Page 56 of Winter Glam in Amsterdam

"Why? What do you know about Jackson?" I ask curiously and lean closer. “Have you seen his girlfriend? What’s her name? Why is he so secretive?” I narrow my eyes at her. “Is he gay and afraid to tell us?” Zoey shakes her head and pushes me away by my shoulder.

"Don't change topics. I'm asking about you here." Now it’s her turn to narrow her eyes. "Who's this Summer?"

"You know Luca, right?" Her eyes light up. "Of course I do. Love that last movie he did. I went to watch it with…" Suddenly she looks at me like a deer in headlights. I shake my head at her. She has her own life now and if she doesn’t want to share, I’m not going to pry.

"I’m going to ignore that.” I clear my throat. “Well, it's…" I pause. "Summer is his sister."

Her eyes grow even wider and her mouth drops open. "Shut up." She sounds scandalized and playfully hits my upper arm. "So she’s your friend’s sister! The plot thickens."

"There's no plot," I finally say, shoulders sagging in resignation. "I fucked it up."

"How?"

"That's none of your business," I assure her. But it has the opposite effect of what I wanted to achieve. Fuck.

“Is it my fault?" She looks genuinely shocked.

"No, it's not your fault," I quickly assure her. "It's mine. You might have neglected to send a message, but I never even thought about writing to her at all." I clear my throat and scratch my head nervously. “And that is definitely my shortcoming. So, I really can't blame her."

"I'm sure it's fine," Zoey says. "Knowing you, you’ll win her back in a heartbeat."

I give her a tight smile and shake my head. "No. No, I won’t."

But I'll be damned if I don't try.

"What did you do?"

Right as I got to my hotel room, my phone started ringing with Luca, ready to tear me another one on the other end of the line.

"Sorry for disappearing like that," I start off and pinch the bridge of my nose. "We really didn’t want to worry any of you. Did Adam talk to you yet?"

"Nobody's been talking to me." He sounds frustrated and kind of muffled, like he's walking through a long corridor, his voice echoing off bare walls. "Not Summer, not you guys… Now, spill. Because I know something is up with Summer, and Millie doesn’t know why. The only other person I can think of who would know, is you. There's been a weird ass mood ever since you guys left. So, care to fill me in?"

"Adam got a message from Zoey in the middle of the night," I start in the very beginning. "It just said that she's in a hospitaland about to go into surgery. So he called all of us in a panic, and we rushed back, thinking the worst."

"Is she alright?" He sounds a bit calmer, and when I tell him she is, I hear a relieved sigh on his end of the line.

"Thank God. So what's that got to do with Summer?"

"I really don't want to tell you," I say with a grimace. Oh God. He’s going to kill me. Slowly and painfully.

“But I can't help you if you don't tell me,” he points out, and I freeze.

"You want to help me?"

"That depends on what you did," he says. "Fact is, even with… whatever happened, I can't remember seeing Summer as happy as she was when you dragged her out of her room that day. And since Summer's happiness is my priority, along with Millie's, I need to know what's up."

I remain silent for a minute, weighing my chances. Fuck. If I want any chance of making this right, he’s the best ally to have.

"I think I need to preface this by saying that hurting her was never my intention."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I can almosthearhim roll his eyes. “Spare me the lecture and explain."

"Well, we kind of, you know…" I clear my throat. "…spent the night together."

"That's what I figured," he says.

"She was very clear that if we did that, she would want more." The realization of how much I fucked up sinks deeper into my bones with each word that leaves my mouth. "And… And I left in the middle of the night and I kind of didn't message her for more than a day," I admit, one word fusing with the next as I try to get them out as quickly as possible. "And now I'm blocked and can’t make this right."

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