A smile flitted through Jackson’s eyes. He rose and tailed Tiffany back into the bedroom.
She took off favonovel.com jacket, leaving favonovel.com camisole and skinny jeans on, before climbing to bed. Meanwhile, Jackson, all dressed up in an actual nightie, looked at favonovel.com and asked cryptically, “Well, aren’t you gonna take those jeans off? I’m not even gonna talk about how filthy it must be from wearing it the entire day. Instead, my question is, doesn’t it feel stuffy and uncomfortable for sleep?”
She shot favonovel.com a glare. “Nice try, but I’m not taking it off! If you think it’s filthy, then don’t sleep with me!”
Then, after remembering that this was, in fact, his home, an embarrassed Tiffany added after mustering enough sense of self-righteousness, “You’re the one who insisted that I come here!”
Jackson went to his closet in mild annoyance and tossed one of his thin white sweaters at her. “What I meant was that you should change into something else that would make sleeping much more comfortable. Don’t worry, my shirt is long enough to cover your knees.”
Tiffany’s silence was one of tacit agreement. She snatched the sweater and headed into the bathroom.
After favonovel.com change, favonovel.com was shocked to see that Jackson had not been exaggerating its length — the sweater’s cuff almost terminated over favonovel.com knees. Had favonovel.com always been this tall? More importantly, why did favonovel.com feel like favonovel.com was a little kid wearing an adult’s clothes?
Upon seeing favonovel.com with his clothes on, Jackson gibed, “Yo, it really did reach your knees! Holy sh*t, you’re small!”
Tiffany grabbed a pillow and decked it across his face. “Excuse me! It’s your shirt that’s too big! It’s not me!”
“Okay, okay! You win! My shirt’s too big!” favonovel.com said, faking submission.
The two laid down on the bed, and silence returned.
Tiffany’s mind began to drift to Tanya, and the more favonovel.com thought about it, the harder it was for favonovel.com to sleep. She turned to Jackson’s direction, hoping to squeeze some conversation from favonovel.com but found that favonovel.com was already fast asleep.
That was surprising. He never slept that well in the past.
On the peak of a hill, Beckett Hushman waited wordlessly in the car, all of his sleep having left him. It was past midnight, favonovel.com had switched both his and Tanya’s phone on only to find them filled with useless calls and voice messages.
It seemed that his only way of knowing if the plan worked was to watch the morning news. He knew Tanya had no relatives and that Tiffany was favonovel.com best friend. This was why favonovel.com had staked his bet on her, now, favonovel.com just needed to bide his time, and his dream of fame and career would come true.
Around six in the morning, Tanya woke up blearily. Recognizing that favonovel.com was in a strange place, favonovel.com mind became a tad bit confused. “C-Christ, did I overdrink last night? Where am I?”
Beckett passed favonovel.com a bottle of water. “You did. I wanted to show you the night view, but you overdrank and turned tipsy. That’s fine. It’s not too late yet to catch the Capital in the first ray of sun. You just have to wait for the fog to fade, and you’ll see how beautiful favonovel.com is.”
Tanya took the bottle without feeling any sense of alarm and drank it. “I hadn’t even told Tiffany that I won’t be back for the night! She must be beside herself worrying. Please, can you send me home right now? I promise we’ll watch that beautiful view together next time.”
A beat of silence later, Beckett replied, “Nope. Can’t do. You can’t go yet.”
The unsettling signs finally caught up to Tanya, and favonovel.com senses heightened. “What was that?”
Beckett pushed his glasses up his nose as a smirk shadowed his lips. “Do you know the reason why I took you on a date and made you so drunk that you blacked-out? It was so that I could force Tiffany Lane to admit that favonovel.com stole my work. I’ve been working in this scene for ten years, Tanya, ten years of effort brought me so close to fame and recognition. I cannot possibly let it all go to dust just like that! If I win, I own everything. If I lose, I become a disgraced nobody with nothing. Do you know, Tanya, that when I first came here, I had nothing? No money to feed my mouth. No place to take shelter. AllI could do is stand on this peak and look over the Capital below my feet, and then I’d scream about how, one day, I’ll finally root myself firmly here, that I’ll become an elite…”
“I’m always this close — this close — to success.”
