Betrayal: Brianna's Secret (The Betrayal Series) by Sofia Velardi Page B

you just get up?”
    “No. Why?”
    “You did not reply to my messages right away. I assumed it was because you were asleep.”
    “I’ve been up since early. I’ve just been busy and forgot to check my phone for a while,” Abby lied, her voice shaky. Her voice always shook when she was lying or hiding something.
    The shakiness in her voice did not go unnoticed by Kyle. He knew her well. It was also unusual for her to go hours without checking her phone. Like just about every person her age, Abby was glued to her smart phone. Suspicion began to creep in Kyle’s thoughts.
    With her phone to her ear, Abby walked back to the bed and sat on it. “Where are you? What’s going on there?” She asked Kyle, referring to the voices and the laughter she was hearing in the background.
    “I’m home. People have started arriving for the reunion, and everyone wants to see you and say hi to you. Get on Skype right now so we can all see that gorgeous face of yours.”
    “Crap” was the first word that popped into Abby’s head. She had to think of another lie and quick. “I can’t. I’m not home right now. I’m at work,” Abby explained in an unusually high pitch as her heart began to pump faster.
    “You’re at work? I thought you did not have to work today?”
    “I didn’t, but Victoria, the cashier scheduled to work today, called in sick, and Jeremy asked me to cover for her. I’m sorry.” Abby exhaled quietly, surprised at how quickly she came up with that lie and hoping Kyle wouldn’t figure out she was lying.  “Maybe we can Skype tonight?” Abby proposed.
    “Sure, honey. Don’t worry about it. We’ll do it tonight.”
    “I have to go. I have customers waiting for me.”
    “Okay, babe. Go back to work. I’ll talk to you tonight.”
    Abby pressed the end call button on her cracked phone screen and let out a heavy sigh of relief. Another lie. Abby considered herself an honest, straight-forward person and did not like how easy the lies were coming out of her mouth lately. Disappointed in herself, Abby stuffed the phone back in her bag and headed to Brianna’s bathroom to take a shower.
    Abby looked around the fancy bathroom and wished she had one just like it to relax in after a long day of standing on her feet at work. She had only seen bathrooms like that one in the movies. She couldn’t help but chuckle. Brianna’s bathroom was almost as big as her entire apartment.
    After brushing her teeth, Abby pulled her hair in a bun on top of her head and stared at herself in the mirror. She couldn’t believe she was in the apartment of her boyfriend’s sister, a woman she hadn’t even met two weeks earlier.
    Abby reflected over all the unexpected, wonderful and regretful things that had happened over the last two weeks and tried to process all the conflicting emotions she was feeling. All the reflecting and second-guessing was making her head spin.
     She stared at her reflection in the mirror and mentally cursed her bad luck. She was in love with two people but couldn’t be with either one of them. It just didn’t seem fair, but Abby understood that losing Kyle and denying herself the possibility of being happy with Brianna was the price she had to pay for her indiscretion.
    Stepping away from the mirror, Abby slipped off her jeans, top, bra and panties and folded them neatly on top of a table. She stepped inside the white marble shower, drew the almost transparent sliding door shut and turned on the water.
    The high pressure water felt yummy slamming against her curves. Her shower at home had such a poor flow. She wished she could’ve stayed under that warm water forever, but she remembered Brianna and her pizza were waiting for her in the kitchen. 
    After getting out of the shower, Abby dried herself off and put one of Brianna’s ridiculously soft bathrobes on.  The fact that she was not wearing anything under that bathrobe made Abby feel extremely self-conscious, but she had no choice but to be