Page 47 of Can't Take My Eyes Off You

I shake my head. Part of the problem is that the flowers aren’t from Alex. The card is always signed with a heart only, no name. I started getting them a few months ago and at first, Alex claimed they were from him. But when they kept coming and he was surprised each time, I figured out he isn’t a flower kind of guy. But I know a man who is, and I haven’t talked to him since our blow-up at the Halloween party.

‘The flowers aren’t from Alex. I’ve got a secret admirer,’ I lie, glancing around the full vases of droopy, dead flowers, drying out a little more each day. They match my heart and are a visual reminder of what love really feels like. A slow, painful, ugly death of your once-pretty soul.

‘It’s no secret…’ Bryce laughs.

‘If you’re not sad about Alex, why are you crying buckets?’ Bianca asks, gathering up all the used tissues and carrying them to the kitchen, where she gets a fresh trash bag out and dumps them all in, now wandering my apartment, throwing things away.

‘Can’t a girl just have a good cry? I’ve been watching a sad show,’ I lie.

‘Might it have anything to do with Portland Royalty?’ Bryce asks, grabbing my remote, hitting play at an unfortunate moment where Will’s getting out of the pool. ‘Iknewthat was one of his old sweatshirts hanging off your shoulders.’

I grimace. ‘This doesn’t look innocent, I see that now, but in my defense, when I miss him, his voice is comforting. Currently, I’m in distress after my break-up and I needed comfort. So sue me.’

‘And his near nakedness?’ he asks with a smirk.

‘Also, somehow comforting?’

‘Whyare you watching this? You’re tormenting yourself! Come on,’ Bianca says, leading me away from the TV towards my bathroom. ‘You need to take a shower; I’ll clean.’

‘He posted a TikTok earlier,’ I say to her, glancing over at Bryce. ‘He says he’s doing something important and going away…’

I flash my phone with the video Bryce’s way. I’ve only watched it five hundred times. He’s a reality star for a reason. I can’t look away. He’s got this bewitchery that just sucks you in. It’s what I imagine the apple in the Garden of Eden was like. Tempting, beautiful, shiny and enticing you in all the right ways even though you’d been warned it would for sure fuck up your life. I mean, I just pushed replay without even trying. Apple-in-the-Garden-of-Eden dangerous is what Will is.

‘So?’ Bryce asks, clearing a spot on my coffee table for his pizza box, pulling out a slice. ‘He’s doing what he needs to do.’

I pause the video. ‘What he needs to do? I can only imagine. Answer me this, what is on his left forearm?’ I stare at the video, unable to make it out.

‘Tattoo,’ Bryce says.

‘He got another tattoo? If those are the words “Prince Willy”, I will fucking die.’

‘It doesn’t say “Prince Willy”,’ Bryce says, his tone hinting he’s tired of me after being here only five minutes.

At the end of the video, Will points to his heart, then to the camera. A silent message I know well. ‘I’ll see ya soon, baby,’ he says, exiting the screen and leaving a cryptic message I’m afraid to decode.

My eyes move to the watch and like counts. Over a million already, and he just posted it an hour ago. The comments are all women telling him they love him. I sigh.

‘Where is he going?’ I ask Bianca, hoping she’ll pity me, unlike her stubborn boyfriend.

‘He wants to surprise you,’ she says.

I roll my eyes. ‘With what? A heart attack? He’s intentionally enticing me with his stupid pretty face as he speaks in code and now you’re going to honor the best friend and boyfriend secrecy rules?’

‘Yep,’ Bryce says with a nod, relaxing into my couch,Royalsstill playing on the screen in front of him. ‘Hey, I’m in this episode. Damn, I look good,’ he says smugly.

‘Whatever he’s doing, I’m sure it’s too little too late. I don’t doubt he’s signed a brand new contract for something. Did he and Danika break up and he’s on his way to being the next Bachelor? Ugh. You guys. He needs celebrity rehab, you realize this, right?’

I drop onto the vintage chair in the corner of the room, pulling the hood of Will’s hoodie over my head as I do. This thing still somehow smells like him. I tuck my face into the neck and breathe him in.

‘I bet every woman watching that video who’s ever met him now thinks it’s for them,’ I say, my voice muffled by the fabric covering my nose and mouth. I pull my knees to my chest, pulling his sweatshirt over them too. Will’s hoodie now completely wraps me in a hug. A Will-less, loveless hug.

‘They do not,’ Bianca says, squirting grapefruit-scented cleaner onto my island bar top.

‘How do we know that message was for me at all? It’s probably for his fans.’

‘He only calls one person “baby”, and you know that. You’re acting unhinged, woman,’ Bryce says between bites.

‘What does he want me to do? Wait years more for him to pull his head out of his ass? Am I waiting for him to retire? If he needs to tell me something, why doesn’t he just call me like a normal human being?’

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