Strange Love Ch 06

"That's really noticeable." Anna gawked at my make-up covered hickey.

"Well, it's not like I'm fifteen and trying to hide it from my dad or something." I snapped. I had attempted to cover it, but Seth hadn't lied. It was so... dark, for one, large for another. If he had been a vampire I would've had some blood drawn for sure.

"I didn't tell you. Remember that really hot guy from the signing yesterday?" Anna began. We gossiped over our lunch. Myself a turkey club, her a cheeseburger. I was starved from not finishing my breakfast with Seth, and working up an appetite in the shower.

"Seth?" I giggled.

She rolled her eyes, "No. The guy that asked me to sign the book '

forever yours

' or something? He was with a girl?"

I thought back. Ah, yes. The one with the brown eyes and blond hair. He was rather good-looking, but Seth's appearance had thrown my mind away from the signing. "Yeah, kinda."

"The girl was down here at the restaurant last night. She came over and talked to me. Her name was Angie." She took a huge bite of her burger.

"You came down here alone?"

"Oh, come on. You've been feeling better about the eyes watching us, haven't you?" She stuffed a french-fry in her mouth.

"Only a little. And it's mostly because of Seth." I said honestly. Not wanting it to be true.

"Well, I was fine." She set her burger down, "As a matter-of-fact, she wants to set me up with her brother. Said he'd love me. Think she meant the blond cutie?"

I grimaced thinking about Nicholas. I couldn't tell her the truth, but at the same time, I didn't want that rift between our "boyfriends" to occur. If we both dated friends, we could spend more time together. It would be more fun, less awkward, just like the night we met the guys. "What'd you say?"

"Well, apparently they belong to this club and they're recruiting right now."

"Club?" I rolled my eyes. It always started this way. "Did you tell them you're from out of town?"

"Of course. I told them I couldn't be a part of any club. I was way too busy. And-" She dramatically spoke. "I told them no way on the brother thing. I don't want to be set up."

I sighed. I knew she was thinking about Nicholas, and what he would think if he found out about another guy. "But she was nice?"

"Yeah, we talked about my book, and the next one. She asked me what kind of books I liked to read. Things like that. She joined me for dinner. We talked for about an hour or so." She bit into her burger again. Suddenly I felt the eyes on me again. I knew talking about it would only intensify the forgotten anxiety.

I scanned the restaurant for any sign of someone watching us. Of course, there was no one.

She bit into her burger again. I picked at the turkey on my sandwich. At this rate I would lose a ton of weight before we left. "It was funny. When Angie was telling me about her brother, trying to convince me to meet him, he called and she had to go."

"Weird." I scanned the bar again. A man in the corner glanced over at me and smiled. I couldn't tell if he was the one staring but looked away quickly with him in my peripheral sight.

"Kinda. It was funny though because she said that her brother would kill her if he knew what she was doing. He must've read the book and had a crush on me? Some people idolize the writers." She smiled, "That'd be cool."

"Not really. Worshipers mean stalkers." The guy had turned away and returned to his sandwich.

"Maybe then we'd be able to see the people who were watching us." She laughed. I grimaced. My chest was tightening and it was frustrating me to not know why.

I turned to look behind me and saw a glimpse of a man rounding a corner. I could only catch the color of his hair. Dark blond, like Seth's. He was the one. I could feel my anxieties slip away when I realized that guy was the one who had been watching us. Could it have been Seth? Why would he be following me?

"Did you see that guy?"

"What guy?" Anna asked. She looked around my head but the stalker had already vanished.

"There was a guy. I think the one whose been watching us." I swiveled my head around to see if he would reappear. Of course he did not, and my anxieties began to subside.

"Shit. Should we go chase him down?"

"And leave without paying? That wouldn't be good." I sighed. I had a sudden inspiration and flipped my phone open.

The other end dialed and I waited to hear the familiar voice that exhilarated me. "Hey, Love."

"Hi. Where are you?" I tried to sound alluring.

"At work. You?"

"Seth, we need you off the phone." I heard a woman yell in the background.

"I'm sorry." I exclaimed. Stupidly I thought he was following me only to discover I was getting him in trouble.

"No, I wanted to call you later, but I'm not sure when I'll get in. I wanted to ask you... How do you feel about going to Church with me tomorrow?" He sounded as if he was jogging back to the set.

Church? That caught me off guard. He went to church? I just assumed with all his promiscuous sex... "I'd love to."

"Great. I'll pick you up around 7:30." I could hear the smile on the other end.

"Great. See you then." I flipped my phone shut.

Anna's eyebrows were raised. "Going somewhere?"

"Church. Tomorrow." I set the phone down and plowed into my club.

"Church?" She asked, obviously just as intrigued as I was.

"Yeah. He asked me to go to church with him in the morning."

"Sounds interesting." She absently looked at her phone. "Did you tell him we leave Tuesday?"

"Not yet." I despised those words. As excited as I had been just three days prior, I now dreaded the idea of leaving Seth.

"Hmm." She nodded.

"What if he blows me off then?"

"Then you have a great story to tell about your trip to Portland." Anna shrugged. I hated how callous she was being. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Have you heard from Nicholas?" It was a low blow but I wanted her to sense how absent she had been from our conversation about Seth.

"No." She dropped her burger. I could tell she had lost her appetite.

We remained silent the rest of the meal. However, suddenly, neither of us really had the urge to finish our meals. Seth knew I was only here for the book signings. But what would he say or do when I told him I would be leaving? My high from the morning would get me through the rest of the day, but I was already addicted to Mr. Vernon and I feared that I would be in withdrawal the moment we left town.

"Why don't we go to the set?" I offered. Anna looked up across the table at me as if I had lost my mind.

"Yeah, you go right ahead and do that."

"I want to tell Seth as soon as possible when we'll be leaving. I want to gauge his reaction." The waitress came by and took our card to pay.

"Have fun. I'll stay here."

"Really. You can't do that. Face Nicholas. Confront him about his lack of decency and about two-timing you. It'll give you a clear conscious when you leave and you won't feel as used." I demanded.

"Two-timing?" Her face dropped. "What do you mean by that?"

Shit. I had slipped. I hadn't wanted to tell her, just to urge her to go with me. "Nothing."

"What do you know? Did Seth say something?" The waitress came back with our card and set it down.

"No. I..." I sputtered, should I tell her the truth? "Last night when I was with Seth, I answered his phone and it was Nicholas. He said he was spending the night with some girl named Em."

"He told you that?" Her mouth dropped. Her face flamed with red as Seth's always did.

"Well, not straight out. He wanted me to tell Seth if he needed anything he was with her all night." I whispered.

"Oh." We sat for a moment in silence and then she slipped out from the booth. "That's it. Let's go."