Page 30 of Changed By You
Alice
“Hey,wake up. It’s seven forty. Are you sick or something?”
I push the covers aside, sitting up and giving Farrah a puzzled look. What’s she doing in my room?
“I told you in the text I haven’t been sleeping well and I was too tired for sunrise yoga. It’s better for you to be alone with Dalton and JP anyway.”
She uses the light on her phone to find the way from the doorway to the end of my bed, where she sits down.
“This room is tragic. Why does it smell like fish?”
“Because they store food in here sometimes.”
“It’s disgusting. There’s not even a window.”
I shake my head and run a hand over my wild hair, still groggy. “It’s fine. I sleep great in here. That’s all that matters.”
“I’m worried about you, Al. It’s the fourth morning in a row you’ve skipped yoga.”
I switch on the bedside lamp, illuminating the room in a dim glow. Then I slide out of bed and get my robe from the hook on the back of the door.
“You have a video conference call with Mateo, Jim and Madison at nine. I bumped your production meeting with Alex to ten twenty in case the conference call runs late. Filming starts at one today. The producers are going to randomly assign one-on-one dates for everyone.”
She groans. “That’s pointless. I have no chemistry with anyone but Dalton and JP.”
All my worries about my parents come rushing back at once. That’s what’s been keeping me up at night, tossing and turning as I try not to think about my dad suffering. Have I done the right thing, taking care of them financially even though it means I hardly ever get to see them? Will my dad pass away before I get to see him again?
“I have to go to the bathroom,” I tell Farrah, glad I have an excuse to escape our endless ongoing conversation about Dalton and JP.
I wouldn’t have even considered thinking about Dalton before. He’s out of my league, and I’m too overwhelmed by my family situation to seek anything with a man.
But the way he held me on the beach that day...the way my heart leaped when he told me he’d choose me to take on a date...that flip in my stomach when he said I looked sexy in my shorts...
It feels good when he looks at me. At Alice Morrow, the woman, instead of “Farrah’s assistant,” which is what I am to everyone outside of my family. But it also makes me long for something I can’t have.
Watching him and Farrah in the hot tub gutted me. I tried to avoid looking at them, but my eyes kept dragging themselves back. They kissed. And who knows? Maybe he did go up to her room that night. She probably would have told me if he did, but I still can’t help wondering.
I’ve managed to avoid Dalton like a pro. He’s a big part of why I’ve skipped morning yoga, even though I do really need the extra sleep. And when I see him coming my way at the house, I strike up a conversation with whoever is close by.
I’m just too fragile right now for the conversation I know he thinks we need to have. About how he has to show interest in the contestants. How he wishes I could be a contestant on the show, too. His high-pressure job and the demands on him to have a partner who’s also famous.
Crying in front of him once--over my family--was enough. I’m not letting him see me crumble over him not being able to date me. Logically, I get it. Agree with it, even. But I’m also a person, and I get lonely.
I use the bathroom, brushing my teeth with the toothbrush and toothpaste I keep in my robe pocket, and when I get back to my room, Farrah’s still sitting on my bed.
“How far is the bathroom?” she asks me.
“It’s at the other end of the hallway.”
“And you have to shower in there, too? In a bathroom a bunch of other people use?”
“The showers are in the other staff quarters, where the chef’s room is.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Do you think the maids here have to clean everything else plus the bathrooms they use? That would suck.”
“I’m sure they do. Just like the kitchen staff eats some of the food they cook.”
“I’d gag if I had to clean a toilet.”
