Page 30 of Merry Little Hate Notes

“Sorry. There are only two doors, and each one leads to me.”

“Ugh,” she groaned. “YouareSatan.”

“You’ve called me worse.” I grinned while grabbing my phone, thanking my lucky stars Mother Nature had thrown a guy a bone.

Holly rubbed her hands over her face. “This is a nightmare.”

Funny. I was thinking this was more like a dream come true.

HOLLY

“SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. YOU’RE spending the night with him?” Carmen screeched through the phone.

“I’m not spending the nightwithhim. We are staying in the same condo,” I whispered for some reason. It’s not like Brandon was even there. He was out braving the snowstorm to grab some food for us. And hopefully, a toothbrush for me.

“How many bedrooms does this condo have?”

“One. But—”

“Oh,”she exaggerated, giddily interrupting me. “You have so many rom-com tropes going for you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, if you read more rom-coms like I’ve been telling you, instead of nonfiction, you would know you are in the middle of a one-bed, brother’s-best-friend, enemies-to-lovers extravaganza. This is going to be ah-mazing.”

I plopped down on the comfy king-size bed in the modern-style room with clean lines and a large picture window, ready to burst my best friend’s delusional bubble. “First, there are two beds. He’s taking the sofa bed, thank you very much. Second, we are staying enemies. I don’t care if he told me on the ride up herethat he’s never hated me.”

“I knew it.”

“You knew what?”

“I don’t know ... It’s just the way I would catch him looking at you after the whole kiss thing. He seemed sad. Not to say what he did to you was right—it just never made sense. You, Bran, and Christian were like the Three Musketeers. And him coming back here and working with you, that’s not adding up either. He’s the boss’s son. Certainly, he had a say in whom he would be working with.”

I curled into the fetal position on top of the tufted comforter, not liking the direction this conversation was taking. I thought she would be more sympathetic to my plight and not make sensible explanations. In high school, she was more of the opinion that Brandon was evil and must be destroyed. Obviously, that never worked out—destroying a star is nearly impossible. “He’s fooled me once. I can’t go there again. Besides, why make me think he hated me all these years if he didn’t? Who does that?” Did he have any idea how hurtful that was?

“I don’t know. Did you ask him?”

“He said he wanted to save that conversation until I no longer hate him.”

“Ooh. This is getting interesting. Wow.”

“What do you mean,wow?”

“Isn’t it obvious? He likes you.”

Uh, I was going to have to agree to disagree with her—I’d read the notes. “I can’t believe it. He humiliated me and then cut me out of his life,” I whined, still feeling the sting of it.

“Don’t you want to find out why?”

“Of course I’m curious. But it also feels like a trap. Like how he led me to believe he had feelings for me before kissing me on a dare.” My curiosity left me wanting to know who’d dared him to do such a thing. And why he’d agreed to do it. And why he did such a thorough job of making me believe the kiss was real. Like so, so real. So real, I still remembered everything about it, from every goose bump and flutter to how he tasted.

“What kind of trap would he be setting now?”

“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t understand any of this, especially his behavior today. Although maybe he’s just being nice to me becauseI freaked out in the car about the snow. And I probably scored us this deal and a huge commission for him. Get ready to be Rachel, by the way.”

“Are you serious?” she squealed. “Yes!”

“I’m serious about the deal and freaking out.” Feeling like an idiot about it, I cringed.

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