Page 70 of Official

XANDER

My heart races more and more the longer I stare at the text.

Teddy: We need to talk

Fuck. He knows, doesn’t he? He must’ve heard Sam and me talking at their dad’s party last night, and Teddy has spent every minute since then devising a plan to completely destroy me.

I sit up in my chair, the pool in front of me dark through my sunglasses. My black sliders sting my feet when I put them on and stand, but I barely notice it.

What else could Teddy want to talk about? Did he say something at the birthday party, and I forgot? That could very well be the case since I was rather distracted, and not just by the house of comedic horrors.

Middle-aged men wearing knee-high socks.

The same crowd using the wordbosomsmore frequently than is socially acceptable.

And there was Teddy’s mom’s older friend from her card group. Elaine undid a button on her shirt each time she came to ask if I wanted a drink.

I think she went home with Uncle Hubert at the end of the night.

My phone vibrates as I pace by the pool, the late-afternoon sun beating down on my bare back as if to make it clear that I can’t run or hide any longer.

Teddy: Are you home

Second text without punctuation. He always uses a question mark where appropriate. He might miss a period here and there, but never a question mark.

“Christ,” I mumble to the empty back yard.

My mom is still filming in Paris, and my stepdad went shopping for cars with one of his friends, who’s in the market for a Camaro convertible and needed my stepdad’s keen eye for expensive automobiles.

This is as good a place as any to talk to Teddy.

We have privacy, and he can kill me on the spot, if he so chooses. I wouldn’t stop it.

I’d deserve it, given how I let things spiral out of control with his sister.

She looked so fucking good last night, her cheeks full of color from our trip, which was torture. It reminded me of all the times she was on top of me while we were away.

How warm and soft she felt.

Confident and untamed as she lost herself in the moment with me.

After the party last night, I convinced myself that what we had was real, especially when she said she’d come clean. I thought it was a turning point. I believed it meant I was more important to her than any damage control or public opinion.

And I really fucking need to be important to Sam.

But “first thing in the morning” as she promised has come and gone without a new announcement, so what am I supposed to think now?

Teddy: I know you’re getting these, so just fucking answer me

I bite out a curse and quickly type for him to come over, then go back inside for a new drink.

Let’s get this over with.

* * *

“Thanks for letting me come to the party last night. It was, um… interesting,” I offer, following Teddy toward the pool chairs where I was just sitting.

He hasn’t said a damn word. We walked all the way from the front door, through the foyer and expansive kitchen, and past the large portraits lining the walls and eccentric fur rugs that are always statement pieces, but Teddy stayed silent the entire damn time.

---