He nods and backs off, realizing that he’s gone a step too far. “My apologies. It’s just … curious.” He takes a drink of his wine and then lightens the conversation. “Have you decided where you’re going to go to college?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t made my mind up quiet yet.”
That’s the easy answer. He should be asking if I’ll be going to college, not where.
“I’d be delighted to visit with you about coming to Columbia later, after dinner, if you are open to talking about it.” He gives me an encouraging smile. “We prefer students from Hawthorne. I was once a Hawthorne man myself, actually.”
With a polite smile and nod, I agree. “I’d be happy to consider it. I was actually thinking of going to Columbia.”
Of course, it’s a lie, but I love the reaction it elicits from Victoria.
She chokes on her bite for a moment and looks at me with horrified eyes that slowly narrow into razor thin slits. She reaches for her water goblet, but rather than drinking from it, she just tips it over. The water splashes all over the
table, pouring over the place settings and into my lap.
“Oops! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be so clumsy!” She feigns concern for me. “Did I get your dress?”
I gasp, trying to move out of the way in time, but I’m not quick enough.
“Yes, you did.” I give everyone a patient half-smile as I stand at my seat. “Please excuse me.”
Victoria has used the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Eli, and by the time I’ve promised Wills I’ll be right back, I can hear her already dropping hints about the ‘right sort’ to go to his college.
It’s pathetic, but highly effective.
I’m just glad that she didn’t think to knock over Eli’s glass of red wine instead of her own water. Within minutes, my dress has dried enough under the wall-mounted hand-dryer, and I’m ready to re-join the rest of dinner.
Just as I’m stepping into the hall out of the bathroom, I see Astor leaning against the wall. He’s waiting for me.
I blink a few times just to be sure he’s not a specter, and he pushes himself casually off the wall, eyeing me back.
“Will you walk with me a minute?” he asks, holding his arm out. He looks amazing, standing there in his tuxedo with that perfectly combed wave of dark golden-brown hair over his deep brown eyes.
I think on it for only a moment, knowing full well that if Victoria saw this she would probably stab me with a steak knife. There’s something delicious about doing it behind her back, and there’s something in me that has missed him so much; his closeness, his voice, his touch, and definitely his kiss.
I know I probably shouldn’t, but I take his arm and he walks me down the hall and around a corner to a window where the light is dim. The wood frame on the window is dark and polished to a gleam. Even though the window looks down on the grounds, there’s no one down below to look up. No one will see us here, and I know he made sure of that on purpose.
“What do you want, Astor?” I ask, trying to sound like I couldn’t care less that we are alone together for the first time in nearly a whole year.
His eyes are locked on me, and I see something in them that I haven’t seen before now. He’s troubled. He lifts his hand and with the lightest touch, he runs a finger over the curls in my hair.
“Why did you change it?” he asks in a quiet voice. “I liked it how it was before.”
He hasn’t spoken to me in so long, and the first thing he asks me about when he gets me alone is my hair? I take a deep breath. I tell him what I told Blair.
“It was Victoria’s idea.”
He tilts his head a little as he works it out in his mind. “I thought you weren’t friends anymore.”
“Far from it,” I say. I look away from him and cross my arms over my chest. “She had her minions hold me down and she chopped it off.”
Astor is quiet for a long minute. “That’s unfortunate. I’ll have to speak with her about it.”
“That’s so … like you,” I say. I can’t even be mad at his reaction.
I raise my eyes to him again. I’m so confounded that he’s even here talking to me, and I have to ask.
“Astor, you’ve ignored me for so long. Why … why are we standing here now? What do you want?”