Pursing my lips, I set the phone to the side. “Let me think that over after today. Look, I need to get out of the water before I prune myself. I’ll call you later.”
With a wave, I turned off the call and then reached for a towel to dry myself with and then wrapped it all over my body. I couldn’t help but think about what she just said to me, about Julian and how he wasn’t such a bad guy and how I was boxing him into my own idea of who he was. But I couldn’t really understand what the big deal is about Julian Hudson. Sure, he was attractive and had an amazing voice but physical attributes could never be enough.
You’ve been hating on me to transfer that guilt to someone else, so you could blame someone else when in truth, you’re guilty because even you who was closest to her couldn’t see her falling apart.
His words echoed in my mind again and I gritted my teeth, feeling the guilt slowly crawl and wrap itself around my heart. Theo always told me that Julian didn’t deserve all the hate that I had reserved for him but Theo had no idea that the hate that I directed at Julian was actually the anger that I had for myself for not being there for Amber.
Perhaps, I was more cruel than Julian.
I was sitting on the toilet and putting lotion on my legs when my phone pinged for a message. Squinting my eyes, I tried to see who had sent me a text and let out a scoff when I saw Julian’s name on the screen. He had been trying to reach me when I left and to be honest, I was surprised that he was. He was on the verge of apologizing for what he had said but we both knew that he had meant every word so his apology was useless.
But I couldn’t really ignore the message because he kept on messaging me, flooding me with a message typed in capital letters. With a huff of annoyance, I grabbed my phone and read the message in big letters.
I’M OUTSIDE. COME OUT. OR I’LL CAUSE A RUCKUS.
There weren’t many reasons for me to trust Julian and just as I was about to ignore the message and continue preparing myself for bed, I could hear muffled screaming from outside followed by the pounding of my front door. Again, my phone pinged with a message, the screen lighting up, Julian’s name flashing.
I’LL SCREAM ALL NIGHT OUTSIDE UNTIL YOU COME OUT HERE.
I resisted the urge to throw my phone against the wall in annoyance as I put on some clothes and rushed outside. I could hear Julian screaming my name from within the walls of my house, his voice echoing in the silence until I finally reached the front door and grabbed him by his shirt without hesitation and dragged him in.
Pushing him against the door the moment I closed it, his eyes were wide with surprise as his back pressed against the door. “You must’ve heard that it turns me on when women get feisty.”
Letting him go, I turned my back on him and kept a safe distance. “What are you doing here?”
Heck, how did he even know where I lived? None of the boys knew where I lived and even Bonnie didn’t. I’d only been Julian’s assistant for nearly 48 hours and there wasn’t even a personal data sheet that I had to submit to him because this was merely an agreement that we made for him to sign his band with us.
There was only person who could tell him where I lived but I doubted that he would.
“I asked Theo where you lived when you continued to ignore my calls,” Julian said, sounding so casual as he walked further into my home. I pursed my lips and gritted my teeth in annoyance. Theo was going to hear a mouthful about this whole thing tomorrow, “and it’s surprising that your place isn’t too shabby but I’m surprised you live on your own.”
“Why are you here?”
Julian turned to look at me, his eyes looked like cloudy daylight and there didn’t seem to be any ounce of sunlight that would sliver through it. It was only then that I noticed that he had something behind his back. “What’s that?”
He bit his lower lip and then handed me the package without even looking. It was a brown paper bag and Julian refused to look at me as I took it from him and opened it. The smell of freshly-baked cinnamon cookies wafted all around the house as if someone doused my entire home with cinnamon and the smell was so strong it felt like I was punched by it.
But in a way, it warmed my heart.
“Amber used to beg me to make you cinnamon cookies because you liked them so much.”
I looked at him in surprise. “You made those?”
Julian and Amber dated for a few months until he dumped her but my best friend seemed to be at her happiest whenever he was around so I could never really ruin it for her, no matter how much I was against it. During the time that she was with him, she used to bring me cinnamon cookies on random nights because she knew how much I loved them but she would never tell me where she got them.
“Cooking and making music aren’t the only things I’m good at,” Julian said quietly and he balanced himself on the balls of his feet and then let out a sigh, “I’ll be seeing you tomorrow, right?”
“Did you come here to apologize for what you said to me earlier?”
Julian looked like he was a deer caught by the headlights and he hastily shook his head. “No! I made cookies earlier because Dylan asked me to. And…”
I raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“And you left in such a hurry and you weren’t answering any of my calls. You didn’t really leave in such a celebratory mood.”
Julian’s not a bad person once you actually try and get to know him.
I pursed my lips and then lifted the brown bag filled with cookies. “This is bait, isn’t it? Although, thank you for it.”
Julian looked away but I could see that he was trying to fight off the shy smile
I let out a small sarcastic chuckle but nodded my head as I took a step towards the door and opened it, motioning for him to leave. Julian paused for a moment. “You’re still coming tomorrow, right?”
Despite the animosity that I had towards him, the warm cinnamon cookies thawed my cold heart, a little. “At 8 AM, sharp.”
9
Julian
Audrey had been my assistant for a week now and we never really got along as much as I thought we would after that hurtful argument that we had on the second day. Audrey continued to remind herself that this was only for a moment and there were orders she refused to do that frustrated me to no end.
Considering that we didn’t really have a label and a manager- which we’d all unanimously agreed on firing Pete- there wasn’t anything much that I was meant to do. I had photoshoots and auditions and the boys were all either busy running their YouTube channel and getting in an actual job and I was mostly just at home, arguing with Audrey and wondering what the hell I was supposed to do for the day.
My phone’s incessant ringing woke me up and with a groan, I reached from it from the nightstand and answered the FaceTime, squinting my eyes as I adjusted to see who was calling me. Milo’s face appeared on screen, freshly showered, shaven and ready for work. “Why are you still asleep, Julian?”
My oldest brother sounded so reprimanding, it reminded me of my father. “Why are you already up?”
I could hear the kids in the background and could hear cooking as well. Milo switched to the back camera and Violet- his daughter and my only niece- cheered when she saw me. “Uncle Jules! I’m so excited to see you!”