Arms Wide Open: a Novella by Juli Caldwell Page A

the serious lack of cash and credits cards that will most
definitely get declined. It will probably end up in a trash can somewhere near
the shop, but I still feel naked. Funny how all those official little papers
and cards make me feel like someone.
    I think hard. Maybe I dropped it in the
front when I pulled my keys out to unlock the door? “I’ll go look outside, just
in case.”
    I head for the door, unlock everything,
and step onto the patio, leaving it open so the light from the hall streams
onto the small cement pad in front of our cute little garden apartment. A row
of shrubs separates our courtyard from the neighbors, so l kneel down and reach
into the foliage, shaking branches with the hope that my wallet will fall out
like manna from heaven. The sky is an orange gray now that dark clouds have
rolled in. I smell rain in the air. I’m crawling around on all fours, my hands
getting scratched and shredded when my wallet magically appears before my eyes,
floating right in front of me.
    “What the..!” I fall onto my backside
and sprawl out on the concrete. My head hits the base of the shrubs and what
little long hair I have gets tangled with a sharp collection of twigs at the
base, and all I can do is laugh. My eyes are cinched shut and I’m laughing like
a maniac. Tonight starts with an eyeball guy and ends with me getting ambushed
by a flying wallet and attacked by bushes. How much more bizarre can my life
get at this point?
    “Are you okay?” a very familiar and
concerned voice asks.
    Nothing surprises me more than that
voice. “Grant?” I ask, sitting up. I think I leave a handful of hair behind in
the bush as I lurch up in surprise, but I’m too shocked to feel it. “How did
you find me?”
    He squats down next to me and holds my
wallet up. “You left this. I’m a creeper and went through it. Took your cash
and went on a spending spree before I brought it back.”
    “With what I have in there? What did you
buy, half a pack of gum?” I sit up and rub the back of my head, which is now
pulsing with heat and pain. I touch it gently to feel the damage. I should have
a lovely goose egg back there by morning.
    “Oliver and I found it under the table
where we sat tonight,” he explains. Grant stands, offering a hand to help me
up.
    I sigh and take it, jumping lightly to
my feet with his help. That jolt is back, the white hot burst of energy I feel
when I see him and touch him. I stand there for just a moment, basking in it as
light from the hall illuminates his perfect features, his hand still in mine.
“Thanks,” I murmur, working up the courage to look him in the eye. When my eyes
reach his, I almost can’t breathe. We stand there, hand in hand, for the
longest moment, until a shadow blocks our light and I hear Harlow clearing her
throat as discreetly as she can.
    I look away. “Harlow, meet Grant. Grant,
this is my roommate Harlow.”
    She leans against the door frame and
folds her arms, looking very much like a mother who just got her kid smooching
on the porch after curfew. “Grant, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard absolutely
nothing about you.”
    He grins and shakes his head,
embarrassed. “Same here.”
    “He found my wallet at the coffee shop
and was nice enough to bring it back to me,” I tell her. I jump back and wipe
the dirt and leaves from my backside. Coughing, I look down long enough to
collect my thoughts, and then take the wallet from him. “Thanks again for
bringing this by. You didn’t have to go to the trouble.”
    “Hey, uh, Lauren,” he starts, but he
glances at Harlow, who’s still standing in the doorway with an amused smirk on
her face.
    “Can I have a minute?” I ask her as my
heart starts to beat foolishly in my chest.
    Her eyes soften, and the porch light
flips on as she closes the door. “You two crazy kids don’t stay out too late,”
she says right before the door clicks shut.
    Grant looks around, looking for a place
to sit. We have nothing, unless he