Page 29 of Five

“Cliff, I’m not coming back to the Hamptons this summer. I’m gonna stay here in Colorado. I’m sorry, I know it’s a shitty thing to do and—”

“It’s OK,” he says.

“It is?”

“Yeah. It’s weird, ya know. How life changes so fast.”

“Yeah,” I say, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Just so fast.”

“Because I got a call from a friend of my father’s last night asking me to come to Denver and do an internship.”

“Denver?” My eyebrows are all scrunched together on my forehead. “Who the hell comes to Denver for an internship?”

Cliff laughs. Like a real, honest-to-goodness, genuine laugh. “You’re silly, Rory Shrike. I know you live up north in that quaint college town, but Global Holdings moved their offices to the Tech Center last year. It’s a huge financial hub these days.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. But I get it. You’ve been away for school. Plus you don’t live down that way. So you didn’t know. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I’m leaving today and I’ll stop by your place later to say hi.”

I’m actually struck dumb.

“Is that OK?”

Here? He’s coming here?

“Rory?”

And that’s when I remember I didn’t actually break up with him.

“Coming!” Cliff yells. Like he’s calling to someone on the other end of the line. “Listen, Ror, I gotta go. My car is here to pick me up for the airport. I’ll text you when I land and you can give me directions. See you soon!”

The call drops.

“Who was that?”

I turn around and find Kate walking across the lawn towards me.

“And bitch, I cannot believe you slept here instead of my house. Tell me again why I had to sleep on Sparrow’s couch?”

“Sorry,” I say. “Five and I got into a fight at your house and I came here.” I blush thinking about what came next. “He followed me. We…”

“You naughty slut.” Kate beams, hooking her arm around mine. “But that’s all I need to hear. I love you, but sexy details about my brother are my limit.”

I think back to last night and melt all over again. “It was perfect this time, Kate. Perfect. I feel like twirling around with happiness, that’s how perfect.”

“So you two are finally a thing?” Kate asks.

“A thing?” Are we a thing? We didn’t really sort out the details, did we? I mean, we said all the important shit. And we’re in love. So… “I… think we are.”

“Is Five staying? For the summer?”

I gave him a choice. I do remember that. Stay here with me or take me with him. I bite my lip. Because he never answered me. “I’m not sure.”

Kate looks all confused as she leads me back towards the house. “Well… he was supposed to leave tomorrow. Don’t you think you should find that out?”

“Yeah,” I say, getting a bad feeling about this. If fucking Five Aston tricked me into being rational last night, I will kill him. “Where is he? Inside?”

“No,” Kate says. “He’s not here. I have no clue where he is, but he’s not here.”