When in Paris... (Language of Love) by Beverley Kendall Read Free Book Online Page B

out.
    A shock of heat zips through me to settle in my core. My gaze drops to my plate as I sit here furiously and helplessly turned on.
    I’m a bigger mess than I thought.
    Another awkward silence falls. I sense April and Troy sharing a look. I can only imagine what they’re thinking.
    Troy clears his throat. “Right, well, good.”
    I raise my gaze to Zach and get that eerie, shivery feeling of déjà vu because, once again, I find him casually leaning back in his chair, watching me.

C HAPTER F IVE

    OLIVIA
    The following day when I return to the room after a full day of classes, April’s perched on her bed speaking earnestly into her cell phone. She glances in my direction and I can tell the call’s important because of the uncharacteristic line creasing her otherwise flawless brow.
    “No, that’s fine. Just book it. I’ll work my schedule around it.”
    Now I know that’s not good. Bad news? I mouth to her as I grab the knob of the door and ease it quietly closed.
    April nods and makes a face but it’s hard to tell if she’s sad or pissed off. Or maybe a little bit of both. Eyeing her curiously, I cross the room to my bed.
    “Okay, Carol. Just email me the deets. Right. Ciao. ” After she clicks off, she tosses her phone down on her bed. “Shit!”
    My backpack and purse hit the floor as I immediately turn to face her. “What? What’s wrong?”
    “Carol’s booked me for a toothpaste commercial.”
    “A commercial? But that’s great.” I’d stopped modeling and auditioning when I was ten but April has been landing modeling gigs for as long as I can remember. Usually small stuff for catalogs—Sears, JCPenny, Macy’s—stuff like that. In the recent year, the fashion magazine stuff started to pick up but she hasn’t done a commercial in about four years.
    “Yeah, but do you know when they want to shoot it?” Apparently, it’s a rhetorical question because she continues, “During the break.”
    It takes me a couple seconds to understand the significance of that because school-wise it puts her in the clear. We’re off that whole week. But as the realization of what she’s saying crashes down on me, disappointment is an understatement to what I’m feeling.
    “No. No. No. You cannot mean you’re not going to Paris.” We have all these plans. The places we’re going to go, the things we’re going to do, what we’re going to see. But the look on her face gives me the answer I don’t want to hear and I want to stomp my feet like a five-year-old at the unfairness of it.
    April heaves a sigh and comes to her feet. I see the misery and disappointment I feel inside reflected on her face. Going to her, I put my arms around her and hug her tightly. “If you don’t want to do the shoot…”
    She raises her head from my shoulder and peers down at me. “I can’t afford to turn it down. The pay is ten grand. I’d have to work all year to make that working part-time. It’s for three days’ work.”
    I concede her point but… “Is it school? I thought your sister was paying for that.”
    At that, April pulls completely out of my arms. “It shouldn’t be on her to pay for my college.” She runs her hand through a swathe of shimmering brown curls.
    My eyes follow her like I’m watching a ping-pong match as she paces the length of the floral rug between our beds. “April, she wants to do it for you. She has the money.” This I know for a fact, I’d heard it right from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. 
    Victoria’s been modeling since she was fourteen and is now in the big times. She also loves her little sister to pieces. Both her younger sisters and her brother. She has problems denying them anything.
    “But she shouldn’t have to. I’m her sister, not her daughter.”
    What she means is that responsibility should belong to her parents, not Victoria.
    “Okay, then we’ll go to Paris another time. Hey, wouldn’t it be great if you get a job overseas, someplace like Paris or