Page 17 of One Lovely Lie

“Excuse me?” I bark, clutching the phone angrily. “What the fuck do you mean I’m not going to Harvard?”

“You watch that fucking mouth with me!” he yells back. “We’re opening another branch of Black Pharmaceuticals in Germany come the next year, and I need you there to oversee the operation.”

I gulp nervously, hating that I’m letting myself feel even an ounce of anxiety while speaking to this man. “I don’t want to go to Germany.”

“Does it sound like I give a shit what you want? You want your trust fund? You’ll go to Germany as soon as you graduate.”

This isn’t happening.

No, like it literally isn’t happening.

I’ll find some way to get out of this. Dad, while an asshole, isn’t completely heartless. I don’t bother fighting with him because I know I can change his mind. There’s no point in worrying about this now.

So, we exchange a few morepleasantriesand say our goodbyes, but I’m still seething from the call. I’m so fucking frustrated that my dad is making all these fucking plans for me that I don’t want. I don’t fucking want to live in Germany. I want to go to Harvard with Daniel as we’ve always planned.

Michael’s not allowed to change the plan just because he feels like it. I want my trust fund, so I’ll play along for now, but this isn’t the last conversation we’ll have on this topic.

That’s something to worry about another day.

All I know is that I need to see Daniel more than ever now. I practically march down to Monroe Hall, still fucking furious by the time I get there, but when the door opens and I see Daniel, it all goes away.

Fuck, he looks so gorgeous right now. All sleep-rumpled with some goo in the corner of his eyes and a little dried drool on his lip.

“Hey, what’s up?” Daniel asks, rubbing his eyes, and I realize that it’s one in the morning. Fuck, I woke him up.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” I apologize, realizing that I should have checked the time before coming here. “I can just leave.”

“You’ll leave?” he chuckles, yawning as he moves to the side. “Since when do you leave me alone?”

“I thought you may have been avoiding me after the whole kiss thing,” I admit, but based on the way he’s acting, I guess it was all in my head.

His eyes widen, sleep suddenly lost on him, and he smiles sheepishly. “Well, no. I was just busy, you know? Is something wrong, Mag?”

No, nothing’s wrong when I’m with you.

Well, shit. Yeah, there’s something wrong, but suddenly, I don’t want to talk about Germany anymore. I don’t want to discuss my father and bring his poison into anything involving Daniel and me.

I look around the room and frown. “Where’s Avery?”

“He’s gardening.”

“He’s what?”

“Gardening,” Daniel repeats, rolling his eyes as he plops down on his bed. “Honestly, I’m kind of worried about him. Who the fuck decides to garden at one in the morning?”

“I’m sure he’s okay,” I say, not really convinced myself. “But we’ll check up on him later, yeah?”

“Yeah, sure,” he agrees.

In the silence that follows, I feel comfortable. I’ve never felt anything but comfortable around Daniel. Germany is a faraway notion and my father is trapped behind a layer of nightmares.

“So, let’s talk about that kiss.”

A pretty pink flush covers Daniel’s cheeks as he shakes his head. “Let’s not.”

“Oh, come on. It couldn’t have been that bad,” I tease because God knows it was fucking incredible for me. “I really feel like things have been awkward between us, and I don’t want that. We should talk it out.”

“You never want to talk shit out,” he comments with a suspicious narrowing of his eyes.

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