Etoile (The Mannequin Series) (22 page)

Thirty

“This past week killed me,” James told her as he inched the car forward. They had made it back to Manhattan just in time to get stuck in prime evening gridlock traffic. “It felt so good to call in sick this morning. I think this was my first time calling in sick in the past two years.”

“You did not need to lie to come get me,” she said quietly, fidgeting with her hands in her lap. “I could have just taken a taxi.”

James turned to her briefly with a big smile. “No way,” he replied. “A promise is a promise.”

She felt her stomach drop at his sincerity. Why had she doubted him before?

“Besides, I needed it,” he continued as he switched over into the next lane. “Being stuck in the office was driving me crazy. I only got two hours of sleep on Wednesday and Thursday, and one of the Associates was just hounding me. The bags under my eyes literally had their own bags. Then I was stuck there until at least two in the morning on Friday night trying to fix a mistake that one of the interns made. We had to have last-minute meetings on Saturday because one of our clients was passing through town, too, which was why I was acting like a jerk. I guess that the stress finally got to me, but it's still no excuse for the way I acted.”

With that, James turned to look at her with his perfect smile. She didn't know if it was the car ride or the guilt that was making her nauseous, but she cracked open the window and took a deep breath.

“Are you okay?” he asked worriedly as his eyes darted back and forth between her and the road. “No wonder you're being so quiet. Should I pull over?”

“No, no,” she managed as she gulped in a lungful of fresh air. The pathetic excuse for a breeze that wafted in helped to calm her down as she turned to him with an embarrassed smile. “I think I must not feel well from all of the travelling,” she fibbed.

James let go of the steering wheel with his right hand, reaching over and grabbing her left one. “Should I take you straight home? I wanted to take you to dinner, but if you're sick, then...”

“Yes, I think that would be for the better,” she said before he could continue. Elodie knew that she was being slightly rude, but she didn't think she could handle sitting through an entire dinner with him. She plastered a pained expression onto her face, furrowed brow and all, for dramatic effect. When she looked over at him with her faux grimace, James gave her a skeptical stare.

“You're not still mad at me, are you?” he asked quietly, running his thumb over her fingers.

“I was not mad,” she finally told him with a long sigh. “I honestly thought you were sick of me.”

His hand tightened on her own as he shot her an incredulous smile. “What?” he asked with a laugh. “Why in the world would you think that?”

Yes, Marais, why in the world
had
you thought that? she asked herself bitterly. “I do not know,” she squeaked out. “I just...”

“Kind of the opposite, actually,” he said as he squeezed her hand again.

Elodie wanted to curl up into a tiny little ball and disappear. Here was this perfect guy, holding her hand and telling her everything a girl would want to hear, but she couldn't wait to run away. Not because she wanted to, of course, but because she felt like a terrible human being every time that he smiled at her. She didn't deserve those smiles, and she definitely didn't deserve him.

“Sorry, I've been talking about work this entire time. Tell me more about Paris before we get to your place. I'm sure it was more than just 'fine,'” he teased as he finally turned onto Bowery. Every time he had mentioned it so far, she had changed the topic or brushed it off with one-worded answers.

“It was good,” she finally admitted with a meek smile. “They actually decided to sign me for a beauty contract too.”

James shot her a big grin. “See?” he told her happily. “I told you they'd love you. Congratulations. That's great news.”

“Thank you,” she replied in a tiny voice, trying not to turn red as he continued to gush over her.

“Beauty, huh? They definitely made the best possible choice then.”

“Hardly,” she muttered uncomfortably.

James finally let go of her hand as he turned the steering wheel to get onto her street. “Of course they did. Anyway, you obviously weren't working the entire time, since you had the chance to grace my phone with all of those calls,” he joked as he looked over at her with a teasing smile. “Did you get to do anything fun while you were there?”

“No,” Elodie replied a little too quickly. Shit, she thought to herself as she took a small breath. Play it cool, Marais. “Not really,” she tried to add nonchalantly.

