Page 411 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Look at you with all your insider Hollywood knowledge,” Lucy says.
“Hey, pull that video back up again,” I say, motioning toward her phone. “Is there an article with it? Does it say anything about who he was with that night?”
She pulls it back up. “There was an article. Hold on.” She scrolls through it, angling the phone so I can also see. “He was with Claire McKinsey, it looks like,” she says. “But other people too. Wait. Here’s a photo of all of them leaving.” She hands me the phone. “Do you know these people? That’s Joni, right?”
I study the picture closely. It’s blurry, but I’m sure I see Joni just behind Flint. And Claire is there too, along with Kenji, her manager, who I remember from the UCLA panel, and one other woman I don’t recognize. “ThatisJoni. And this guy is his agent, Kenji. That’s Rita, Claire’s manager. I’m guessing this other woman is the new publicist Flint just hired.”
Either way, I feel a tiny pulse of satisfaction knowing Flint wasn’t out with Claire alone, no matter what stupid Ed Cooper said.
“Is that weird?” Lucy asks. She wraps an arm around me. “To get information about his whereabouts from the internet?”
“The photographer who showed up at my lab actually said something to me about it—about Flint being out with Claire. He was just taunting me, trying to get me to react, so I didn’t really believe him. But yeah. It’s still weird.”
Lucy is quiet for a long moment. “I never thought about how much trust you have to have. There will probably always be people saying crap about him. I guess you have to get good at filtering it out.”
“Flint says it gets easier over time.”
“Yeah, probably. But still. It’s so easy to focus on the fairy tale part. I guess there’s a lot more to it.”
I take a deep breath. “Yeah.”
She turns her face to look at me. “You still haven’t talked to him?”
I shake my head no. It’s only been four days since we last talked, but it feels more like an eternity.
“How are you feeling?”
I tug my blanket up to my chin, snuggling a little deeper into my covers. “I miss him, Lu.”
“Because you love him?”
I press my lips together. So far, the only person I’ve admitted my feelings to isme.But at this point, the idea of keeping secrets is much too exhausting. If Iamin love, I don’t want to pretend like I’m not.
Lucy can clearly read my emotions because her eyes widen. “Oh my gosh. Youdolove him.” She sits up. “I can see it on your face.”
I lift my hands and press them to my cheeks. “It’s crazy. I don’t even know how it happened.”
“Oh, honey, I knowexactlyhow it happened.” She scrambles off the bed and yanks down my blankets.
“Lucy! What are you doing?” I reach for my comforter, but she tugs it completely off the bed, then grabs my hands, pulling until I’m on my feet beside her.
“That was really rude and awful,” I say, my voice still sleepy.
“I don’t care. You’re in love, and that means we need to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what? I only admitted I lovehim. I have no idea how he feels about me.”
She props her hands on her hips. “Woman, did youwatchthe footage from the premiere? He looks at you like heworshipsyou.” She moves to the bedroom door and heads down the hallway. “Come on. I’m making you breakfast.”
I pick up my comforter and quickly make my bed. I hate leaving it unmade, but also, I need a minute to process. In the video Lucy showed me, Flint said his feelings were real—but that’s not a surprise. He told me the same thing. But the joy that shot through my veins when I heard him say it so plainly—I wasn’t expecting that.
I drop onto the corner of my bed.
I’ve been so worried, so confused the past couple of days. But is there really anything confusing about it? If I love him, why would I chose not to be with him?
Lucy is mixing pancake batter when I make it to the kitchen. She nudges a container of strawberries across the counter. “Here. Want to cut these for me?”
I fish a knife out of the drawer. “Do you and Summer even keepanyfood downstairs?”
