Never Say Never by Rachael Sommers (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

But her resolve had held, she had been as cold and distant as she swore she would be.

As soon as she had settled in the backseat of her car, she reached for her phone to find whatever news Emily had been talking about.

She typed in her name and cursed when she saw the headline and photos of her and Emily.

She was annoyed with herself for not noticing someone watching them, and it didn’t sit well with her that Emily had been photographed without her permission, that she’d been exposed in such a way. She should be glad that at least the photographer hadn’t got a clear shot of Emily’s face.

She toyed with the idea of putting out a statement that it was a work dinner, nothing more, but decided that would just bring the story to the forefront, throw more fuel on the fire. It hadn’t been picked up by any major news outlets, and she was confident that it would die down and be forgotten. And she wasn’t going to be photographed with Emily again.

If she needed to, she could arrange a date with someone high profile, make that the story instead, to keep Emily’s name out of the limelight.

But for now, she would do nothing. She would say nothing about it to Emily, and the two of them could keep on pretending that everything was just fine.

Chapter 14

The next two weeks were…difficult.

Emily and Camila settled into their new dynamic rather quickly, all things considered. Emily focused her primary attention on Jaime and she and Camila—Ms. Evans—didn’t really talk much anymore, unless it was about him.

And it was fine.

Except that it wasn’t. It was anything but fine. Sometimes when she looked at Camila, she was desperate to say something, anything, to get her exterior to crack, to get her to open up, to just look at her the way she used to, with eyes that weren’t wary and guarded or, worse, utterly disinterested, but this was what Camila wanted, what Camila thought was best, so Emily played along, even though sometimes she thought it might kill her.

Camila left for work almost as soon as Emily arrived, and Emily left to go home as soon as Camila got back. They hadn’t been in a room alone together for longer than thirty seconds since that night.

Camila hadn’t been working as late—or maybe she was just leaving her office early and working through the night in her study instead. Her makeup couldn’t hide the bags under her eyes, but Emily couldn’t ask her what was wrong or if she was taking care of herself, so she just bit her tongue. With Camila coming home earlier, Emily found she was home earlier too, with too much free time on her hands.

She tried to keep herself busy, spending time with Megan at the gym, with Cassie and Maia, or finding ways to get out and make more friends in the city.

She even joined a cooking class, which was a bit of a disaster, made the teacher despair, but now she could make three basic dishes, and neither Cassie nor Maia had died of food poisoning when she cooked for them last week.

Cassie dragged her to a bar one Saturday night, promising to be her wing woman. She didn’t go home with anyone, but she danced a few times and got a few phone numbers, and Cassie had been pestering her ever since to message one of them.

She hadn’t—yet—but the possibility of dating someone was there, and that was something, a small victory, evidence that she could come out the other side.

Eventually, she managed to fill her schedule until she was busier than she had been since graduating from college, but a part of her still felt empty, like she wasn’t complete, no matter how hard she tried to fill the void.

* * *

Camila’s nights were lonely again. She hadn’t realized how nice it was to come home and have someone to talk to, and she missed the easy conversations with Emily. Things were still awkward between them, but it was for the best, and Camila made no effort to go back to the way it was before.

The night before Thanksgiving, Camila’s phone rang. It was her friend in LA, Jenny.

“I have a surprise for you,” Jenny said as Camila kicked off her shoes at the entrance to her apartment.

“A surprise?” Camila asked. Emily and Jaime were sitting together on the couch, and she waved, phone pressed to her ear. “Do I even want to know?”

“I’m going to be in the lobby of your building in…ten minutes.”

“You’re what?”

“You heard me. Put on a nice dress. I’m taking you out for a drink.”

“You can’t just…show up here without any warning and expect me to be free.”

“Oh, so you have plans?” Jenny asked skeptically.

“No, but I have a son. I can’t leave him alone, and the nanny is about to leave. Can you—”

“Um, Ms. Evans?” Emily’s voice was timid as she interrupted Camila. Turning, she found Emily watching her, biting down on her bottom lip. “I don’t mind staying late.”

“Emily, you don’t have to do that.” Given how eager Emily was to leave the apartment whenever Camila arrived home lately, she was surprised that she offered to stay longer. “Perhaps the neighbor could—”

“Absolutely not.” Emily said firmly. “Honestly, it’s fine.”

“I… Are you sure?”

“Yes, she’s sure,” Jenny affirmed as Emily nodded. “I’ll be right there!”

“Thank you, Emily.” Camila leaned over the back of the couch to kiss the top of Jaime’s head—he was already half-asleep—and hoped Emily wouldn’t be bored without Jaime to entertain her.

She barely had time to slip into her black dress, touch up her makeup, and run a brush through her hair before Jenny arrived. She hurried to answer the knock. Emily followed Camila with her eyes, and she tried to pretend that she didn’t notice.

“What, no hug?” Jenny asked when Camila opened the door. “Anyone would think you weren’t happy to see me.”

“When am I ever happy