Chapter Four #2
"I'm sorry!" She wipes tears from her eyes.
"It's just…this is so classically you. Remember that time you mistook Jasper for a burglar when he flew home from overseas to surprise you?
You tried to jump on his back with a pillowcase to try to smother him to death, but you missed and landed on the coffee table. "
Unfortunately, I do remember that. I have the scars from the nine stitches it took to sew me up to ensure I remember that shitshow. Jasper still has me listed in his phone as Anti-Theft Device. He thinks he's hilarious.
"It was screaming for help," I mutter defensively, refusing to dwell on all the shit I've done over the years that landed me in this exact position.
Frankly, there's a lot of it, and I do not want to consider what that says about me or my life choices.
"And it's not like I was in the same room with the bird.
It was screaming from next door. The sound was muffled and distant. It sounded like a woman!"
Sarah's lips twitch again before she manages to compose herself. "What are you going to do now?"
"There are only two options," I say, sighing heavily. "Either I move to Europe and change my name, or I apologize."
"You are not moving to Europe, Olive."
"I could. I even picked out a new name."
"Oh, this will be good," Sarah mutters, propping a hip on the counter. "Let's hear it."
"Alyvia Sandoval."
"You know the most frightening part?" She stares at me for a long moment before grabbing a coffee mug to pour herself a cup. "You're actually serious."
"I called the cops on a bird. The entire police department now knows my name. My hot neighbor thinks I'm a lunatic. Half the town will know about this by the end of the week. Come next week, I'm going to be the girl who called bird!"
"It's not that serious."
"They could have shot him." My bottom lip quivers.
I thought about that endlessly last night.
A lot could have gone wrong because of me.
I sent the police to his house, where there were obvious screams. Had anyone panicked, had he been too sleepy to process the situation, had he looked like a danger, or not heard a command…
there are so many reasons things could have ended badly.
All because I called 9-1-1 and told them he had someone tied up in his basement.
I'm officially the crazy Karen in our neighborhood. I've replaced Letty.
"Hey." Sarah wraps her arm around my waist, resting her head against mine.
"You did the right thing, Olive. It's funny in retrospect because it was just a bird, but if I'd heard someone screaming for help, I would have made the call, too.
Any reasonable person would have. That's not something you just ignore, even if you do like the guy. "
"I feel like a jerk," I mutter.
"You feel like a jerk because you like him," she says. "You've been spiraling and connecting all these dots to paint your own picture because it's easier than admitting the truth. That's kind of what you do, you know."
"Is not," I mutter.
"Yeah, it is. You panic-spiral and come up with reasons not to do the thing you want to do, even when the reasons aren't logical. That's precisely why you haven't gone on a single date in two years. You're scared to put yourself out there again."
"Fine, maybe I do that a little bit. But I'm not the only one with issues here," I say pointedly.
"I don't have issues."
"Oh, really? So we're just going to keep pretending that you didn't go out with my brother?"
She jerks, sloshing coffee across her hand. "Shit!" she cries, flinging it off before turning wide, panicked eyes on me. "I…I…"
"I know," I say quietly.
"You don't," she whispers, her face falling.
"I do."
"You really, really don't. I…we…" She huffs, turning pink. "My date was a jerk, Olive! Jasper rescued me, and then things just…happened."
"What?"
"My date was a jerk."
"What are you talking about? Jasper was your date."
"What?" She gapes at me.
"You were supposed to be meeting him."
"I was?"
"Yeah. I knew you would never make a move, so I made a fake profile and lied to you to get you to meet up with him, and I'm not even sorry about it," I say. "You like each other, and he's not overseas any longer. It was beyond time for this to happen."
"It was him?"
"Yep."
Her face drains of color. "Oh, no," she whispers, dismayed. "I think…I messed up."
"What? How?"
"I need to go!" she cries, plunking her mug down on the island. "I need to go right now."
"What? Why?"
"I'll explain later! Watch the store until Lilah gets here!" she cries, already rushing for the door.
I just stare after her, confused as hell. What the hell happened between her and Jasper? And who the hell did she meet on her blind date if not him? I have so many questions.
I guess I'll have to wait for answers because she's already gone, the bell chiming behind her. And I'm stuck here when I should be packing my entire house to move to Europe.
Mason probably hates me right now. Honestly, who could blame him?
"I'm such an idiot," I groan.