Torrid Exposure - Book 5

Chapter One “HI, THIS is Bennett. I can’t come to the phone right now –” I let out a groan and slam the end call button. The screen flashes Bennett’s name a couple of times and then goes dark. There is no way that I am going to leave another voicemail. I had already left three in the day and a half since Bennett had called me and asked why I had been kissing Anderson. “You okay?” Emily’s voice says from behind me. I turn around and nod, “Yeah. Well...” I shrug and look down at my phone. Emily understands and sighs, “He’ll come around. He can’t honestly believe that you kissed Anderson, right?” She looks at me curiously, as if part of her doesn’t believe her own words. When Spencer and I had gotten back from Harmony’s house, I ended up telling Emily everything that I had been holding back from her. Now that she is caught up, she is determined to help me figure things out but the problem is that we don’t know where to start. “I don’t know,” I finally reply. “I’ll figure it out, I guess. I was just hoping...” “That he wasn’t going to be so quick to believe his dad? I know. But we don’t know what’s happening on his end, April. There could be more going on than we know.” “Maybe,” I reply doubtfully, “I hope so. Anyway, let me get back to it.” Emily nods and heads back into Miss Midnight’s shop. In order to distract myself, I had agreed to take photos of her tarot shop for her website. I hadn’t thought when I had called her last night that Miss Midnight would mean the very next day but I wasn’t going to say no to a job. I trail after Emily but my mind is still on Bennett. After he accused me of kissing Anderson, the call suddenly dropped and I had no cell phone service. It had taken a few minutes to get it back but by then, Bennett was no longer answering my calls. It is obvious that Kevin told Bennett that Anderson and I had been kissing. The truth – that Anderson had feelings for me and I had rebuffed him – wasn’t important to Kevin. He didn’t want the two of us dating and he loathed me. Anything to get me out of the way. “Ah, there you are,” Miss Midnight says, “I finished organizing the room where I do my readings. You should take the photos there next.” “Yeah, sounds good,” I reply. Miss Midnight nods and beckons Emily over to her. “Come here, dear, we’ll go over your cards again.” “Doing a reading?” I ask, wondering if I could take photos of the two of them. Emily chimes up, “She’s teaching me how to read the cards.” “Oh, that’s cool.” I reply, surprised that Emily has taken that much of an interest in the whole tarot card thing. The two of them head off to a small table in the back of the office area and I head down the hallway to take photos of the tarot reading room. Even though I still constantly worry about Emily and her choices, I am not going to say anything about how I am not sure I believe in any of this stuff. If she has found something that she enjoys, then I want to make sure I support her. I step into the tarot room. When Miss Midnight did a reading on me, which boiled down to fixing my relationships before taking on Kevin, I had blown it off. A large part of me still didn’t believe any of it. But, in the silence of the room, I have to admit to myself that I did tell Emily everything that was going on because of the reading nagging me in the back of my mind. Some of the things I’ve been working on since that card reading include supporting Emily and helping her when she needs me... helping Spencer, forgiving her for what happened the night of my car accident, and working to find her daughter, Aria. Those are things I am actively trying to work toward. I suppose that I still have to work things through with my mother. Our relationship had fallen apart when I opted out of the family fortune and business and hadn’t improved even after dad died. And things with Bennett are clearly still a mess. I push those thoughts out of my mind and work on setting up the shots of the room. The silence surrounds me and is oddly comforting, like a heavy blanket. The incense in the room gives me a slight headache but other than that, taking photos in here is a breeze. After about thirty minutes of taking photos and setting up shots, the door behind me opens. I turn around and Miss Midnight walks in. Her many bracelets on her wrists bang against each other as she moves. “Going well?” “Yes, ma’am. Anything you want specifically?” “Some pictures with the crystal ball. People eat that up for some reason,” she replies with a small shrug. I nod and move toward the table in the center of the room. The crystal ball on the table is a new addition. Emily said Miss Midnight bought it because it was a gimmick that people seemed to enjoy. “How are things, dear?” Oh no. She is staring at me with her eyes wide, as if she is going to tell me my aura is off again or something. The last thing I feel like right now is dealing with how doom and gloom my aura apparently is. I pretend to be fiddling with camera settings. “Great. You?” “You look tired. Do you want me to give you another reading?” “No,” I say so quickly that Miss Midnight looks startled. “Sorry. No, I should really focus on the work at hand. But thanks.” Desperate to change the subject, I say, “Emily seems to be enjoying herself here.” Miss Midnight stares at me a beat too long, as if she can see right through me. I look down at the crystal ball and wipe away an imaginary speck of dust off the table and raise my camera. Taking the hint, she goes along with my change of subject. “Yes, Emily has really taken to it here. She learns quickly, that girl. Even though she is lost, I believe she will find her way.” “Lost?” I ask in spite of knowing better, glancing up at her quickly. “She clearly doesn’t know what she wants out of her life. But she’s smart. She’ll figure it out.” “I hope so. She’s always sorta been aimless.” I catch myself before I say too much about Emily and her personal life to her boss. “How is her father doing?” “I don’t see him very often. Sometimes he sits out on the patio, doing puzzles. Emily says she’s going to visit with him this weekend. Would do them both good, I think. They both have unresolved issues. Better to work them out before he passes on and Emily regrets it.” “Yeah, I think so too.” My mind flicks over to my mother again and a nagging feeling that I need to reach out to her comes back up. I look away from Miss Midnight. It is ridiculous to think that she can sense anything going on with me or that her readings have anything prescient in them. Even though the logical part of me tells me to get a grip, I still turn away from her, as if I can block her from staring at me. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Let me know when you finish in here,” she says to me. “Will do.” Miss Midnight leaves, closing the door behind her. I stare at where she had been standing, wondering what it is about her that always makes me feel unnerved. “You’re being an i***t,” I say aloud. “No one has special powers.” I push the thoughts out of my mind and go back to work.