Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 130(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
“Gustavo Duarte is ridiculously hot and so is the football player you met at the grocery store. Where I shop on the regular and have never met anyone who’s caught my eye.” She let out a low whistle. “You really do have all of the luck, to have not one but two hot and famous men panting after you. Maybe I should dye my hair pink. Do you think it’ll improve my odds with the guys too? Or maybe purple would look better on me.”
“Meredith,” I snapped, knowing how she got when she was on a roll. “Stop talking about your hair color and tell me what the heck you heard about Gustavo and me and where you saw it.”
“I know it isn’t one hundred percent true since you were there as a seat filler, but the story about you being his mysterious date to the International Emmys is literally everywhere, Cleo,” she explained. “The paps haven’t identified you yet, but they’re saying he has excellent taste in women since you’re hotter and younger than his last girlfriend.”
“Holy crap,” I whispered, my hand shaking as I ran over to my desk and flipped open my laptop. After typing Gustavo’s name into the search engine, a ton of results came up…and the ones at the top all included a picture of me. It must have been taken when he came back to the table after receiving his award. I had leaned forward to congratulate him again on the win, and he said something silly about me being his good luck charm. Then he’d surprised me by kissing my cheek.
I didn’t think Gustavo had meant anything by it since the kiss had been the barest of touches against my cheek. But the photo was a snapshot at the worst time because it didn’t look innocent, especially when taken in conjunction with the stories that had been circling about who Gustavo was bringing to the event.
Then I remembered the screens behind the stage and how the cameras had panned toward us several times during the evening. I hadn’t been paying attention to them, but it would make sense to focus on Gustavo’s group as they returned to the table. And if they had…Rigby probably saw that meaningless kiss and assumed the same thing everyone else had. “Oh, no. No, no, no,” I cried.
“I know you don’t like to be in front of the camera, but don’t freak out. Even though you’re into set design, this is still a good thing for your career. People will be curious about you, which will help when you’re trying to land a summer internship when the time comes.”
“You don’t understand. Nothing happened with Gustavo, and I’m not even the tiniest bit interested in him. But Rigby was there, and when I bumped into him after the award ceremony, he acted as though he couldn’t stand the sight of me. What if he saw the same thing last night and thinks that I’m the kind of girl who’d cheat on her boyfriend…with him?”
“Ohhh.” There was a long pause before she added, “Yeah, I hate to tell you this, but that doesn’t bode well for you on the romantic front.”
I buried my face in my hands and mumbled, “It really doesn’t. I don’t even have his phone number since I gave him mine.”
“Crap.”
“Yeah,” I sniffled.
There was some tapping on her end of the line while I threw myself a little pity party. “Okay, I just looked up the Nighthawks on social media, and it looks like they’re at the stadium for practice right now. You should head over and see if you can catch him when he leaves.”
I lifted my head, my eyes going wide. “Just sit around like a stalker until he comes out?”
“Yup, a girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do,” she quipped. “Plus, fans do stuff like this all the time, so it’s not as though you waiting for him will be creepy. And if you want the guy to ever talk to you again, you’ll have to find him so you can explain he’s got the situation with Gustavo all wrong.”
I got to my feet with a nod. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Girl, there’s no probably about it. I know I’m right,” she insisted. “Now go get your man.”
Grateful that I hadn’t missed a class yet, I quickly emailed my professor to let him know I wouldn’t be there today. The syllabus allowed for three absences over the semester before it impacted my grade, so at least I didn’t have to worry about tanking my grade point average as I rushed over to the stadium.
I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to talk to Rigby since I couldn’t just stroll past security to get to him, but I couldn’t think of any other way when I didn’t have his phone number and had no idea where he lived except that it was somewhere in the vicinity of Meredith’s apartment. My only other option was hoping I’d bump into him again when I visited her, but that was even more of a long shot than hanging out at the stadium when he left after practice.