He didn't seem to notice her awkwardness as he gave a small shrug. “That's too bad,” he said as the car pulled up to her apartment. “At least one of us should have had a good time this week.”

Elodie gave him a small smile before turning to look longingly at her building. “Well, thank you very much for picking me up,” she began as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “You really did not have to, but thank you. Sorry that I am rushing off like this, but...”

“Hey,” he said quietly as he turned off the ignition and grabbed her hand. He placed his hand on her cheek, causing her to freeze in the midst of her clumsy escape. “I missed you.”

Her heart beat violently in her chest as the blood pounded in her ears. The warmth of his hand on her face was too much to handle, and she quickly pulled away while she still could.

“I... I really do not feel too well,” she hurriedly told him, grabbing her purse off of the floor and jumping from the car. “I can just grab my bag. You do not need to get out!” she yelped, frantically retrieving her luggage from the backseat as James looked on with a dumbfounded expression.

And with that, Elodie Marais sprinted like a madwoman towards her building's front doors, reassuring herself that she was making the right decision as she ran away from the boy of her dreams.

Thirty-one

“I knew it,” Heddi said triumphantly as she blew out a thick cloud of smoke. “I could tell from the moment I got there.”

Elodie groaned as she rolled over on the futon and buried her face into the musty fabric. Tatiana patted her on the head as she extinguished her cigarette in a half-eaten tub of Fage yogurt. “Lo, is okay. You did not know,” she told her miserable friend.

“I am just confused,” Elodie whimpered as she turned her head back towards where her two friends sat on the floor.

“So you not talk to Tyler since?” Tatiana asked as she observed her hangnails.

“He texted me when he got back to New York and told me to call him when I landed,” Elodie began with a pensive look on her face. “But I do not know. I felt so guilty that James gave me a ride that I did not contact him yet.”

Heddi nudged Elodie's foot with her own. “Who cares! Call him!” she urged. “Trust me.”

Tatiana turned to look at her suspiciously. “Why you so Team Tyler?”

“Why are
you
Team James?” Heddi countered as she let out tiny smoke rings and raised her eyebrows.

“You know I like banker boys,” Tatiana told her matter-of-factly with a sneaky smile.

“Ugh. Anyway, boys like him are never what they seem. Trust me on that,” Heddi grumbled. Yup, still bitter.

Elodie rubbed at her tired eyes. “I do not know what to do about anything. I am so stupid,” she whined as she stared blankly at her friends. “What is wrong with me?”

“You are just young,” Heddi began. “Trust me. I am twenty now, so I have one year on you. Just call Tyler. He obviously really likes you.”

“Do not listen to old lady,” Tatiana added obnoxiously, batting away Heddi's foot as it approached her face. “Who you like?”

“Honestly,” she admitted with a sigh. “Both. In different ways. Does that make sense?”

Tatiana nodded fervently as Heddi shook her head no.

“James makes me feel... safe. He is so responsible and unlike anyone I have ever met before. He is kind, and he listens to what I have to say,” Elodie began with a wistful look on her face. “I feel like I can trust him.”

Heddi let out a loud snort, scoffing dramatically and muttering something under her breath as she angrily grabbed at the pack of Marlboro Lights on the table.

“He is also very cute,” Tatiana interjected, shaking her head slightly as she tore her eyes away from Heddi's mini outburst. “And
i-banker
.”

Elodie ignored the last comment as she repeated dreamily, “Very cute.”

“But Tyler is #3 on models.com,” Tatiana began with a serious expression. “He is get very big.”

“That does not matter for me,” Elodie replied as she rolled her eyes.

“He got you the Ero deals, didn't he?” Heddi asked with a teasing smirk.

The ends of Elodie's lips turned downwards into a tiny frown as Heddi uttered the truth. Though she didn't want to admit it, Tyler had played a pivotal role in her recent career turns. But she hadn't
asked
him for the help, so was she obligated to owe him anything?

