were clearly drunk,” Olivia says. “So, you aren’t still friends with them, right?”

“No, of course not. He and I were never friends. The guy is a dick.”

“And her?” she asks, refusing to make eye contact with me.

“Tiffany? God, no.”

I have to find a way to tell Olivia who she is soon. I can’t risk another situation like this one. Finding out that she’s not only a werewolf, but also their Luna, is going to be unbelievable enough. I don’t need some drunk, inconsiderate fuckers dropping the bomb on her.

“Let’s just finish our dinner,” she says, still avoiding looking directly at me.

Olivia

As we’re eating dinner, I’m trying to be present in our conversation, but my mind just keeps coming back around to Tiffany. I know she wanted me to think there had been something between her and Ethan. He says no. Is he telling the truth? They seemed to be mocking the fact that I’m Ethan’s fiancée. She started to call me Lu...something. Who the hell is Lu?

“Olivia? Hey.” I’m pulled out of my thoughts when Ethan places his hand on my arm. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I, uh…I’m just full, and ready to get out of here.”

“Understood. Me too.” He waves Carly over to our table. “Could you have this put on my tab, please? We need to go.”

“Of course, Mr. Sullivan. Have a lovely evening.”

“Thank you.” He turns to me. “Ready to go?”

I nod and stand. “Yes.”

Twenty

Olivia

Heat courses through my body and my chest tightens as we walk out to the car in silence through the crowd of staring people. Ethan opens the car door for me, but I don’t allow him to take my hand as I get in. Rounding the car and sliding into the driver’s seat, he starts the ignition and lets out a long sigh.

“What would you like to do now?” he asks. “We could go to a movie, go somewhere for another drink, see if there’s some live music somewhere? We don’t even have to stay in Pinewood. We can go anywhere.”

The more I allow myself to think about Lu, the more pissed off I get. “I want to go home.”

Ethan frowns and reaches for my hand. “Home? Why? What’s wrong?”

I pull my hand away from him, cross my arms, and look out the window. “I just don’t feel like being out anymore, Ethan. I want to go home.”

“Olivia, talk to me. What’s going on?”

I whip my head around to look at him, shifting my body closer to the door. “Just take me home, Ethan.”

“Uh, okay. That’s fine.” He pulls out of the parking spot and the first couple of minutes of our ride home is uncomfortably silent until I can’t stand it anymore.

“Who is Lu?”

“What are you talking about?” he asks with a frown.

“Tiffany started to call me something that starts with Lu. So, who’s Lu?”

He shrugs and shakes his head. “Olivia, who the fuck knows. She was drunk.”

“Is there someone else?”