32. Eleanora
eleanora
. . .
I t takes seconds for reality to set in. I can accept that I lied to him about my name, but everything else, no. I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve never been so confused in my life about everything that’s happened, and I’m so hurt by Quinn’s words. I look at Sofia, her smug face laughing at me, and then to her mom, who is so out to lunch she doesn’t realize that we’re the only ones in the room. I do though, and rush out the door, yelling after Quinn.
Zeke calls my name, but I ignore him and head out the front door. I have no idea how Quinn got here, I never asked him. We were taking my car back to his place tonight after a drive around to look at the stars. The streets are empty, which doesn’t seem possible for Sunset Blvd, but they are. I look left and then right, and back to my left and nothing. No sign of Quinn.
Back inside, I head to the dressing room and push the door open. I march up to Sofia with my finger pointed at her and spit out, “You!”
“What about me?”
“What have you done and why? Why, Sofia?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Well, why don’t you fill me in because I have no idea what’s going on and my life literally imploded in this room.”
She looks at her nails as if I’m boring her. “For years I listened to how perfect your life is, how everything was so great. The entire time, you’ve had Roy, but always acted interested in my brother and I hated it. He’s my brother, not yours.”
I hold my hands up. “First off, you sound like you have some incestuous relationship with Quinn, and I know for a fact he’s never met you, so this crush you’re harboring is gross. Second, I loved you like a sister. I thought of you as one, up until I came to see you. When I came here, I was excited to look for your brother because that meant I’d have someone in common with my best friend. There was no hidden agenda. And third, let me remind you, you told me that Quinn wasn’t your brother. I was really confused, but now I know why.”
“Doubt it.”
“No, you see, you tried to throw me off because you were afraid I’d say something about you and your weirdo mother to him.”
Sofia looks behind her where her mother is pacing the floor and talking to herself. It looks like she’s having a full-blown conversation with the air, complete with hand gestures.
“My mom isn’t weird.”
“Really? That’s all you have to say? What about the lies you just told Quinn? I have been nothing but nice to you and you completely railroaded me, making me look like I’m a stalker, like I sought him out and purposely pursued him. None of those things happened, Sofia, but that’s what he thinks right now.”
“Well, I told you I didn’t want you near my brother.”
“That’s not your decision. Quinn’s a grown man.”
“His name’s Charles. Charlie for short,” Alicia says, interrupting us. I look at her and then Sofia.
“Is she even home upstairs, Sofia? Like seriously.”
Sofia looks at her mom. “She just gets confused sometimes.”
“And what about you? Do you always set out to destroy your friends’ lives? Because that’s what you’ve done here, Sofia. You’ve hurt people who didn’t deserve it.”
She laughs. “Clearly by the things my brother said to you, you’ve been doing plenty of lying. Isn’t that right, Nola ? Tell me, does he even know about Roy or should I pay him a visit?”
Shaking my head, I step away from her and rest my hand on the doorknob. “You should go back to Arizona, back to your strange house and with your bizarre mom. It’s my mistake for thinking we were friends. I wish I had never met you.”
Her voice stops me before I can exit the room. “But then you wouldn’t know my brother, so I guess you don’t regret it that much, do you?”
There isn’t anything left to say. I go to the employee lounge, punch out, and grab my things. I’m done here, and I’m never coming back. Zeke can keep my paycheck for all that I care.
I leave the Bean Song with no fanfare. No one pays attention as I walk by. Outside, my tears fall. I shouldn’t drive, but I need to find Quinn. I must explain myself, so he knows Sofia’s lying to him. Surely, he would believe me over her, even though I haven’t been completely honest either.
What have I done? I’ve lied to the only man I’ve ever been madly in love with. I don’t care if it’s been days or weeks, the connection I have with Quinn runs deep within me. The love I feel, it’s not a fling or something I’m using to pass the time, it’s all-encompassing. It’s heartbreaking and earth-shattering. It’s what I need to breathe.
The tears become too much, and I pull over to try and calm down. My phone rings deep from inside my bag. “Quinn,” I say aloud, except when I look at the screen, it’s Susannah. As much as I don’t want to talk to her, I need to hear a familiar voice.
“Hello,” I cry out into the microphone.
“Darling, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, Sus, I messed up so bad.” I fill her in on what I know, which isn’t much because a lot of it doesn’t make sense. What I do know is that Sofia is evil and she’s the mastermind behind some odd plot to make things worse for me.
