Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“How’s the view?” I asked. Beatrice winced slightly.
“Sorry, there isn’t a view in that one.”
“Then I don’t think we need to see it,” Hollie said. “I’m feeling a baroque vibe for this wedding.”
I laughed and linked my arm through my sister’s.
She shrugged. “London brought Dexter and me together. It only seems fitting that it should be a guest at our wedding.”
Even though I’d only been in London a couple of months, I understood the pull the city had. The energy, the vibrancy. It was a hive of possibility, and it was where my sister’s dreams had come true. This city would be the jumping-off point from where I was going to fulfil my ambitions. “I think that’s a lovely idea.”
We thanked Beatrice before clambering into a cab and heading to the next hotel.
“At least I know I want a room with a view—I think. Show me the pictures from the ballroom again,” she said, peering over to my phone.
I opened my photos and began to scroll backward. “Those red drapes were amazing. And did you notice the windows on the side? You get one hundred and eighty degrees of London in that room.”
“I want to see the ballroom again,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m being ridiculous writing it off so quickly.”
I kept swiping and eventually we came to the ballroom. “It’s really pretty,” I said. “The wallpaper is everything.”
Hollie nodded. “Do you have a wide shot?” She leaned over as if she were trying to swipe to the next photo herself.
“Let me see . . .” I kept swiping until I got to pictures of the chandelier that I’d taken first. “No, sorry, but I bet we can find something online or get Beatrice to send us something.”
“Keep going,” she said, pointing at my screen. “Maybe there was one before the chandelier.”
“There wasn’t,” I said, swiping again to reveal a picture of Gabriel and me in Rome. I quickly snapped the image back to the pictures of the ballroom, hoping she hadn’t noticed. “It’s a beautiful chandelier.” My heart clanked against my ribcage. She hadn’t seen that, had she? I’d only seen a flash of something before I’d changed tack. Hollie couldn’t possibly have made out what was on that last picture. It had been Gabriel and me on the balcony of the hotel. I’d been trying to get a selfie of the two of us with St. Peter’s in the background, but Gabriel was more focused on kissing me than posing for the camera.
“What was that?” she asked.
“That’s the last one,” I said, nodding at the image on my screen. “The chandelier was the first picture I took.”
“No, the one after that. It was a picture of you with a man.”
My heart plummeted to the ground like a skydiver without a parachute.
I started scrolling through to the pictures of the penthouse, pretending I hadn’t heard her and hoping to distract her with thoughts of her wedding. “I really prefer a room with a view,” I said, showing her the screen of my phone.
In a flash, she grabbed my phone out of my hand and tried to scroll through the pictures. “Hollie!” I said, trying to take the phone back, but she turned her back to me. I tried to climb on top of her, but she twisted out of the way. “Give it back.”
“Jiminy Cricket, it locked,” she said, as she turned back to face the front and pushed my phone into my hand.
“You’re insane. What are you doing, stealing my phone?”
“Tell me who that man was.”
“In. Sane,” I snapped, and I shoved my cell into my purse where Hollie couldn’t reach it. I folded my arms, fuming.
We sat in silence as the cab stopped and started along Piccadilly. She was going to have to apologize. How dare she just take my phone like I was a teenager she’d caught doing something wrong.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see her glancing over at me. I turned my head so I was focused on what was going on outside on the street.
More silence.
“I’m sorry,” she said, finally.
“How would you feel if I’d done that to you?” I snapped.
“I don’t have anything private on my phone,” Hollie replied.
She was so annoying. She knew that it was the principle that mattered. “Not the point. If you want to see something, ask me. I’m not a child.”
“I know,” she replied. “I’m losing my mind. Can I blame the wedding planning?”
I shrugged. I didn’t want to ruin her day, but she was way out of line. “Fine. Just don’t do it again.”
“I promise,” she said. I could hear the but before it was even out of her mouth. “But are you going to tell me who it was?”
I sighed. This was it. I was in store for a mammoth lecture. But I couldn’t lie. We didn’t do that to each other. I turned to face her. “I’ll tell you if you promise not to lose your goddamned mind any more than you already have.”