Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
It was a different situation when I knocked on Grant’s door. “Come on in,” he said, a bit subdued. Where was his trademark smirk?
He sat down on the large leather sofa in the seating area, his back against the arm and his long legs stretched out sideways on the cushions. Then he picked up a heavy book he’d evidently been reading.
Was Grant actually studying? I wasn’t even sure if he was taking any classes this summer. “Um, will it bother you if I vacuum in the bedroom?”
“Knock yourself out.”
I wondered about his change in attitude as I carried the cleaning supplies to his bedroom. But as I vacuumed, I couldn’t quite pin down what his actual mood was. He’d seemed so happy for Theo when we were downstairs, but maybe that was just an act? Could he actually be jealous?
He stayed on the sofa the whole time I was there. No jokes. No teasing. No innuendo. Was I in the right suite?
Since he was still out in the living room, I left the vacuum in the bedroom and carried the bucket of cleaning supplies into his bathroom. I cleaned quickly, my mind hopping from topic to topic. There was a lot to think about. The housing application. My erotic experience last night. Theo’s big win. Grant’s change in demeanor.
As I was scrubbing the sink, I had to grin when I realized that not once had I thought about my class today. That was a first.
I was wiping the mirror with a microfiber cloth when I heard voices.
Cautiously, I peeked through the slit in the almost closed door, in case it was Bennett. But it wasn’t, it was Theo.
My first impulse was to go out there and congratulate him again, but something made me hesitate.
“Tell me,” Theo demanded to Grant.
“I don’t know.” Grant sounded tired and almost a little defeated. Had I ever heard him like that before?
“Yes, you do. You’re a goddamn Forsythe, you must know something.”
I’d certainly never heard Theo speak like that before. The anger in his voice worried me.
“Talk to Bennett,” Grant said.
“I’m asking you. You know, the guy who’s supposed to be my best friend?”
Wait, I thought Ian was his best friend. But all three were close, closer than I’d realized when I first moved in and usually only saw Grant with Bennett.
Movement caught my eye, and I realized I could see Grant reflected in the mirror by the door. He was sitting on the sofa facing forward this time, his shoulders slumped.
“Just tell me.” Theo said, quieter this time.
Grant sighed and pushed himself to his feet. “Okay. I made a call to my dad, after Bennett said that during the toast. I swear to god, Theo, I didn’t know.”
Know what?
Theo sank down into an armchair like a deflating balloon. His elbows rested on his thighs as he put his head in his hands. “This is the last thing I wanted.”
Grant walked over and put his large hand on Theo’s shoulder. “I know.”
For the life of me, I couldn’t recall what Bennett had said during the toast that had sounded suspicious to Theo and Grant. But… there had been those three bottles of champagne, already cold and in the refrigerator when Theo got the news. Did they always keep champagne in there? I honestly couldn’t remember.
“Fuck,” Theo muttered, but all the fire seemed to have gone out of him.
With surprising gentleness, Grant knelt down, practically folding his huge body in half to be eye-level with his friend. “You would’ve won anyway.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do,” Grant insisted. “And so do you”
Finally, Theo looked up. His eyes were wet. “No, I don’t. I don’t know that—and now I never will.”
He let his head drop back in his hands and Grant shook his head, looking helpless. Then he glanced toward the door, catching my eye through the mirror. We exchanged a look, and at that moment, we were on the same page. He knew as well as I did how much Theo had wanted to win this contest as a way to prove to himself that he wasn’t someone who had to rely on family connections. And then it turned out that it was the friends of family connections he should’ve been worried about.
This sucked, and my heart ached for Theo.
After that, Theo was like a ghost when he was in the house. He’d obviously told Ian, and the two of them could often be seen talking quietly in the front room. Only around Bennett did Theo make an effort to seem normal, and I realized that he didn’t want Bennett to know that someone, presumably his senator father, had pulled some strings to rig the contest.
But Ian, Grant, and I knew, and we all did as much as we could to support our friend.
But there wasn’t much. He began staying out of the house more and I didn’t know what he was doing. Studying in the library? Drowning his sorrows in a bar? Forgetting his troubles in the arms of some lucky woman?