“I’m in love with him, Susannah. He’s everything and so much more, and I’ve lost him, and I don’t even know how or why.”
“Sweetie, you need to talk to him and explain your side. I’m sure that once you tell him your side of the story and show him your messages with Sofia, he’ll understand.”
“I deleted her messages. I was so angry with her after I went to see her, I erased every part of her from my life. I have no proof that I didn’t know who he was and never thought I would need it because she told me he isn’t her brother. I was so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Eleanora. You made a mistake.”
“Changing my name and forgetting to tell the man that I’m in love with that I was engaged, and my former fiancé still thinking we are engaged isn’t a mistake. It’s a flat-out omission of the truth. I haven’t told Quinn much about my life. He knows I have a brother, a sister, and parents. That’s it. I kept everything bottled up.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I’ve thought about telling him, but never found the right moment.” I stop and laugh, but it comes out more like a cackle. “Rhett’s here. He’s come to take me back and Quinn saw the text message and assumed Rhett was here to help me move. I told Quinn I needed to tell him something, I was going to come clean about everything and then all hell broke loose.”
“And you’ve been made out to be the bad guy.”
“I am the bad guy, but not in the way he thinks. I have to talk to him, Susannah. I have to tell him everything.”
“He probably needs some time, sweetie. You should wait until the morning. It sounds like the both of you need to cool down and take a minute.”
“I’m afraid that if I wait, it’ll be too late. My daddy always says you have to strike while the iron’s hot.”
“Well, I guess he’s right.”
I close my eyes and set my head back against the seat rest. We talk until she has to go. I wish I could say I feel better after speaking with her, but I don’t. She thinks it’s best that I don’t go to Quinn’s, but I’m not so sure. I don’t want him to spend the rest of the night thinking I’ve been lying to him about Sofia.
The drive to his house is done in a blur. I believe I ran a few red lights, almost ran someone over and missed a curb or two, but I’m at his complex and I’m climbing the steps. His door looms in front of me, and my feet grow heavy. Each step is more painful than the last. I knock. It’s quiet at first, but louder the longer the seconds tick by.
“Quinn, open up. We need to talk. Please, Quinn.” My knocking turns to banging, and finally the door opens. His sister is here, and I don’t know what’s worse, facing her or him right now.
“Elle—”
“It’s Peyton.”
“Oh, the nice one.” As soon as she tilts her head to the side I know I’ve made a mistake. Right now, I should be on the ground, kissing her feet, begging for her to let me in so I can speak to Quinn. “I’m sorry, that was incredibly rude of me.”
“Listen, when it comes to my family, I’m as wicked as the next person. My brother, he doesn’t want to see you. In fact…” She pauses and bends down to pick something up. She hands me a bag, full of my clothes. “I believe these are yours. He says you don’t have a key, so I don’t need to ask for that back. I suggest you run along back to the Tuckers because you’re not wanted here.”
“Wait, please?”
She sighs, clearly not in the mood to listen to me. Not that I blame her. “Please tell Quinn that I love him. All I lied about was my name and who I was, not because I was hiding anything from him, it was because I was hiding from myself. I can’t explain Sofia and Alicia, other than I went to school with Sofia and we were roommates and best friends. She talked about him all the time.”
“So, you knew who he was?” Peyton crosses her arms over her chest. “You knew who my entire family was and pretended like you didn’t.”
“Yes and no.”
“It can’t be both.”
“Yes, I know, but Sofia?—”
“What is she doing here?”
I turn at the sound of Elle’s voice. The ire in her features is scary. I step back, fearful that she might lash out at me. She stalks toward me until I’m pinned against the wall, her gaze boring holes into my eyes. “I’m only going to tell you once, get the hell out of here. Don’t you ever call my brother again and don’t even think about showing up here. You’ve done so much damage, you have no idea. You have no clue what you’ve done, bringing that wretched woman into his life. I want you gone. I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again. And for the love of all things holy, you better hope you’re not pregnant because I’ll make damn sure my brother takes that baby from you. You’re not any better than the whore that gave him up. Now get out!”
I do as she says and rush down the stairs. I fall when I get to the bottom and swear I can hear them snicker. I don’t look back though and scramble to pick my belongings up and get to my car. As much as I’d love to think that Quinn’s coming after me, I know he’s not.
As I start to pull out of the complex, I look back, one last time, hoping to see him in the window. “I love you,” I say to the air.