Page 16 of The Casualty of Us
“Ugh.” I look over at them and jerk my head toward the stairs. “Up we go?”
Marley nods. “Yeah, it’ll be—”
“You’re Ophelia Fitzroy, aren’t you?”
The high voice has me turning around to see no less than three cheerleaders have come to stand behind me. A pretty redhead is at the front of the group as the other two linger behind her while stealing flirty glances Hayes’s way. Now that I think about it, he’s been getting a lot of them actually, which isn’treally surprising considering that he is, in fact, pretty, but one would think—
“Aren’t you?”
The peppy redhead’s voice pulls me back from my inner musings, and I cock my head at her. “Who’s asking?”
“I’m Lisette Conners,” she starts meaningfully. “My parents met yours at the Easter egg roll last year, and I just wanted to say how sorry I am about what happened to you.”
Control your face, Ophelia. Control your fucking face.
“Okay.” I nod. “Thanks.” I move to step back and end this decidedly awkward encounter when she moves forward suddenly, reaching for my shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“I mean, to think people can even imagine such a thing.” She starts again, dropping her hand with sympathy practically pouring off her. “Taking advantage of your poor mother. Not that she wasn’t reimbursed or something, I’m sure. Her company must have insurance for that. Or I guess the money probably came from her personal accounts.” All of this is rushed out with each sentence quicker than the last, and she glances at the two girls behind her before giving me a blinding smile. “We’re all really big fans of her products and would hate for her to ever suffer because of what happened.”
She did not just…
Calm the fuck down. Calm the fuck down. Calm—
Oh, fuck it.
“Of course.” I lift my lips, easily mimicking her smile and leaning in closer. “Because it would just be such a shame ifher companysuffered because of a kidnapping.”
Her face falls. “That’s not what I—”
“No,” I interject with a loose wave of my hand. “No, really, I completely understand. Who cares about the criminals or the victims or the millions of other people suffering in the world as long as her makeup products keep hitting the shelves, right?”
Her expression quickly sours, and I lift a brow at it while keeping my lips up.
“You don’t have to be a bitch about it,” she snaps suddenly. “I was just trying to be nice and was going to say I could show you around since it’s your first year.”
“Well, considering the day before that whole little pesky kidnapping ordeal happened, I gave my mother a presentation on how I plan to sell off my half of her company one day, complete with PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets, mind you.” I let a quiet laugh escape at the look of absolute horror on her face. “I think I can find my way, but thanks.”
I don’t wait for her to respond before spinning on my heel and making for the stairs, suddenly way more game for climbing them than before.
Marley catches up to me by the first landing with a laugh. “My gosh, Bookish.” She smirks at me. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
“She’s just lucky that my mom didn’t hear her.” I scowl, half tempted to text her that the Conners need to be removed from our Christmas card list if they’re on it.
“You’re really selling this wholeneed to be adopted by your motherthing to me.” Marley sighs deeply. “She sounds worlds better than mine.”
The distaste falls from my face at the reminder of how lucky I am, and a grin takes its place. “She’s pretty awesome.”
“I’d say count me in on this plan too.” Hayes’s voice draws my attention to where he’s trailing a couple steps behind us. “But then we’d be related, and that might get awkward.”
I shake my head at him, looking back at the stairs so that I don’t trip over my own feet. “I can’t with you, Dimples.”
“You gave me a nickname, though,” he argues back happily. “You only give nicknames to people you like.”
“Not true,” I scoff.
“Completely true.” That breath of laughter comes before the sound of his feet quickly hitting the stairs. “Plus, have you seen me, O?” He pops up at my side, glancing down to tease. “Handsome, thoughtful, moderately intelligent, and set for life. You’d really be missing out.”
“Don’t forget humble.”
