Little Secrets: A Novel by Jennifer Hillier & Kirsten Potter & Macmillan Audio

Author:Jennifer Hillier & Kirsten Potter & Macmillan Audio
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

The apartment is quiet when Kenzie gets home from her shift at the Green Bean. Tyler’s door is shut. She presses her ear to the thin particle board and hears him snoring. She heard him come in at five this morning, right as she was getting up for work, but they didn’t speak. Getting in at that hour, she can only assume he hooked up with someone he met at the bar last night.

It’s obvious her roommate is mad at her, and she can’t blame him, not after she bailed on their Hill House marathon. They share a 700-square-foot apartment, yet they almost never see each other anymore. She misses him. And she’s lonely.

She hasn’t heard from Derek in two days.

As much as she wants to, she cannot text him. He has to text her. There are rules with married men, and they get upset when you break them.

She settles onto the sofa with a brownie she stole from the coffee shop (come on, they all steal food) and turns on the TV. Every afternoon at two p.m., if she’s home, she watches The Young and the Restless. She’s not really invested in the show’s storylines, but she used to watch it as a little girl with her grand-mère. Buford jumps up onto her lap, purring his delight at her return home, and she strokes his fur. While her cat isn’t nearly as comforting as her grandmother was, he’s pretty close.

“Why do you watch this?” she can remember asking Grand-mère when she was ten. She was confused by all the rich people, with their perfect makeup and perfect hair, who couldn’t seem to find happiness no matter what they did. “They’re always stabbing each other in the back. They’re nothing like us.”

“They’re very much like us, ma chère.” Her grandmother had motioned for her to get under the blanket, the same one she’d kept on her sofa since Kenzie was born. “The only difference is, they have money.”

“But he’s mean to her.” Kenzie pointed to the screen, where the richest man was saying something callous to the woman who was hoping to be his wife. For the second time. “He’s cruel.”

“Oh, ma petite ange.” Her grandmother pulled her in for a snuggle. “Poor men can be just as cruel. You can get your heart broken by a poor man just as easily as a rich one. We know what it’s like to be poor, oui? There’s no nobility in it. None whatsoever. When you grow up, you find yourself a rich man. You stand a better chance of survival when he leaves.”

Wherever J.R. is right now, he’s probably watching Y&R, too. Sometimes they text back and forth when it’s on. But they haven’t done that in a while. Since she met Derek, J.R. has largely pulled away. It hurts her, but she understands why.

It’s different with Derek. And for once, J.R. isn’t interfering. He used to refer to her other married boyfriends as “sad, bored sacks of money,” but with Derek, he’s largely withheld his opinion.

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