She was driving to work one day when an elderly woman hit her straight on and was killed instantly. I tried my hardest to get closer to him after that. Raising a child on his own and feeling lost, he started drinking. I’m not exactly sure when he started to fall for Jen, but I know I hadn’t seen it coming. Although I should’ve, I was too invested in my own little world to really see what was happening around me.
Natalia would stay with my parents a lot. I’d help by picking her up and taking her out to do fun things. She was just a toddler, so we’d go to the pool or park, anything to keep her out of the house while Ryan drank himself to near a coma.
I tried to help, get him into counseling, but he refused. My mother cried daily, wanting to help and send him to rehab, but again, he refused.
Perhaps it was Jen’s psychology background, but she managed to get him talking. She’d spend hours over there, trying to get him to express the pain he was feeling. I can’t say I blame him for falling in love with her. She was easy to fall for with her sweet southern belle personality. I figured she was finally getting through to him, finally helping him sober up, but she was just helping him replace a void that ended up ruining all of our lives.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ASPEN
After Thursday’s class with Professor Hampton, I’m more nervous than ever for the gala tonight. I could hardly keep eye contact with him, but he hadn’t made it easy. Every time I looked up from my canvas, he’d be staring at me with that stupid crooked grin of his with his tone arms crossed over his broad chest. I had to remind myself not to drool and to keep my head down.
But I hadn’t been successful in trying to act normal since Ellie kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye. I could tell she was suspicious considering how much attention he’d given me the past six weeks and especially since she made a few comments about us hooking up a while ago. I can’t say I blame her, though—the way he looks at me would make a blind man suspicious.
However, I know we have to act normally when people are around. As hard as it sounds, it’s also kind of hot. It’s like this little secret that only he and I know…a secret everyone would die to hear about.
By Saturday morning, I’m antsy as hell.
Ms. Jones has been blowing my phone up all morning, double and triple checking everything. I’m scheduled to help assist anyone with the paintings and hopefully talk them up and into buying. There’ll be several of us walking around to help interpret the paintings for anyone who asks, but Ms. Jones knows I’ve done this the most out of all the other girls.
On top of all that, I have to fit into a gown, do my hair and makeup and find shoes that match. I’m normally on top of it all, but lately my brain has been preoccupied with other things.
Things like Professor Hampton.
And his hands.
And his eyes.
And his perfect lips.
And basically anything to do with him, which has made me unable to really function at anything else since he kissed me Wednesday night.
And speaking of that kiss, I can’t get the taste and feel of his lips out of my mind. I replay it over and over in my head just so I won’t forget it. I’ve kissed numerous guys in the past, but his was different. It was so much more than just a kiss.
I hear knocking on my door and yell for them to come in. I know it’s Kendall. We’re supposed to head to the gallery together, but I know she’s going to ream my ass for not being ready yet.
“Aspen!”
“In here!” I call from my bathroom. I hear her walk down the hall and see her as soon as she comes through the door. “What in the hell?” I crack out in laughter. “Why aren’t you dressed?”
“That’s because I can’t get the damn dress over my ass.” She scowls. “It fit me a few weeks ago.”
“Maybe you’re just bloated?” I spin her around and pull the dress up over her chest and around her back. “Okay, start sucking in.” I pull it tighter, but it doesn’t reach just yet. “When I count to three, inhale as deep as you can and hold it in.” She does as I say, and I yank the zipper up, just barely getting it to zip all the way. “There.”
She turns around with a frown. “I can’t even breathe.”
“Shit,” I mutter. “Do you have another one?”
“If I had another one, I wouldn’t be trying to squeeze into this!”
“All right. Let me unzip it and you can wear one of my dresses.”
“Are you kidding? Your stuff is even tighter than mine.”
“Not all of it!” I counter. “Just come on.” I drag her into my room and open the closet doors. “There has to be something in here that’ll work.”
Forty-two minutes later…
“I look like a stripper,” Kendall complains, staring at herself in the mirror.
“Silver is totally in,” I say unconvincingly. “You look fine.”
“I’m not an idiot, Aspen. I make one wrong move and it’ll rip in half, giving everyone a free show.”
“Well, at least it’d help sell lots of paintings,” I tease, laughing at her dramatics. “But just to be safe, don’t bend over.” I wink.
“That’s it. No more Taco Bell runs.” She rubs a hand over her waistline as if she were pregnant. “Mama needs to get rid of this food baby.”
I burst out in laughter, hardly able to keep it together to slide my shoes on. “Come on, Little Mama. Hair time.”
“Maybe if I dye it pink and puff it up like an eighties hairstyle gone bad, it’ll direct everyone away from the fact that this dress is two sizes too small.”
“I don’t see what you’re fussing about. It really accents your ass and chest.”
“The only time I actually have a chest and it’ll be while I’m at work,” she whines, flailing her arms against her sides.
“Well, as a newly single girl, you can use this opportunity to network with potential dates.”
The glare she shoots at me tells me she’s not amused. “Just finish your hair,” she groans.
My lips tilt up in a knowing smirk at her silly remark. I decide to leave my hair half down and pin the rest up with a red and silver clip. I complete the look by curling the ends and hair spraying it. I apply my makeup as usual—smoky eyes and red lips.
“Ready?” she asks, leaning up against the wall. I try to hide the smile that’s forming on my face at the fact that she can’t sit. She’s been standing there waiting for me for at least a half hour.
“All ready.”
“Finally. I was about to pass out.”
“Are you sure you want to wear that?”
She checks the time on her phone. “Even if I did want to change, there’s no time. We have to be there in five minutes.”
I grab my clutch off the table and follow her out. The event is from six to ten, but Ms. Jones wants us there an hour early.
“It’ll be a miracle if I last all night in these heels.” She sighs, cautiously stepping down the staircase.
“You get used to them.”
“Oh, I’m sure people who have long, tone legs and petite feet really have to struggle with wearing heels.”
I groan at her bad attitude and remark. “That’s it…we’re hitting the open bar first.”
“Now we’re talking.”
I know Professor Hampton is going to be at the event, but nothing could’ve prepared me for how I’d feel the moment I first saw him in his sleek, black tuxedo, crisp white shirt, and smooth black tie. He looks flawless, and I find it hard to not fantasize about running my hands down his chest just to see what he’d do.
Butterflies build in my stomach as I clench my thighs together at the thought of his lips on mine again. His hair is combed back, the sides trimmed short. He looks like he came straight out of a GQ magazine, and I want to subscribe to every issue.
I pretend that I’m not looking at him or memorizing every inch of his solid body. I keep my eyes low and my head slanted just enough to keep him in my peripheral vision. He’s talking with one of the bartenders, laughing and already holding a drink in his hand.