Chapter 5 #2
Morgan looked me up and down coyly, a smile playing on her features. “Well, those are his clothes, right?” She was grating on my nerves. “You mean to tell me he let you change into his clothes and you didn’t learn anything about him? He obviously told you he was a Montgomery.”
“Yeah, right after I offered him an intern position with Dad, and he realized I was a Caplan.”
“You did what?”
“Don’t ‘you did what’ me. You should’ve told me where I was. Luckily for us, he’s…” My sister stared at me as I paused thoughtfully to find the right word. Something told me I shouldn’t tell Morgan that Kain offered to help me protect Dad. So I simply said, “He’s a good person.”
I let that be the last thing I said to her, inching closer to the bathroom that connected both of our bedrooms. I could tell Morgan had at least a dozen more questions for me, but she was smart enough to realize she was one of the last people I felt like talking to.
As I passed through the bathroom and into my own room, I was comforted by the familiarity of my own bed.
No more than a minute passed before I was staring at the newly saved number in my phone. To my embarrassment, I’d already memorized all ten numbers. He had a Tallahassee area code, and seeing this only served to remind me that he wasn’t here to stay. I found my mind wandering to trivial things.
I wondered if he had a girlfriend in Tallahassee.
Waking up to see him sleeping at his desk—that was exactly the kind of thing a guy with a serious girlfriend would do.
Not that I wasn’t grateful that he didn’t take the liberty to take a spot beside me in bed.
However, it only raised more questions I didn’t have answers to.
Although I was shy, I was not insecure about my looks by any means.
I knew I was pretty. Though, perhaps my confidence wasn’t one hundred percent self-made.
Growing up with an identical twin sister like Morgan, in a lot of ways, boosted my self-esteem.
After years of hearing how gorgeous Morgan was, I decided that since we shared all the same features, I must’ve at least been pretty. I wondered if Kain found me attractive.
Guys who look like Kain don’t stay single for long.
It was very likely he was taken. I found myself thinking about what kind of girl he would be into.
I pushed my face into my pillow, the image of a chic, stylish beauty appearing in my mind.
I flinched once the image of the woman I was picturing morphed into my sister.
She was the very definition of chic and stylish.
I was pretty convinced Morgan would be his type, honestly.
Morgan was everyone’s type.
Perhaps that was why I wanted to say as little about Kain to her as possible.
If she for one second decided she wanted him, I knew she could have him.
That was the type of girl my sister was.
Morgan even had the advantage of being friends with his older sister.
Kain and Morgan even had a couple of things in common, I thought disappointedly.
They were both pre-law, they both thought I was na?ve, and both were unfairly attractive…
I knew it was stupid of me to think of my identical twin sister as prettier than me, but she just… was. Morgan had an aura that genetics couldn’t cultivate. She walked with an air of confidence that I could only hope to gain a fraction of someday. It made her stand taller. It made her prettier.
The shirt I was wearing smelled like him a little, and in the privacy of my room, I brought the fabric closer to my nose and breathed in.
The scent reminded me of the way Kain’s closet smelled, a subtle hint of men’s fragrance.
I smiled to myself a little, fingering through my phone curiously until I realized I’d pulled up the photo of Kain that his sister had posted on social media yesterday.
I might’ve stared at it for an hour, looking away from time to time to think about things he’d said and the way he’d said them.
Reliving those moments over and over, my stomach was fluttering repeatedly until my eyelids began to grow heavy with exhaustion.
I fell asleep to the sound of rain hitting the window from outside, Kain on my mind.
***
He didn’t call.
I hadn’t realized how much I wanted him to call until the sun had begun to dip low into the Sunday evening sky.
With the stars came the realization that the day was over and that Kain wasn’t going to call.
He hadn’t even checked to see if I’d arrived home in one piece yesterday.
Of course I knew I wasn’t entitled to his concern, but I don’t know… I expected a call, at least.
“Okay, angular jaw,” Lux cheered as she looked at the only picture of Kain I had. Yes, I’d saved the Instagram post. “Mm, and arms. I see you,” she said to the photo as if it’d hear her praise. She finally looked up after shaking her head for a good minute. All she could say was, “Girl!”
I broke into a smile. “I know!”
Luxana “Lux” Petit has been my best friend since third grade when she moved into the house across the street from us.
When she first came, Morgan had taken one look at Lux and decided she wanted to be her friend.
And they were friends for about a week. That is…
until Lux met me. We hit it off immediately.
With the same likes and dislikes, pretty soon the things we had in common had us finishing each other’s sentences and talking with looks alone.
It was the first time in my life that a kid had ever chosen me over my sister. We’d been inseparable ever since.
“If you don’t call him, I will!” Lux promised over the sounds of the TV in my living room.
I chuckled at her pushiness. “I wouldn’t even know what to say to him, honestly.”
“How about, ‘Hey, sexy. So when can I drop off your clothes I borrowed?’”
“Chiiiill.” Lux snorted as she laughed. Despite her blunt language, I knew that outside the confines of our friendship, she was just as shy as I was. “Also how embarrassing would it be if I made a move and he has a girlfriend?”
She rolled her eyes. “As if you’d make a move even if he didn’t.”
I shrugged. She knew me well.
“I say if he doesn’t say anything to you by Wednesday, you call him up Thursday. And if you’re not going to throw yourself at him, at least throw him my way.”
“He’s a Montgomery.” Deep down I knew that stopped meaning something to me literally hours after I’d found out.
Honestly, I was only bringing it up now because I thought it might discourage some of Lux’s attraction.
Her parents were highly respectable people in the highest echelon of elite black society in Miami.
They would just die if Lux was even friends with Kain. As would mine.
Lux shrugged. “He can be whatever he wants looking like that, Lori.” As if she read my mind, she quickly added, “But you saw him first. There will be other fine-ass men to thirst after, I’m sure.”
“Do you think he’d even be into me?” I mumbled.
“Oh, come on, you’re adorable.”
“Adorable,” I muttered, not liking the compliment. “I mean, he did practically call me a child.”
“He’s a year older than you.”
“That’s what I said!”
Lux smiled, shaking her head before saying, “If everything you told me about that night happened as you said it did…”
“I told you everything.” This was true. I kept no secrets from my best friend. I’d even told her about Victor, swearing to myself that it would be the official last time I speak about it.
“If you told me everything,” Lux gave me one of her mischievous smiles, “I can guarantee you he’s thinking about you right now. And I bet he will call you tomorrow.”