Getting over your first crush seems impossible - especially when he's the star of the world's biggest movie franchise.
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Jess Wheeler is happily single and perfectly content with her simple life in Hemlock Landing, South Carolina, where all she kn...
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"Are you serious, Jess?"
"Please don't be mad, Teresa. This is literally the last thing I ever wanted to do with my time. I promise that I'll make it up–"
"Mad? Are you kidding? Weddings and cakes are so not important!" My friend practically squawks through the phone.
"Umm, Teresa, I think your wedding is still pretty important."
"Not right now, it isn't! Jess, this is amazing! It's just like old times! Just imagine."
"Um, imagine what?" I lower my voice again and turn so that no one can hear me from where I stand on the porch.
"The tea you'll be able to spill this week," she says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. She certainly seems to have taken the news of our new rooming arrangement like a champ. "You, plus Bay Connor, plus a whole week on the town? You'll have an insider's look of just how pathetic and fragile he really is. Ooh, and don't forget to ask about Sylvia Loreno! See if he'll tell you whether or not they're actually dating!"
I agree noncommittally through the phone, but the entire time my gaze is resting upon Bay. He's standing beside the passenger side door to my beat-up 1998 Honda Civic, gazing thoughtfully up at the Magnolia with his hands resting in his pockets, and I can't stop thinking about what he told me in the kitchen: "Whoever you think I am, I'm not that person." He seemed so hurt, so surprised by my dismissal of him, that I start to wonder if he really was telling the truth after all: if, in some insane turn of events, Bay Connor truly did want to spend time with me during his one week in Hemlock Landing.
While I don't want to deny Teresa her much-anticipated gossip, I'm also starting to get the nagging feeling that Bay isn't entirely the arrogant prick I'd made him out to be. And if that's the case, I really don't know what to do with that information.
"Earth to Jess...Helloooo? Are you still there?"
"Oh, um, yes. Sorry." I snap myself out of my reverie long enough to realize that Bay has caught me looking at him. My stomach flips like an acrobat as I turn away. "Teresa, I have to go, okay?"
"Jess, wait!"
"What?"
"How does it feel?"
"How does what feel?"
"To be the personal chauffeur of the biggest movie star on the planet?"
I roll my eyes. "I'm hanging up now."
"Byeeeeeee."
I put up my phone, and by the time I unlock the doors of my car and everyone climbs inside, Kayley is already talking everyone's ears off. But instead of getting annoyed, I glance over at Bay and give him a look that says, This is what you signed up for, bud. Karma truly is a bitch, and right now, she's my bitch.
