Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 782(@200wpm)___ 626(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
“Lan!” Bran chastises. “There’s no need to be mean.”
“He didn’t react in any shape or form to Remi’s text,” Creigh speaks for the first time.
“Or when Lan and Remi egged him on for days,” Bran adds. “So maybe it’s not as bad as you think.”
I know Bran and Creigh are trying to make me feel better, but that’s no consolation at all. Maybe the reason he didn’t react is because he really doesn’t care. Indifference is worse than interest.
“Are you both high?” Lan huffs. “That’s the worst. It’s no different than him pretending she’s nothing more than a speck of dust on his shoe, more than he’s already been doing her entire life. You want my advice, don’t do whatever you’re planning, Ava. You’re the only one who’ll end up with a broken heart.”
“Leave her alone.” Cecy hugs me and strokes the tremors in my shoulders. “This is not your place and no one asked for your advice.”
“I’m trying to save her the waterfall tears and an impending visit to her therapist. But suit yourself. It’s not my fault no one listens to me when I’m always right.”
“Yeah, Ava.” Remi keeps his attention on me as he swats Ari’s hand off his bicep as if it’s a mosquito. “He’s twenty-three and gets more pussy than Casanova, but unlike that loser, he never actually works for it and doesn’t pay any attention to the women attached to it. He never sleeps with the same woman more than twice and doesn’t recall their names, even if he’s hit upside the head with it. Do you honestly want to be one of them?”
“No. I’ll be the exception.”
“What exception? He barely knows you exist.”
“That’s…because I was underage. He didn’t see me as a woman before.”
“News flash, he still doesn’t,” Lan says. “You and Ari are the same in his eyes.”
She’s almost fourteen. I’m way older and definitely past the age of consent in the UK. I’ve had a crush on Eli since I was twelve and started to develop hormones. I visited Aunt Elsa all the time just to get a glimpse of him, even if he barely acknowledged me. Even if he didn’t see me any differently than he did his cousin Glyn.
That was okay. I know the age difference didn’t work in my favor and an eighteen-year-old would’ve never looked at a twelve-year-old.
So I waited a whole five years to grow older and seem adult. I even stopped sleeping with stuffed animals to completely throw away the child phase.
“That’s not true!” I say.
“How does Eli treat you, Ari?” Remi asks her.
She grins like a little psycho because he’s finally looking at her for the first time. “He bought me a bucket of candy floss and told me to share it with my sister.”
“My point, ladies and gents.” Remi makes a motion of a mic drop.
“Adults eat candy floss,” Cecily says.
“Stop putting ludicrous ideas in her head and inflating an ego that would burst to smithereens the moment she talks to Eli.” Lan appears to be bored. “He’s my cousin, but he’s an emotionless prick who collects little girls' broken hearts in a jar and then sacrifices them to his demons. Don’t be a heart in a jar, Ava.”
My mood takes a sharp dive for the worse for the rest of the party. I say hi to Aunt Elsa and Uncle Aiden, then leave before I spot or run into Eli.
I know he’s here. I can feel him in the air.
One thing about Eli is that he can make himself invisible if he chooses to. But usually, that doesn’t work on me. I’ve always been aware of him and the unbearable hold he has on me.
I intended to confess to him with a letter that I carefully wrote a month ago and have since learned by heart. I hid it in my Chanel bag for safekeeping, but now that I’ve heard what the guys said—even Bran and Creigh, who said in no uncertain terms that it’s not a good idea to confess—I feel like burning it.
With its dainty paper, metallic writing, and glitter hearts. All pink.
I’m being naive. I’m a little girl who’s not allowed to exist in his godly vicinity.
Maybe if I wait a couple more years, I’ll have a better chance…
My thoughts trail off when I catch a glimpse of him standing by the pool with Mama’s assistant for one of the charities. Kylie is a leggy brunette with tanned olive skin, bright-brown eyes, and a very mature figure and face.
Her hand is on his arm as he listens to her with his usual poker face.
Doesn’t matter what type of expression he wears. Eli has and always will be a god with sharp features, a jaw that could cut my heart in half, and eyes that enchant anyone who stares at them.