“I didn't mean it like that,” Heddi added quickly, sensing Elodie's discomfort at the comment. “I was just trying to say that Tyler cares about you too, just in his own little Tyler way.”

“I know,” Elodie said quietly. Recalling her private moments with Tyler in Paris made her heart skip a beat. “But to be honest, Tyler scares me.”

“What you mean?” Tatiana asked with a confused stare. “He not scary at all. His eyebrows very straight. More pretty than scary.”

Heddi ignored Tatiana's observation with a wave of her hand. “How in the world does he scare you? He was doting on you the entire time that I was there!”

“What do you mean?” Elodie asked curiously. What was Heddi talking about?

“You don't know that he carried you on his back all the way back to Soren's?”

Elodie sat up and shook her head. “He did?”

“Okay, not
all
the way, but he did for a little bit.
And
he chose to stay and take care of you instead of  leaving to hang out with Caroline Matheson,” Heddi added with a suggestive look.

“Oh, hate that bitch,” Tatiana grumbled bitterly as she reached for a cigarette.

“That does not count,” Elodie said, suddenly annoyed by the mention of Caroline's name. “She is his ex. That is completely normal for him to not want to hang out with her.”

“
Caroline Matheson
,” Heddi repeated as Tatiana scrunched up her nose before eventually nodding in agreement.

“Anyway, I do not trust Tyler. And I definitely do not trust myself around him,” Elodie told them. “He... he reminds me of someone from my past.”

“Who? Who, Lo? Who?” Tatiana asked excitedly, ever the sucker for gossip in any shape or form. Her reserved French roommate rarely brought up her childhood memories, and she was not going to let this casual mention go unexplored.

“A boy,” Elodie said in a quiet voice. “
That
boy. You know what everyone says. A girl never forgets the first boy who broke her heart.”

She hadn't thought of Felix in a very, very long time. Even over the past week in Paris, when she had passed roads that reminded her of those that she had walked on with Felix as a child, she had pushed memories of him out of her mind. Though she hated to admit it, the 14-year old girl inside of her still surfaced at times, sprinkling her thoughts with insecurity and fear.

Of course Tyler reminded her of Felix. Both were handsome boys with rich, brown hair and striking green eyes. People turned around to stare at Tyler much in the same way that Felix had always drawn eyes from around the room. They both oozed charm and charisma, in addition to the boyish self-assurance that Elodie found both repulsive and irresistible. The two had a way with her, being able to push all of her buttons and get into her head.

The passion that she felt around Tyler was also accompanied by a feeling of vulnerability that scared the shit out of her. And the teenager deep within was deathly afraid that, if she were to allow him, Tyler would eventually get sick of her and throw her away also. Even thinking about living through the humiliation of rejection again caused an involuntary shudder to pass through her body.

“Fuck that. Of course we can forget! And fuck the little French twat who did whatever to you,” Heddi said in a tired voice as she stamped out her cigarette. “French boys are douchebags, anyway.”

Elodie gave a small laugh, ridding her mind of the morose thoughts that had momentarily crept in. “I am so confused,” she moaned again as she numbly lit a cigarette.

“I do not know why you so upset,” Tatiana said with a shrug. “James never said you two exclusive. Maybe he seeing other girls too. Everyone here do that. So who cares what happen with Tyler in Paris? Date both and you see who you like better. If you no sleep with both, is okay.”

Elodie pouted as she considered the situation. Maybe Tatiana was right for once. Had she been overanalyzing everything again? Though she couldn't imagine that James was the type to date multiple people at once, the possibility couldn't be completely rejected. New York City was, after all, a town full of commitment-phobes and serial daters.

“Do you think so?” Elodie asked slowly, just as the screen of her phone glowed brightly.

As if the universe were trying to send her a sign, two cryptic notifications greeted her.

James Campbell

Are you sure you're okay? Call me when you feel better

Tyler Peeters

Missed Call (2)

“Might as well,” Heddi said, seemingly reading her mind. “What's there to lose?”