Rainey lay wide-awake in bed the next morning. Across the room, she could hear Karen's soft, slow breathing and she knew that she was asleep. For someone who changed guys as much as some people changed their socks, Karen never had a sleepless night.
Not that Rainey was bitter, okay, maybe she was a little bitter, but why did Karen get to have so many no-strings-attached relationships—with her pick of guys—while the first guy that had ever showed interest in Rainey, and sparked her own interest, was completely...untouchable?
Life really could be unfair sometimes. Even when she'd spent all of yesterday morning, nearly five hours, at Aidan's apartment trying to sort out the mess he'd made of his files, half of her concentration had been spent reminding herself that she and Aidan just wouldn't work.
It was still incredibly strange to think that the guy she'd watched so quietly all of those weeks at the office was interested in her, and he *was* interested. After seeing the way he'd looked at her, the way he'd touched her, she couldn't deny that anymore.
On a heavy sigh, she turned on her side, the bedsprings groaning faintly in the dimly lit room. As much as she wanted Aidan and wanted to let herself just see what would happen between them, being that outgoing wasn't part of her nature. She was a worrier, supremely paranoid, a subscriber to the school of Murphy's Law: whatever could go wrong would go wrong.
So, better to keep the whole situation professional, right? Better to stop thinking about the way his blue eyes seemed to bore into her flesh, right?
"Right," she whispered aloud, burrowing her hands beneath her pillow.
If only she'd gone somewhere for spring break then this whole debacle wouldn't have happened; Lyn wouldn't have been able to force her into spending so much time with Aidan and she could have just forgotten about Saturday night. But, while a lot of people from school had gone to Cancun or Tia Juana for the 10-day break, Rainey hadn't been particularly interested in spending a week and a half with a bunch of drunken semi-acquaintances.
Her parents would have paid for any trip she wanted to take—"within reason," as her dad had said—but she didn't really have that many friends among the people who'd gone. Add to that the fact that, in her whole life she'd barely had half a dozen drinks, and a spring break spent binge drinking sounded far from appealing.
Karen's parents, on the other hand, were continuously trying to rein their free-spirited daughter in. Instead of giving her a spring break trip, they'd told her that if she "performed well" in classes, they'd send her and her 16-year-old sister to Paris for two weeks over summer.
In Rainey's estimation, it was a brilliant plan to keep Karen focused during the school year and relatively out of trouble during summer break because she'd have her sister to look after her in Paris and besides that, her parents obviously knew that there was nothing their daughter loved more than shopping.
Or a good party, Rainey added mentally, punching an ever-present lump out of her pillow.
Guiltily, she remembered that she'd yet to tell Karen that Aidan's friend, Jean, had invited them to the grand opening party for his club. As much as she liked to tell herself that it had just slipped her mind, she knew that it was because she really didn't want to go. It would just be one more occasion to find herself in the same room with Aidan.
Aidan. Why couldn't she escape him? His presence had taken over her work life and now, outside of that, when she was supposed to be safe from him, she'd made obligations to see him *and* his charming French friend.
Even in her melancholy mood, the irony was blatant. She made a decision to avoid him at all costs and, in the space of two days, she agreed to attend a party hosted by his best friend and she had to work with him for hours on end.
God, most definitely, is a comedian, she decided on another heavy sigh.
The sound was drowned out by an upbeat beeping noise that grew progressively louder as seconds ticked by.
Karen shifted restlessly in her bed as the sound filled the entire room: Beep-beep-BEEP-beep-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
"Shit," Karen's hoarse voice overshadowed the noise for a moment. Still half-asleep, she fumbled blindly on her nightstand until she found the culprit: her cell phone's alarm clock. Flipping it open, she stabbed violently at a button until the alarm shut off then rolled to her back with a loud yawn.
"Sorry if I woke you up, Rainey," she mumbled, "I just keep forgetting to turn that thing off."
Rainey glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. 7:50am. Had she slept at all?
"Don't worry about it." The clearness of Rainey's voice was proof that she'd been awake way before the alarm went off.
"Can't sleep, huh?" Karen guessed. "I keep having dreams about pure white beaches in Mexico. Damn, Seattle. I'm probably missing out on the perfect tan right now."
'If only my problem were that simple,' Rainey thought morosely, but she didn't say anything. At her silence, Karen sat up in bed. In the darkness, Rainey could see the waves of her long black hair fall around her shoulders—she looked like a model with artistically tousled hair in the midst of a shampoo commercial.
"Are you okay," Karen asked, and Rainey almost laughed aloud at the understatement of the question.
"Sure, I'm just thinking too much I guess. I work too hard—"
"You're lying," Karen accused gently. "I'm pretty much awake now, so you may as well tell me what's wrong."
The silence that followed the statement was like a void beckoning Rainey to throw herself in. She could just open up and tell Karen what was bothering her except...except she didn't really know what it was. All she knew was that she was scared of something nameless and lurking.
Something she could feel festering inside her chest, something that stirred to life whenever she found herself near Aidan.
But, how could she say that to Karen without confusing her or worrying her? How could she say that to anyone without letting on that she was the worst sort of coward, someone afraid to look inside herself for answers? She couldn't, and that was part of the problem.
Instead, she took a page from Karen's parents' book and tried to distract her. "Remember that guy, Aidan, that you met at the club?"
"Of course," Karen exclaimed. "How could anyone with eyes forget that face?"
*Good question...*
"Well, um, I kind of met his friend that night and, you're not going to believe this...he owns the club."
A full five seconds of silence followed that statement and Rainey almost thought Karen hadn't heard her, then the taller girl launched herself across the room and onto Rainey's bed with such speed that they were both laughing hysterically for minutes.
