Page 62 of New Girl in Town
Chapter Twelve
After I hung up with Grant, I moved as if in a fog and crawled into my bed with the conversation playing through my mind on a loop. Why I even got into bed I didn’t know. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep, but I lay there willing it to come. Despite my best efforts I was still wide awake when the pink glow of the rising sun hit my bedroom floor.
I sighed and pushed the bed covers back with a grimace. There was no use in pretending any longer. It was Sunday. I could...do things. Be productive. Anything was better than staying in bed with the train wreck of last night running through my mind.
I padded into my kitchen and set about making coffee, and the familiar task did wonders for steadying my nerves and clearing my head for a few minutes. I bit my lip and leaned against the counter as I watched the coffeemaker percolate and fill the carafe. How had I been giddy yesterday morning over Grant? The whispers of love had only begun to sound in my mind before it had all shattered around me.
Once my coffee was ready I wandered back into the living room and booted up my laptop. I did have work emails that needed answering, and there was no time like the present, right? My resolve to get extra work done lasted all of a few minutes before I found myself searching Grant’s name. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I did it all the same. Within seconds the screen filled with images and articles. I paused, my mouse hovering over the latest article:Youngest Bradford Paints the Town Red! Lock Up Your Socialites, New York!
I bit my lip and hesitated for a beat before I clicked on the link. I wished I hadn’t. Grant was there in a full color spread showing him at the center of the group that had conducted the home invasion. My quick perusal ended with me catching a peek of a woman with her arms wrapped around him as he stood waiting for a cab. The photo caption proclaimed he was on the his way home with an unidentified lady friend. I closed out the browser and slammed my laptop shut.
I had no idea who the man on the computer screen was, but he was wearing Grant’s face and it made me sick to my stomach.
“No more internet,” I muttered, pulling my hair into a ponytail. A book, maybe? Or a movie while I cleaned up around the house? That seemed the kind of benign pastime I needed for my current predicament.
How could he have taken someone home so soon? Hadn’t he been all but confessing his feelings to me only hours before?
Was I thatreplaceable?
I sighed and wiped at my eyes. It was just the type of thinking I had worked so hard to move away from after Dylan, and here it was, rearing its ugly head again. I would not go back to square one, I would dust myself off, learn to move past this, and—
A knock at my door made me freeze. Melinda was on a hike and no one else knew my address, so who could it be?
I got up and approached the door, not trusting that I had actually heard a knock. Maybe I’d been mistaken? Another sharp rap of knuckles on my door confirmed that I hadn’t imagined it, and I stepped forward, raising myself to look through the peephole.
Grant.
My mouth dropped open and I stumbled back at seeing his familiar profile again so soon after last night. What was he doing here? Maybe he hadn’t heard me and I could escape to my bedroom, or out a window undetected. I hadn’t given much thought to seeing Grant this soon again after our blow-up. Hadn’t the gossip sites proclaimed he was living it up in New York?
“Sweetheart.” The door muffled his voice, but I winced, knowing he’d heard my clumsy misstep. I debated telling him to go away through my door, but that wouldn’t head off any future encounters. I knew I didn’t want to be involved with him, and the mature thing would be to head it off now. Let nothing linger and clear it all up.
Squaring my shoulders, I reached for the door and jerked it open. The quick move caught Grant off guard.
“Hey,” I said, tipping my head in acknowledgment.
“Aurora, baby.” He reached for me, but I took a step back. He lowered his hand and straightened up to his full height, filling the doorway with his large frame. “Can I come in?”
I opened my mouth, to tell him that anything he had to say to me could be done in the hallway, and the door across the hallway clicked open. My elderly neighbor stuck her head out with a curious look. “Grant, you’re back!” She waved to him and then waved at me. “Good morning, Aurora.”
I gave a wave back. “Morning, Mrs. Reynolds.”
“I am,” Grant said, his hands in his pockets as he stood in the hallway. “Back, I mean.”
“City didn’t suit you anymore?” she asked, and I wanted to scream. It was evident that if we stayed in the hallway it was going to be with Mrs. Reynolds as company.
He shook his head. “No, it’s not home anymore.”
“We were just going to have brunch,” I told Mrs. Reynolds with an apologetic smile. The old woman nodded at me and gave me a wave.
“I won’t keep the two of you, then. Enjoy your Sunday!”
We murmured our thanks and I retreated into my apartment, wanting to put as much space as I could manage between Grant and myself. I heard him close the door behind him, and I kept my back turned to him as I feigned refreshing my coffee in the kitchen. I took a tentative sip and turned to face him. He leaned against the counter and gazed at me like one would a cornered animal.
“What is it?” I asked him, opting not to waste any more time locked in a staring contest.
He sighed. “Last night was...bad.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
