Boom - Sabrina Stark Page 0,92

I'd been dying to see her.

Still, I never would've expected her to travel all this way, especially knowing that her car tended to break down at the worst possible times.

And then, there was the matter of money. Much like myself, Cami was drowning in student debt. And although we'd both recently graduated from college, she wasn't yet employed, even if she did have something lined up for the fall.

This begged a serious question. How on Earth had she come up with travel money?

I planned to ask, but now wasn't the time.

She'd obviously gone to a lot of trouble to surprise me, and there was no way on Earth I'd ever ruin it by dwelling on our financial troubles.

So, with a smile, I said, "And you are staying here at the house, right?"

Whether she realized it or not, her visit had been perfectly timed. Waverly was gone, possibly forever. And Brody was away, too.

This meant that I didn't need to feel guilty or awkward for having a surprise houseguest stay at a place that wasn't truly my own.

But already, Cami was shaking her head. "I'm not staying here."

I glanced down at her suitcase. "Oh?"

"Because," Cami said with a laugh, "I'm whisking you away."

I wasn't quite following. "To where?"

Her eyes brightened. "To a hotel on the river. We've got a suite and spa treatments, and—"

"But wait." I couldn’t help but wince. "Who's paying for all of this?"

I really hated to ask, but I'd rather be a kill-joy than put a friend further in debt.

With a smile, Cami replied, "He is."

He? I still wasn't following. "Who?"

"Brody."

Chapter 52

Arden

That single word – the name of the guy who'd given me so much grief – hung between us in the open doorway.

Cami was still smiling. "I'm so glad the two of you made up."

I shook my head. "But we didn't." At the mere thought of him, my eyes stung with unshed tears. "And we won't. It's over." I swallowed a lump so big, it literally hurt. "Really over."

Cami's smile faded to nothing. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," I said. "I mean, I would know, right?"

The truth was, I'd talked to Brody only one time since his sudden departure. It was the conversation we'd had late last night. I'd hung up on him, and with good reason, too.

On the front porch, Cami murmured, "Oh, crap." She bit her lip. "Gosh, I'm so sorry." Slowly, she turned and gave the town car a long, worried look. "What should I do?"

By now, I was so confused, I could hardly think. "For starters, you could tell me what's going on."

And so she did, right there on the front porch while the town car lingered in the driveway.

Apparently, some sort of courier had shown up at her parent's house early this morning and had asked for Cami by name.

When she came to the door, the messenger – an older guy in a business suit – had informed her that she was the recipient of an all-expense paid vacation here in Bayside. And then, he'd given her a packet of pre-paid reservations, along with a phone number to call for more information.

The number, as she'd learned after calling it, was to Brody's new cell phone. On the phone, he'd explained that he'd messed up in some sort of way and wanted to make it up to me with a nice surprise.

The surprise, apparently, was a local spa vacation with my best friend.

As part of that surprise, Brody had even sent a car and driver to transport Cami from her parent's place to where I was staying at the crew house.

In theory, after I packed a suitcase of my own, the same town car would carry both of us to the hotel.

According to the schedule provided by the courier, the car and driver would be returning to Bayside next Saturday to drive Cami back to her parent's place.

As I listened to all of this, tears pricked at my eyes. The whole thing was so incredibly thoughtful – or at least it would've been thoughtful if only I didn't know the ugly truth.

Brody was a snake, through and through. Even worse, he was a dangerous snake, considering that he'd been fooling me from the beginning – lying straight to my face, over and over, even as I'd been falling hard for the guy I thought I knew.

I'd been such an idiot.

And now my troubles were impacting Cami, too. After a brief discussion, she and I sent the town car on its way and