Free The Truth About You by Susan Lewis Page B

he asked.
    Her heart was thudding so hard she barely heard herself saying, ‘I’m cool.’ She wouldn’t tell him about the hangover, she wasn’t even sure she still had one. ‘How about you?’
    ‘Yeah, I’m good. I can’t sleep, thinking about you. You look gorgeous when you’ve just woken up, by the way.’
    Thrilled – and appalled – by the thought of waking up with him, she said, ‘I wish you were coming this weekend.’
    He sighed. ‘Me too, but I have to stay here in New York. Something came up. Anyway, I’m not sure I can trust myself around you. You know what happened last time we were together.’
    Feeling wonderful biting sensations in her most intimate parts, she said, ‘I think about it all the time.’
    His eyes burned into hers. ‘Not long to wait now,’ he reminded her, ‘and you’ll be sweet sixteen. Meantime, I want you to do something for me. Have you read the book everyone’s talking about?’
    Her insides lurched. He must mean
Fifty Shades of Grey.
Of course she’d heard of it, and knew exactly what it was about, but she hadn’t actually read it yet, mainly because she knew if either of her parents caught her with it they’d go ballistic. ‘It’s like the first thing I’m going to download when I get my Kindle,’ she told him, hoping it was the right answer.
    He smiled. ‘Really? I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it.’
    ‘Have you read it?’
    His eyes seemed to narrow slightly as he said, ‘I should go now, but first tell me what you’re up to today so I can imagine you doing it.’
    Wishing she had the courage to say she was about to get in the shower so he could think of her with no clothes on, or that she had plans to laze around the garden in a bikini so he could imagine her that way, she heard herself saying, ‘I’m going over to my friend, Maudie’s, to do some revising. She’s a genius when it comes to physics.’ As soon as the words were out she wanted to grab them back. Why did she have to go and remind him she was still at school? It was really going to put him off, and she couldn’t bear it if it did.
    ‘I’ll try to catch up with you later,’ he told her, and a moment later he’d gone.
    She stared at the screen in despair.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
What was she going to do? She always said the dumbest things and now he was going to think she was immature and stupid and a total waste of space, and if he thought that she’d just want to die.
    ‘Tierney! What are you doing in there?’ her mother called out.
    ‘Go away!’ Tierney seethed.
    ‘Dad and Zav are making pancakes,’ Lainey told her through the door. ‘They thought you’d like some too.’
    ‘I don’t want any pancakes. I’m not hungry. Just
leave me alone
.’
    There was a moment before Lainey said, ‘Are you all right?’
    ‘I’m fine. I just don’t want to come down yet.’
    There was no sound of her mother moving away. Tierney wanted to scream as she pictured her hovering outside. ‘Can I come in?’ Lainey eventually asked.
    Tierney’s fists were clenched. ‘No!’ she practically raged.
    ‘You know, I think I will.’
    ‘Don’t you dare! This is
my
room and you’re not invited.’
    More seconds ticked by, and then Tierney’s heart jarred at the sound of an email dropping into her inbox.
    She quickly clicked on.
    It was a gift from iTunes –
from him!
    Oh my God, he’s sent me some music to download.
    She found the message.
    For you to listen to while revising. Xxx
    The door opened and her mother came in.
    ‘Well, at least you’re up,’ Lainey commented, casting a quick look around the room as though checking to make sure no one else was there.
    ‘Of course I am,’ Tierney replied sunnily, closing her laptop. ‘I was just checking to make sure Maudie’s still on for today. And actually, I’m dead in the mood for pancakes, especially Dad’s. Zav’s always have to be scraped off the floor.’
    Lainey laughed. ‘They’re still pretty tasty