Lost Girl by Haley Warren

Author:Haley Warren [Warren, Haley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction & Literature
Published: 2023-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I twirled the stem of the cherry from my vodka soda in between my fingers, eyes wandering around the restaurant, Cathédrale. The lights were intentionally dim, casting what I assumed were meant to be mysterious shadows across everything, furthered by the twinkling candles on each table. I looked down at the cherry, wondering why they insisted on putting it in the drink in the first place, before bringing it between my teeth and ripping it off the stem.

Noa picked the restaurant. I guess it was more of a gastropub, but it was close to a shoot she was wrapping up. I had texted her when I left school, and she seemed genuinely thrilled to say yes, following up by saying she was absolutely starving and miserable at what she called “the shoot from hell.”

I wasn’t sure what would qualify as the shoot from hell, but I was sure she would let me know. I picked up my phone, taking an absent-minded sip of my drink. My email inbox typically remained empty on weekends, a far cry from what it looked like when I was at WH.

There was a text from Taylor, saying she wouldn’t be back like expected, because she had a “can’t miss” surgery she was assisting on. I smiled, imagining the morbid delight and curiosity that would grow and grow over the coming days as she imagined herself making precise incisions and sectioning away diseased tissue. Her father had been the chief of surgery at Northwestern Memorial for her entire life, and in the way Deacon grew up wanting to be our father, she wanted to be just like hers, too. Maybe that was a normal thing for children, wanting to be like a parent.

I twirled the cherry stem again and couldn’t imagine a single thing that would make me want to be like either of my parents. I could aspire to be like my mom, all empty stares and forced smiles, and you know, dead. Or, I could aspire to be like my father, void and vacant but surrounded by piles and piles of money I would never spend. I already had piles and piles of money I would never spend; I had never aspired to that, and I certainly didn’t want to aspire to the rest.

“Charlie!” Noa called across the restaurant, standing on her tiptoes to peer across the tables.

Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, a cropped white t-shirt rising above oversized light wash boyfriend jeans and an oversized black monogrammed Givenchy tote hanging off her shoulder. Her face split into a smile, and she waved at me again before turning to the bodyguard lingering behind her and saying something to him. He smiled at her and nodded before walking purposefully through the tables and finding an open seat at a bar that took up half the space.

Noa wove through the tables, blatantly ignoring the heads that lifted, or the obvious shoulder smacks people made as she walked by. She dropped into the seat beside me, letting her tote fall with a dull thud before kicking it to the side swiftly.

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