21. Lucas
21
LUCAS
I shake off the crazy woman’s arm as if it’s made of stinging nettles and quickly step away from her.
A murmur runs through the crowd.
“You’re who?” I demand.
Brooke has taken several steps back, and she’s glaring at me. Why is she glaring at me? She should be directing her wrath at the crazy lady.
The woman looks at me in puzzlement. “Is this some kind of a joke, sweetie? Um, I’m your fiancée? Your bride to be? I’m Pri-Annelise.”
“Jasper, is this true?” Brooke bites out each word.
I shake my head at the woman. I made up that stupid name, and Brooke knows it because she called me out on it, and I’ve never seen this woman before in my life. “That’s impossible. You don’t exist.”
She lets out a giggle, which tinkles musically. “Well, you’ve certainly been making me feel that way! It’s so hard to get ahold of you. I know how important this project is to you, but sweetie, when you go on your trips we usually talk all the time, and I haven’t been able to get through to you the last few days, and I just worry.”
“You spoke to her days ago?” Brooke’s eyes burn laser-holes right through me.
My gaze drops. “Not exactly.”
“And those little afternoon visits here and there really aren’t enough. A few hours with you is certainly fun, but I need more of you.” She pets my arm. I shake her hand off.
“She visited you here?” Brooke demands. “Did she?”
“Oh, come on. You thought he was spending all those afternoons with me?” Dorian scoffs.
Brooke’s eyes widen in shock and betrayal. Rage surges through me. I am going to murder that man.
Would I go to prison for it in this world?
Almost definitely.
“Here’s a picture of us together, if you don’t believe me,” the blonde bombshell says. She pulls her cell phone from her purse and holds it up for Brooke. “I took the picture a week ago.”
I am struggling to speak. My throat swells up as I try to get words out. Brooke shakes her head in disbelief and storms off. My feet feel as if they’re frozen to the sidewalk. I should run after her. I should stop her. Why can’t I move?
She makes it half a block before I regain the power of speech and yell, “Wait! Susie! Brooke! Let me explain!”
She vanishes around the corner. My legs still feel frozen.
“What the hell?” I shout at Serena. “Why couldn’t I talk to her? Why can’t I run after her?”
“I assume because it wouldn’t suit the story for you to explain it to her just yet.”
“Damn it!” I snarl. “Screw the story! This isn’t a game; this is our lives!” This morning I woke up with Brooke in my arms, and now, thanks to this crazed blonde, she thinks I’m a lying, cheating pig .
“What story? Those city folk,” Ruby shakes her head. “I swear, it must be something in the air that scrambles their brains.”
“All that pollution,” Edna suggests. Several people around her nod knowingly. Everyone’s staring at us, some taking pictures with their phones, others whispering among themselves.
I’ve just made myself a villain in a whole new way.
My feet start working again, and I start to jog after Brooke, but Pri-whatever grabs my arm, plants her feet in the ground, and is holding on to me with a surprisingly strong grip.
I know that I caused part of the problem here.
The fact is, I have been getting weird phone calls from a woman, whose voice I now recognize as belonging to this crazy lady, but I assumed they were prank calls. And the extent of my conversations with her was me telling her to quit calling me and go harass someone else.
I should have told Brooke, and we could have both laughed about it. For some reason, every time I considered telling her, I just didn’t. When she asked me who was calling, I somehow decided to brush it off and change the subject, even though I knew that wasn’t the best idea. Maybe this is this universe’s way of, yet again, making sure that I follow a specific storyline.
Pri-Annelise, or whoever this woman is, hasn’t visited me here, though, even if she did call me. I’m sure of that.
Dorian’s standing back about a dozen feet, which is smart, because if he was within arm’s reach, I’d pulverize him. And now I have no idea where Brooke is; she could be anywhere in town by now.
If only I could explain myself to her, we’d have cleared up this understanding in five seconds.
“This is a stupid, convenient plot device, and the miscommunication trope is overused!” I rage at Serena, trying to yank my arm from my alleged fiancée’s grasp .
Serena gives me a suspicious look. “What do you know about convenient plot devices and miscommunication tropes?”
“I’ve been to the library a few times, since I’ve had a ton of free time on my hands and apparently my entire life is now at the mercy of story structure.”
Serena heaves a sigh and lowers her voice, leaning in to speak to me. “It isn’t the way I would have written things, but you two are running off and doing your own thing, and you quite obviously don’t know how to play your roles here, so I think that this reality is doing what it needs to do to move the story along. Like the earthquake. The one that only you two felt.”
“Who’s your friend?” Pri-Annelise says brightly, and she grabs my arm again possessively. “What are you two talking about, sweetie? Introduce us.”
“Stop talking to me as if you know me.” I rip my arm from her grasp. “You need to go back to wherever you came from. Where is your limo now, anyway?”
“Oh, I told them to just drop me off. They’ll be headed back home.” She smiles.
“Can you call them back?” I say evenly. I know she’ll have a reason why she can’t, but I have to keep trying.
She smiles sweetly. “I don’t think so. My phone’s been acting a little funny.”
“Of course it has.” I heave a sigh and press my thumbs to my forehead. She reaches out and tries to put her hand on my arm, and I step away from her. “Don’t touch me,” I snap.
“My goodness. I know you’re under a lot of stress, but there’s no need to be like that.” She blinks back tears.
Panic is swelling up inside me.
Brooke seriously believes that I was having nooners with this woman. I may be a lot of things, but I am not a cheating asshole .
“Why did you decide to come to town and make a big display of yourself in front of everyone?” I demand of her.
She flashes me a huge smile. “Well, honey, I just missed you so much.”
“Why now?” I turn to Dorian. “You told her to come here, didn’t you?”
“Well, he did warn me that you were starting up one of your dalliances with a local girl, and you were taking it more seriously than usual,” she sniffs.
“What?” “How dare he!” There are gasps of outrage from the crowd.
Wow. As if everyone here didn’t hate me enough.
“Sir, I could see that Susie was just manipulating you to get you to abandon the project that has meant so much to you personally, and in which you invested so much time and money,” Dorian says with an oily, ingratiating smile. “And I knew that if anyone could get you to see reason, it would be Pri-Annelise.”
Damn it, I wish I had come up with a less ridiculous fake name when I tried to convince Brooke that I might possibly be dating someone. What was wrong with Heather, or Mary, or anything but Pri-Annelise?
“Dorian,” I say loudly. “You are fired. You hear that, everyone? He’s fired. He is lying. I am not engaged to this woman, and Dorian does not work for me anymore.”
Dorian throws his head back and laughs uproariously. “Sir, you have the most wonderful sense of humor!”
A reporter has emerged from the Gazette building and is eagerly snapping pictures. Every single person on the sidewalk except for Serena is glaring at me. She’s just watching me with interest, waiting to see what I do next.
I throw up my hands in despair and spin on my heels, jogging away from the crowd. “Brooke!” I yell. “Brooke!”