Status Quo: An Opposites Attract Romantic Comedy (Starting at Midnight Book 1) by Nina Hatch

Author:Nina Hatch [Hatch, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wanderlust Port Press
Published: 2021-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

14

Maia

By the time Jorge and I made our way back to the main living area of Baltazar’s estate, Heath was coming through the front door, a collection of plastic shopping bags looped over his arm.

“Have you been up long?” he asked me. “I ran down to the main road to buy some fresh clothes. Want a pair of sunglasses? You wouldn’t believe the deal the guy gave me on them. I bought six.”

Heath rifled through the white plastic bags, pulling out handfuls of cheap tourist junk. I couldn’t imagine his reaction at seeing sunglasses for four euros a pair rather than forty thousand. Or maybe I could imagine—it had clearly been to pull out his wallet.

Baltazar puttered out from his office when he heard voices, holding a newspaper and a strip of bacon—I hoped our delay hadn’t blown Jorge’s low-fat secret.

“I have meetings all through the afternoon, but please, explore the town,” Baltazar said. “I’d be happy to discuss what you wanted to talk to me about later this evening. We still have some of my son’s old bicycles in storage. You’re welcome to take them out if you’d like.”

“We’d love to, thank you,” Heath said. “I’ll just get changed, and we can be on our way. Does that work for you, Maia?”

“Hmm?” I said, still distracted from Jorge’s confrontation in the solarium. “I mean, yes, of course.”

The knowledge that the awful things I’d written about Heath had now been published were starting to form a fog of dread infecting my brain, the guilt beginning to pulse like the telltale heart.

“It’s going to be all right,” I told myself in soothing tones as I got dressed. “Just act natural. This doesn’t have to change anything. You have nothing to confess.”

At one point, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the mirror, mumbling to myself like a lunatic, and I shook my head, splashing water on my already-washed face.

But I did have something to confess.

This wasn’t like before—when I’d inadvertently revealed the death of Reginald Palmer to The Castleport Gazette. This time, I’d taken a job with the sole intent to expose. I was responsible for this pain. I’d written out my unfiltered frustration, assuming I knew what was going on when I knew nothing of the truth.

If Jorge was right in saying that confessing my starring role in this drama would only hurt Heath more, then I’d have to keep this guilt to myself as my punishment. The only way I could see to fix this now was to stop taking gossip for truth.

I had to find out the full story myself.

I went back downstairs to see Heath pumping up the back tire of one of two vintage bicycles, one light blue and the other lemon yellow.

“Nice shirt,” I said.

He was wearing a tight Lisbon is for Lovers T-shirt under his tailored suit jacket and managed to make it look sexy as hell.

“Thanks. You should see the underwear I found. They had two choices—the David or a photo of a pile of breakfast meat.

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