Page 255 of The Life of Anna-Tenth Anniversary Edition: Act 2

“I was going to ask if you wanted to see Mr. J again, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea now.”

Anna swallowed. “I want to. Terribly. But I’m afraid of getting caught.”

“Did your fiancé know about Friday night?”

“No.”

“Do you trust me to keep things as discreet as before?”

Anna looked up at him. “Yes,” she whispered.

Simon smiled. “Good. I will be in touch and let you know where and when.” He gave a little bow and walked away.

Anna watched him for a moment and then turned to go outside and catch a taxi home.

“Did she get all the books and roses?”

Seth laughed at Alex’s eagerness and then coughed as he struggled to catch his breath from running up and down the steps to set up the impromptu romantic adventure for Anna. “Can we plan a little earlier next time?” He sucked in a deep breath, scolding himself for being so out of shape. I really need to start doing cardio again. “Yeah, she got ‘em. And I think you made her day. She seemed pretty upset when she got here.”

Alex muttered against his brother in German, and Seth grimaced. “His intentions when he left Germany were good. You know he was coming to apologize.”

“She wasn’t being indiscreet. He just can’t seem to get his head out of his ass.”

Seth didn’t know what to say. Kurt hadn’t handled his visit right. At all. “But I think you more than made up for it.”

Alex was quiet. “I guess that’s something.”

“Are you going to see her again?”

“Simon was going to meet her at the door to find out if she’s interested. I’m hoping she says yes.”

Seth leaned against the wall and peered around the corner to see Anna nodding at Simon. “I think that’s an affirmative.”

“Good. You’ll have to help me come up with something just as good.”

“I’m sure between the five of us, we’ll come up with something.”

Aaron was home when Anna arrived and hugged her hard. “Where’d ya get the roses? They’re pretty.”

“Oh... somewhere.” She went into her room to put her backpack down and hesitated to return to Aaron. Would telling him about it put him in the middle if Kurt asked questions?

After finding a vase in the kitchen, she filled it with water and arranged the roses before placing them on her dresser in her room.

“What’s wrong?” Aaron walked in and sat on her bed.

She told Aaron about going out with Levi and Kurt showing up the next morning.

“He flew all the way from Germany to pull you out of some guy’s bed?”

Anna nodded.

“I never thought he was that much of a control freak.”

“I never knew a lot of things about him.”

“It’s so unlike him.” Aaron shook his head. “What the hell happened to him? Have you tried talking to Wilhelm?”

“He doesn’t care. He’s... busy.” She laced her fingers together. “Sometimes I wish I’d just stayed with Devin. At least I knew what to expect from him.”

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