Page 70 of The Young & the Sinner

Olivia

Mason livedin one of those high-rise apartments a little bit further into downtown than I had ever been before.

He said he was a lawyer, and I was thinking he picked a damn good profession to be in, because even if I didn’t know the market value of any one of these apartments, I knew they were something I could never afford in this lifetime.

He instructed me to the parking garage, parking spot 223, reserved specifically for his guests. It was easy enough to find. I liked that there was an elevator entry into the building. I didn’t want other people to witness how lost I felt just by being here.

There was something about the atmosphere of this place, and the people around, that intimidated the hell out of me. Putting the car in park, I turned off the headlights and engine, but I didn’t get out of the car.

This was it.

I was finally seeing Mason.

When he first answered his phone, I was rendered speechless. I was so shocked that he actually picked up that I didn’t say anything until he repeated my name for the third time. And then my heart beat so fast against my chest, I swore I almost passed out.

I told him about my car… or at least, I thought I had. Honestly, I can’t even remember how the conversation went, not with all the blood rushing to my ears. And when we hung up, Mason had texted me his home address and I drove all the way here, not knowing what to expect but excited about the prospect of seeing him again—the two whole weeks he’d been absent felt like an eternity.

I missed him, I realized. Missed his sturdy presence. Missed the way he looked at me, like he couldn’t quite figure me out, but wanted to. Missed those intense blue eyes doing funny things to my belly, and missed the easy friendship we were developing.

And I really, really missed that kiss.

I didn’t know a kiss could be so addicting, but I could see that with Mason, developing an addiction was inevitable.

Taking a deep breath, I got out of the car and pulled out my phone. Mason gave me the access code to his floor. The elevator wasn’t hard to figure out, and as soon as it moved upward, my heart plummeted to the ground. I grabbed onto the railing to steady myself, but I was still riddled with nerves.

I had never done anything like this before.

I shook my head and laughed aloud. Of course I had never done anything like this before. There was just something about doing this that was as terrifying as it was exhilarating. Mostly because I didn’t know how Mason would react.

Had he only let me come here to tell me to forget about the kiss and forget about him?

I didn’t know, and I didn’t know what I would do if that was the case. Go along with it? Pretend that it never happened and that, even after two weeks, I was still dumbfounded? That would be asking for the impossible.

The elevator door opened to an empty hallway. I passed seven doors before I found Mason’s, apartment 5226. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and licked my lips. I still couldn’t put makeup on, and I wondered if I looked too pale without any coloring on my face.

Would Mason take one look at me decide I wasn’t worth the effort?

I raised my fist and knocked three times.

One long, dreadful minute passed before the door was unlocked and clicked open. There was Mason, standing at the threshold of the door, looking like he just stepped out of the cover of a magazine with his dark fitted jeans, bare feet, and a navy-blue t-shirt that hugged his muscles in all the right places. He looked like I how I remembered him, and yet so different as well.

But there was still the same unruly dark hair that always made me want to run my fingers through it, the same intense blue eyes, the same smile… but something about his expression was off. A little more guarded, perhaps, mixed with something else I couldn’t identify.

“Can I come in?” I asked softly.

He hesitated for a quick moment before moving aside to let me through.

The sun must have set during the time I was in elevator, because when I looked out the floor-to-ceiling window, twilight was hitting, and I could see the long line of headlights below, coming from two directions. Rush-hour traffic was just beginning.

“You didn’t work today?” I asked. He was dressed pretty casually for a Monday, all things considered.

“Yeah. I came home early,” he answered gruffly. I could see his reflection in the window, watching me. I didn’t turn around.

“Oh.”

“What are we doing, Olivia?” And I couldn’t tell how he was feeling by the tone of his voice. He said “we” like whatever happened next would be decided together. I knew what I wanted to happen, but I didn’t know how to word it without coming off as forward.

“You’ve been ignoring me,” I said instead.

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