Playing With Fire

CHAPTER XXIII (23)

CHAPTER XXIII
Solana

The awkwardness in the air was slowly choking me, to the point I couldn't stop fidgeting with a desperate need to evacuate.

But that couldn't happen. One, because I was stuck in the elevator with Kane, going up to mom's penthouse, but two, because if I seemed even mildly discomforted by his presence, he'd assume things, and I'd like him to remain clueless as long as possible.

For the entire day, I felt the urge to run and never turn back. For multiple reasons, really. Maybe it could do with the fact that after I woke up, alone on Kane's bed this morning, he wasn't in the room. Or maybe it was because when I did see him two hours later, he completely avoided my gaze before apologizing.

"We were both drunk. But I shouldn't have let it get that far." And that blow was followed by another. "Let's pretend it never happened, okay?"

So we pretended it didn't happen. Pretended, the key word, because clearly, neither of us were good at acting. Since we had to be at mom's place by six, we had to spend the entire afternoon trying to do something that didn't include directly talking to one another. Luckily, I opted for us to go to the movie theatre. Twice. We watched two freaking movies just because we didn't want to talk.

Although, he surprisingly didn't argue when I offered both movies to be rom-com. I was surprised, because there was an action and horror movie playing too, but he didn't care.

Distracted by my thoughts, I hadn't realized that Kane was trying to talk to me until he slipped in front of my view, frowning.

I tensed and stepped back without thought, just as my wide eyes lifted to his. Kane noticed and clenched his jaw before turning away. "Do we know how long this is going to take?"

I flinched from the bite in his tone. "No, but I'm hoping we don't stay longer than two hours."

He nodded his head, and keeping his focus away from me, he shuffled to the opposite side of the elevator. I nearly exhaled in relief a second later when the doors parted, right into mom's hotel room.

Surprised by the size, I hesitantly stepped inside while watching clusters of people mingling in the large, spacious living space. Directly across from me was the floor-to-ceiling windows that showcased the drifting sun lowering closer to the horizon. Gliding further into the gold and brown decorated space, I briefly turned my head to the left to see a glamorous white kitchen you'd see in magazines.

Drifting my attention to the opposite side of the room, I sucked in a breath when I recognized some actresses that appeared in some of my favourite shows. They all dressed fancy casual, and I sighed in relief that I didn't look weird with my light wash jeans and white, long sleeve, cropped blouse. I knew there was a reason I packed one semi-professional shirt.

Although, my hair was twisted in a tight bun on top of my head because my curls were not cooperating at all. I was tempted to wash it today, just to have something to do, but I stupidly forgot my Denman brush. But I'm pretty sure my makeup would be enough to distract people from the birds nest in my hair.

"Honey!" I heard my mother's fake, cheery voice squeal from behind.

Giving myself one last second to take a deep breath, I forced positive thoughts before twirling on my heel. Mom stood right next to the rich beige, tufted sofas with a wide grin and waving arm. She was ushering me over to whatever conversation she was having with—wait, was that Jennifer Darwin?