Page 108 of The Casualty of Us
“Yeah.” I set my glass down with a frown and reach for the bottle of water I brought along as well. “Give me five, and I’ll be right there.”
“You good?” Her hand goes to my arm with the question, and she gives it a squeeze, making me nod quickly.
“Yeah, yeah.” I lift the water bottle. “Just need to rehydrate, and I’ll be out in five.”
“Okay,” she singsongs, squinting at me tipsily before turning around to head for the door. “I’m sending Graham in to get you if not.”
“Got it.” I give her a two-finger salute as she slides out of the door, but a frown is pulling at my lips the second it closes. That unsettled sense returning, making me take another sip of water,trying to wash it down before turning to squint at myself in the mirror again. Lips pursing and eyes running over my features.
Wondering if he’s been tracing anyone else’s.
A quick knock comes on the door before it cracks a slit, music from the party pouring in as Talan calls out, “You good?”
“Yeah.” I nod at myself in the mirror, the frown on my face sinking deeper and pulling my brows down with a scowl that makes me angry. “Hey, do you still have my phone?”
“You mean the one you threw at me before doing an illegal keg stand earlier?” he tosses back with clear annoyance. “Yeah, I do.”
I spin around on my heel, ignoring the way the world tilts and marching over to him as steadily as possible. “Give it.”
“Never thought I’d miss running.”
His dramatics half tempt me to roll my eyes, but I’m too focused now—just knowing this is the right call and not doubting that. His hand appears a second later with my phone in it, and I grab it quickly, not even bothering to close the door since the nosy shit would probably just press his ear against it.
I go to my messages and click on our thread, immediately pressing the call button and lifting the phone to my ear. Tapping my foot in annoyance as a couple of seconds tick by before it starts to ring—once, twice, thr—
“O?”
His little croak has me going still for a second before recovering. “Oh, well, look who it is,” I drag out, caught somewhere halfway between pissed the fuck off at him for not being here and pissed at myself for wanting him here. “So nice of you to answer, Flynn.”
“What the fuck?” he mutters, voice all low and raspy for some reason. “Ophelia, what time is it there?”
“I don’t know.” I scowl, annoyance spiking because of that now too. “And don’t try to distract me, Dimples, no more of your sneaky-sneak shenanigans shit.”
“Wha—” A puff of air explodes across the phone that sounds suspiciously like laughter. “Freckles, are you drunk?”
“That’s none of your business,” I snap, taking a deep breath as the door opens a bit more. “I just wanted to let you know that there’s no hard feelings if things have changed.”
“What?”
“You don’t need to worry about some hellscape-level revenge or something,” I sigh, brows falling because it’s true, and that sucks. “I have bigger fish to fry.”
Sucks. Sucks. Sucks.
“Ophelia.” His voice loses some of its rasp even as it drops deeper. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Huh. That certainly got my body’s attention.
“It’s been five minutes!”
Lisette’s voice in the distance has me grabbing the door and pulling it open to see Talan standing there wide-eyed before I call past him, “Two seconds!”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Oh.” I frown at the random question and his inability to stay on topic. “Lisette, we’re playing beer pong.”
A choked kind of noise comes through the phone before he shoots back, “You’re with Lisette Conners?”
“I’m sorry,” I snort. “Did you forget the English language while you’ve been frolicking through Europe?”
