Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Aiden: I can wear a Halloween mask.
Hailee: Only if you show up as the clown from IT. Otherwise, I’ll drive myself to the meeting location. I’ll see you in a little bit.
Color her shocked when I showed up at her apartment at 4:40pm wearing an IT clown mask.
When Hailee opened her door, she burst out laughing. “Are you kidding me? Why are you like this?”
“I just wanted to be able to pick you up for our non-more-date.”
“I was joking about the mask.”
“Well, subtext and sarcasm are very hard to read via text messages. So…” I bowed and held my hand out toward her. “Shall we?”
She smacked my hand away and chuckled. “Let’s get a move on before people think I’m screwing a random clown.”
“You look remarkable tonight, Hails.”
She narrowed her eyes. “It’s oddly creepy hearing a clown tell me I look good.”
“Want to hear a clown joke?”
“I might regret this, but yes.”
“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Boo.”
“Boo who?”
“Bootiful you.”
She rolled her eyes so hard, and that fact alone made me laugh. She pushed past me and said, “Were you always this cheesy, or is this a new Hollywood development?”
“You might as well call me gouda ’cuz I’m gonna be so gouda for you.”
She gave me a blank stare. “It’s almost painful how much I hate you right now.”
“By hate, do you mean love?”
Her eyes studied me for a moment. Her lips slightly parted, but no words came at first. Then she slugged me in the arm. “Come on, loser. I’m hungry.”
I walked her to my car and opened the door for her. She slipped in, buckled up, and I closed the door before heading around to the driver’s side. I climbed in, and we took off. After we were driving for a while, I was given permission to take off the IT mask. My hair was ruined and sweaty, and I probably looked like an idiot, yet it was worth it when I saw Hailee looking over at me with a goofy grin.
“Do you know that you’re ridiculous?” she asked.
“One hundred percent.”
We drove a little farther and pulled up to an open field. The sun was setting overhead and looking out toward the field was a picnic spread I’d set up for the two of us.
“You made us a picnic?” she asked, somewhat surprised.
“I figured we could eat and talk and then lay down and count the stars.”
“Damn you, Aiden.” She shook her head. “You’re good.”
I hopped out of the car and hurried over to open her door for her. I then went to my trunk and grabbed a picnic basket, chilled champagne, and a few more blankets because I remembered Hailee always got cold.
We sat down and made ourselves comfortable as we began to catch up on the past five years. She told me about some of her worst days and about some of her best. I hated that I wasn’t there for both sets of stories. Then she asked about me. About my career. About my major success.
She told me she was proud of me, and that just about did me in. Still, a part of me over the past five years felt empty.
“Your past five years have seemed much easier and more enjoyable than my past five years,” she joked as she tossed a grape into her mouth.
“It’s not always easy, you know. Life,” I told her as I filled up another glass of champagne for her.
She huffed. “Yeah. It must be hard being famous and handsome, and having the world woo over you.”
I snickered at her sarcasm. “I’m serious. I get in my head a lot. Almost always. To the point when I don’t even know how to be myself anymore.”
“What do you do when you lose track of yourself?”
“That’s easy.” I sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of her. “I pick up a new script and become someone else. It’s not only for when I’m working either. It’s every day. I act as if I’m someone else. Someone people would want to be around, someone people would want to know because—the real me—is a lot sadder than some people would care to be around. People like happy people. People feel uncomfortable around the sad ones.”
Hailee frowned. “Aiden?”
“Yes?”
“That’s really sad.”
“Life can be sad sometimes.”
“But most people wouldn’t know it if they were around you, huh?”
I laughed. “I guess not.”
“Are you acting right now? With me?”
“No. All shields are down right now.”
She looked down at the glass of champagne in her hands and bit her bottom lip. I was fascinated by every small movement Hailee made. The way her teeth tugged on her bottom lip made me consider tugging on it, too.
“Tell me something hard for you right now,” she said, snuggling up in the blankets.
“Well”—I scratched the bridge of my nose—“the other day, my mom gave me a letter from my biological mother.”