The Lying Season (Seasons #1) - K.A. Linde Page 0,53

me.”

“Got it. I’ll make sure to answer this time,” I said with a breathy laugh.

“Looking forward to it.”

We said our good-byes, and then I hung up.

Except…I had no pressing meeting. I’d just been flushed and flustered that he’d managed to track me down after I didn’t answer. I pulled out my cell and scrolled through the list of missed calls. There did in fact seem to be a handful of missed calls from the same 212 number. I quickly cleared out my voicemail and made a mental note to talk to English about this later. I had a feeling I knew what she’d say. But I needed to lay it all out there.

By the time eight rolled around, I was exhausted and ready to head out. Aspen had left two hours ago on some kind of errand. I stepped out of my office and almost made it out of the building when I saw him.

“Hey,” Sam said, appearing out of the shadows.

I took a deep breath and let it out. “Hi.”

“Can we talk?”

“I really don’t want to talk right now.”

“We can’t just avoid this.”

I shuffled the papers under my arm and hiked up my purse. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

He winced. Good. “I deserve that. But if we could just talk…”

“No,” I said. “I’m not ready to talk. And you can wait until I’m ready.”

“Do you know when that will be?”

“Nope. I don’t.”

I took a step away from him. Part of me wanted to fling myself into his arms. The other part was too conflicted to even know what it wanted. It was great that Sam was single. It was not great that he hadn’t been honest with me. Not exactly a foundation to start a relationship on.

“I just need time,” I told him honestly.

Then with a pang in my chest, I pushed through the open door and walked out into the windy New York city street beyond.

“Oh my god, stop! Josh, stop! I can’t,” English called into the phone as I entered my apartment.

A giant smile was on her face, and she was using her biggest, girliest voice. The one that said she was so disgustingly in love that she was going to burst at the seams.

Any other day, it would be music to my ears. Right now, it was grating. And I dodged into my room as fast as possible.

English and Josh were a fucking icon. The most adorable couple in Hollywood. It had to be hard for her to be away from him for this long. For both of them.

I yawned and stretched my arms over head and then frowned. “What the fuck?”

There was a stack of Bergdorf Goodman bags in the corner of my room.

“Where the hell did you come from?”

I headed over to the stack and found a purple card resting on top.

Lark, darling, you looked so good in that Badgley Mischka dress that I took the liberty of purchasing you a few new things for the season. In particular, the Elizabeth Cunningham dress will be perfect for the St. Vincent’s company dinner over Fourth of July weekend.

—HSV

My mother. I swear.

I needed to find a way to steal my key back from her. Because I was not cool with her just barging in whenever she wanted and depositing clothes in my fucking room. It was an invasion of privacy. Not to mention another way she was attempting to control me. The gifts she let were only an excuse to get me to a company dinner. I had no plans to run the company. And anyway, I would be working that weekend.

I just shook my head and shoved the bags into a corner before stripping out of my work clothes. I threw on a black nightgown that was perfect for this heat since it was more of a slip than anything. I tossed my hair up a topknot and then walked back out into the living room.

English had blessedly finished her call. Though she was still in the afterglow of the conversation.

She frowned when she saw my expression. “Bad day?”

“Emergency ice cream,” I told her as I yanked open the freezer and removed a container of chocolate chip cookie dough.

“Oh dear.”

I grabbed a spoon and settled on the couch.

She followed, tucking her legs up underneath her, prepared to hear me out. “So, I’m finally going to find out why you’ve been walking around the apartment like a hurricane.”

“Sam and I kissed.”

English’s mouth popped open. “Lark!”

“Yep. And then he told me that he and Claire had broken