Page 39 of I Don't Need Your Protection
I make her shake her head.
“You see?” I say. “You must have my elephant mixed up with another.”
He gets up from the chair and walks over to me. Before I have a chance to react, he plucks Ellie out of my hands and puts her mouth to his ear. “Hmm,” he says with a nod. “Uh huh…Yes, I totally agree…”
“Excuse me…”
“Ellie says she made an exception for me because she understands that I have your best interest in mind. So please stop being stubborn and go to sleep.”
“I’mnotstubborn.”
He raises his brow at the elephant.
“Give her back.” I snatch her out of his hands and fall down on my bed. “Happy now, Mr. Big Muscles?”
“Yes.” He settles back down on the chair.
I turn to my side and snuggle up with Ellie. I don’t know why, but there’s a weird feeling in my stomach. Maybe because I got a glimpse of a playful side to Caleb? He’s always so serious and all business-like. The few times I teased him or tried to have fun, he always shut me down.
But he clearly does have a fun side. He just chooses not to show it. It makes me wonder if he wants to desperately share that part of himself with another person. Or does he prefer to be an emotionless protector?
I guess it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, I’m just an assignment to him. True, I thought I might have seen some care or sympathy in his eyes earlier, but maybe that’s part of the job. After all, a hysterical client will just make his job harder.
Chapter Thirteen
Addie
“What does one wear to a party thrown by rich kids?” Carly asks on Friday evening as she shoves aside clothing after clothing in my closet.
“Were you guys never invited to a party before?” I ask.
Sophie, who’s once again lying on her stomach reading a book, lifts her shoulders. “We never befriended any of the rich kids here, so we never got invited anywhere.”
“And now I’m so excited that we can finally go to one!” Carly says. She pulls out a pretty white shirt and holds it over Raven, who stands next to her with an unsure look on her face. “Ooh, this will look really cute on you.”
“You sure going to a party is a good idea?” she asks, twisting her nose. “They can get pretty wild and out of hand.”
“We’ll have each other,” I assure her. “And Warner will be there.”
A thrill passes through me at the prospect of hanging out with him tonight. Even though I’ve been to high school parties before with my friends, I’ve never hung out with a guy.
Sophie lifts her head from her book and throws me a huge smile. “I can’t believe he personally invited you to the party. Oh my gosh, can you imagine if you become boyfriend and girlfriend? Your life will be a billionaire romance trope!”
Carly, Raven, and I laugh. Okay, once again we’re totally jumping the gun, but I let my mind wander and imagine what my life would be like if Sophie’s dream came true. I was so against being rich and having my life change forever, but why doesn’t it sound so bad if Warner would become my boyfriend? He’s super rich, and I would have to deal with the BS that comes with living the wealthy lifestyle (assuming his parents even accept me), but I don’t hate the idea. Maybe because right now, I’m still living like my old self? Having a rich boyfriend is different from actually living like a rich person. I’m still me. But when it’s time to leave my fantasy and brace my new reality…
“Addie?” Raven asks.
I blink. “What? Oh, sorry. My mind is always wandering.”
“That’s okay. What outfit do you want to wear?”
I join her and Carly in my closet and push aside option after option. Of course I want to look good in front of Warner, but I don’t want to go crazy. He should like me for who I am and not what I wear…right?
After debating with my friends for what feels like forever, I finally settle on a black dress that’s not too fancy, but pretty enough. Raven chooses a floral top with a black miniskirt whileCarly wears dressy pants with a gorgeous shirt. Sophie decides to go as she is, wearing a shirt with a design of one of her favorite book series and jeans.
After we put on some makeup and do our hair, we leave my room and make our way to the student parking lot, where there are rows and rows of fancy cars. Most students have more than one car here, and each one is more showy than the next. Carly leads us to the end of the lot, where less fancy-looking cars are parked.
“So welcome to the poor section of the student lot,” she says with a laugh as she unlocks her car. “Or what we like to describe, the cars that have character.”
