Page 31 of Shy Girl
The question wasn't meant to be a jab. At least, not a conscious one. But the darkening of her eyes told me that's exactly how she took it. Still, I couldn’t help but feel for her. I had been on the losing end of Jayson Hernandez my whole life. Wanting what one couldn’t have was the worst kind of torture, particularly when he was involved. The man could be so clueless sometimes.
Victoria laughed mirthlessly, one arm crossed across her middle to hold the other. “Yes, I imagine that is how he paraphrased what I said, although it's not at all what was intended. I would never hurt him.”
Her tone became breathless. She blinked several times and cleared her throat. When she tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, it shifted back out in the breeze, but she didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she seemed a million miles away.
“If he wants to make what we had smaller than it was,” she added quickly and with a pained expression, “then let him. I’ve endured worse; I imagine I can take that as well. We all deal with grief and loss in our own ways. But you deserve the truth, at least. I’ll sleep better at night if you’ve had the warning.”
A haunted expression crossed her face. She frowned, lips pouted, the picture of grief in her beautiful feminine state. Even my mind, so loyal to a man that barely knew I existed, began to wonder.
Did Jayson tell me the truth?
What details didn’t I have? At this point, I just needed to leave. Warning or not, I didn't need to hear it.
“Th-thank you for introducing yourself,” I said. “I hope you enjoy the wedding and this b-beautiful n-night.”
She pulled her eyebrows up. “You don't want to hear it?”
“N-no, thank you.”
She blinked several times. Her mouth opened, closed, then opened again when she said, “Very well. Have a good night. Tell Jayson I would . . . I'd love to see him.”
She trailed off, and I didn’t doubt what she said. Nor could I entirely disregard what she'd revealed. Almost a decade of reverential-like worship, and Jayson had only just realized I existed. Only an idiotwouldn’tsee my adoration for him.
An idiot named Jayson Hernandez.
With the party a few steps away and Jayson surely looking for me now, I didn’t fear Victoria yet. What would she do, smack me with her shoe? But the edge of something in her eyes was unsettling, and I had a feeling I could only see a minuscule part of whatever she harbored in that quick, manipulative mind.
“G-good night.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but her gaze caught on something over my shoulder. I felt someone standing back there, but didn’t dare turn around. Victoria’s upper lip curled slightly, then she issued an almost-warm smile to whoever stood back there.
“The conquering hero returns,” she murmured.
“Back to your hole, snake,” muttered a deep voice behind me.
Victoria sent a cold glare back there, looked at me with a quick nod of farewell, then filtered back to the circle of light. I spun around to find a towering man a few steps away. He wore flip flops, a pack high on one shoulder, and an old gray t-shirt that flapped in the wind. Tousled, sandy hair gave way to bright blue eyes and a golden beard that shimmered in the low light. He stood in the shadows like a hulking god, and the slightest hint of smoke curled off him.
“Hello B-bastian,” I whispered.
“Dagny.”
He studied me for a moment and I wondered if he remembered me. He must have, because didn’t he just use my name? Of all the Merry Idiots, Bastian had always been the quietest. The thinker. It had been Bastian holed up in the closet of the library the day I was able to see the whole C-tape. He knew where the old VHS was stored and showed the movie to a few friends when I stumbled onto them. I’d intentionally kept quiet, deterred a librarian, and he’d later thanked me for not ratting them out.
But would he remember that quiet girl who volunteered in the library? Or did he just know me as the girl who made his coffee?
He motioned to the circle of lights with a nod. “Jay’s looking for you. Go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Y-you think sh-she’d hurt me?”
“Never turn your back on Victoria Haynes.”
With that unnerving thought, I glanced back into the light where the dinner party continued. Victoria lingered near the edge of the light, but kept her back to us. The strange thought that she hadn’t asked if Jayson and I were dating filtered through my mind. She’d clearly made an assumption—a fair one—about our relationship status.
Everything had changed now that I’d met her.
I could change with it.
Victoria’s attempt to turn me against Jayson by telling me whatever lie she had only made me want to lace my shoes on tighter. There was no one else more prepared to act madly in love with Jayson Hernandez than me because it wouldn’t be an act. Despite her calm veneer, I sensed that Victoria still had her eye on Jayson.
