“Olly, I need to talk to you.”
“Not now.” Amelia has no idea how close I am to losing it.
“Please. It’s urgent.”
“I said, not now, Amelia.” Of all the days to do this, why today?
As I make my way to the house, she grabs my arm. “Michael, seriously.”
I turn, ready to tell her off, when I catch a glimpse of her red eyes. Christ. I don’t have time for this. Santos will absolutely leave my ass behind if I’m not back on campus when the bus departs for the airport.
“I just have one question for you,” she says, her words slurring slightly.
Taking a deep breath as I try to be patient, I nod. “And what’s that?”
“Just… I’ve been wondering why you could never forgive me. How you could forgive Maggie for that ad, but you couldn’t forgive me for that thing with Ben. And, well, for the bottle I threw at you.”
I think back to last fall. To that night Amelia and I argued and broke up. Ben had given me a heads-up that Amelia told his ex Janelle that he was pretending to date Sienna to get Janelle off his back. I was upset Amelia had involved herself in a situation that was none of her business, and it caused a lot of friction on all fronts for my teammate. It came out at such a bad time that it nearly ruined his relationship with Sienna.
After seeing how callous Amelia was about the whole situation, I broke up with her, and in retaliation, she chucked a bottle of booze at my head and had that billboard done.
That night it really hit me—how wrong I was to involve myself in Maggie and Luke’s relationship back in the day. What had I been thinking?
But then my thoughts snag on what she said about my girlfriend.
“What’s there to forgive Maggie for?” I ask, confused.
She rolls her eyes. “For Heavenly Hunks. For the billboards. For the one that you yelled at me for last year and the new one that just went up. Even though I explained I had nothing to do with it.”
That’s not entirely true. “When I first asked you about it, you said I deserved it. From that, I deduced that you had some hand in the matter. Wasn’t the photographer, Gerald, one of your ‘dearest friends?’ If that piece of shit was your friend, could you not have directed him to do this? Why are you backtracking now?”
“I said those things because I was hurt, Olly. I thought you deserved it for being such a prick about Ben and his stupid girlfriend. But that didn’t mean I was involved with the billboard.”
“Whatever, Amelia.”
I turn to go, and she grabs me again. “What about Magnolia? Why aren’t you pissed at her?”
I don’t give a shit about trying to make peace with Amelia, but why is she trying to drag my girlfriend into this? “You have no shame. Stop trying to fuck up my relationship.”
Her eyes soften, and her voice drops to a whisper. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Oh, shit.” She blows out a breath. “Now you’re going to blame me for this too.”
“Swear to God, Amelia, you’re talking in circles. Spit it out already.”
She stills, and in the silence that ensues, I realize this is going to be bad.
The accusation she lobs shatters my last shred of composure. “Maggie did those ads. The billboards. Ask her. And if you need proof, check her phone. It’s in her portfolio.”
64
MAGGIE
I’m dead to the world, snoozing on the couch in the living room, drooling on myself, when the front door bangs open. I jump, nearly knocking my laptop to the ground. My heart is racing when I turn to see Olly standing in the entryway.
“Jesus, you scared me.” I place my hand on my chest as I laugh. It’s a relief to see him. I knew he’d come home before his trip. I wipe the sleep from my eyes. “I was worried I wouldn’t see you before your flight. Your gym bag is upstairs by the bed, and I think it’s all packed. Is everything okay?”
