Something was tickling his arm.
Without opening his eyes, Roman frowned and attempted to scoot away from the source, only to find he couldn’t move his arm. It seemed to be under something heavy. And it was seriously tickling him.
Reluctantly, Roman cracked one eye open, then the other one, hoping there wasn’t a horse’s head in his bed or anything. The first thing he saw was a mass of silky dark hair.
He frowned, but when he moved his gaze lower and saw Maya snuggled into the crook of his arm, the events of last night rushed back to him.
With a groan, he resisted the urge to hit himself in the head. He couldn’t believe he’d told her about his parents. He’d never told anyone about the situation with his parents, not even Carlo and the others, who knew only the vaguest details.
And now she has the perfect blackmail material, Roman thought darkly, berating himself for how stupid he was.
With a scowl, he propped himself up with his elbow and tried to pull his arm out from under Maya’s head without waking her. It didn’t work.
Letting out a low curse, Roman tried again. And failed again.
He sighed, falling back on the bed in defeat. Without even noticing, though, Roman’s scowl softened a bit as he looked at Maya’s sleeping face. Her long lashes cast a shadow over her cheeks, and there was a small smile on her lips. A stray strand of hair fell over face, and he willed himself not to brush it away for her.
She looked so peaceful when she wasn’t yelling at him.
Roman was so busy looking at her that when his alarm sounded, he jumped about ten feet in the air, jostling her in the process.
He winced when Maya let out a groan and slowly sat up, rubbing the back of her head. She yawned and opened her eyes, and then—
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The scowl came back in full force. Ah, there was the Maya he knew and lov—disliked.
“It’s a bit early in the morning for that, don’t you think?” he pointed out, shaking out his numb arm. A tingly feeling invaded his limb as feeling slowly crept back into it.
“Why were we sleeping together?” Maya asked accusatorily, her green eyes wide as she scooted back to the edge of the bed like he was going to attack her or something. “What happened last night?” She narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t take advantage of me, did you? Because if you did, I’m going to—“
“Of course not,” Roman snapped, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and walking over to his closet to grab something to wear. “If I remember correctly, you came in here screaming about some monster being after you. Then you invited yourself to stay over in here till the lights went out, fell asleep, and when I put you down on the bed to sleep so you didn’t wake up with neck cramps, you pulled me down beside you and used me as your pillow. So no, I didn’t take advantage of you. It’s more like you took advantage of me.”
He grabbed a Thomas Pink shirt and a pair of jeans and turned to face Maya again.
She relaxed the grip that was strangling her shirt—his shirt, actually—as realization dawned over her face. “Oh.” She smiled sheepishly, obviously remembering everything that happened. “Oops.”
“Yeah, oops.” Roman rolled his eyes, pulling on his jeans. Girls were just too much trouble. He had no idea why Parker liked them so much. Well, he had an idea, but they just weren’t worth it, in his opinion.
As he buttoned up his jeans, he realized that Maya’s face had turned pink, and she was staring intently in his director.
A small smirk appeared on his face when he realized what she was looking at. “See something you like?” he asked cockily, pulling his shirt over his head in a deliberately slow motion.
Maya’s face turned even redder as she quickly looked away. “You wish,” she snapped, getting out of the bed.
Roman chuckled. She was pretty cute when she was embarrassed. He froze. Did he just think of her as cute? What was wrong with him?
Stupid storm. This is all its fault.
This time Maya smirked. “See something you like?” she taunted.
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, my clothes. Which you’re wearing. I’d like them back please.”
Maya turned the color of a fire hydrant. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not stripping in front of you!”
Roman couldn’t help but laugh at her indignation, which seemed to make her even madder. She was too cute. “I never asked you to. Your room is right across the hall…” He trailed off, expecting her to be smart enough to catch his drift.
“Oh.” The embarrassed look came back. “Right. Well, I’ll be back then,” she muttered, almost running out of the room.
It really was too bad she tripped over a stray tennis racket and fell face down on the carpet.
“Ow!”
Roman burst out laughing again. He should probably go help her up, but he was having way too much fun. Besides, it was payback for her laughing at him when he ran into that door.
Maya glared at him as she stood up. “Thanks for helping me!”
“No problem,” he chortled, trying to contain his laughter.
He almost succeeded, until Maya took another two steps and tripped. Again. Over nothing at all this time, it seemed.
This time, Roman was almost in stitches. He bent over double, his shoulders shaking with mirth as Maya let out a string of very unladylike curses. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so hard.
This was probably the most entertaining Monday mornings he’d ever had.
* * *
“How about this? I think Zack would like this.” Carlo smiled impishly as he held up a hideous green-and-red paisley shit. It was so ugly I actually gagged.
“That’s disgusting!” I complained, covering my eyes with my hands. “Stop! Put it away before I’m scarred for life!”
Carlo laughed, and I didn’t take my hands from my eyes until I heard the shirt being put back on the rack. “You’re too easy to rile up.”
“Am not,” I said rather childishly, quickly dragging him as far away from that Christmas tree they called a dress as possible. “You’re supposed to help me find a birthday present, not make fun of me!”
It was Thursday after school, and Carlo and I had gone to La Terra, the next town over, to find Zack’s present since he probably had everything he wanted from Valesca. Sadly, our shopping expedition was not going too well. The fact that I was on a bit of a budget did not help matters at all.
“Ok, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Carlo held up his hands. “I promise, I’ll be serious now.” He gave me his best solemn face.
“You look like you’re constipated,” I snickered, even though he didn’t. Hey, I had to get him back somehow, right?
Carlo didn’t look offended. “What a liar. You’re just mad because you can’t think of a good present.”
“That’s what you’re supposed to be here for,” I grumbled, eyeing a wall of cologne. Nah. Zack probably already had every cologne under the sun. “Besides, not everyone can afford to buy people a boat.”
I still couldn’t believe Roman was getting Zack a boat. Seriously, these people had too much money.
I bit my lip as I thought about Roman. We’d been co-existing pretty peacefully the past few days, with the exception of my total humiliation Monday morning. It seemed as though our little conversation Sunday night had eased some of the tension between us, although I was far from feeling comfortable with him. It wasn’t necessarily a bad discomfort, it was just—
The sound of a phone ringing interrupted my thoughts.
“Sorry, excuse me for one second,” Carlo said, pulling out his iPhone. His face darkened when he saw the caller ID, and I wondered who it was.
“Hello?” His voice was terse. “No. I’m not at home. No. I said no. Stop being so difficult! I swear if you—you better not do anything stupid. I’m not covering for you. Yes, I know.” Carlo let out a huge sigh, looking the most annoyed I’d ever seen him. “Fine. I’ll see you later.” He didn’t sound too happy about it.
“Who was that?” I asked curiously as we wandered past the jewelry counter.
“Nobody important.”
I was unconvinced, but if he didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to force him.
“Anyway.” Carlo quickly changed the subject. “We have to try another tack for Zack’s present. Try to think of things with sentimental value, not material goods. He already has all the material goods he wants.”
I furrowed my brow. Zack and I were friends, but it’s not like we were best friends. How was I supposed to know what had sentimental value and what didn’t?
“If it helps, besides music, he’s also really into photography,” Carlo offered.
My jaw dropped as I stared at him in disbelief.
He blinked. “What?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me earlier,” I groaned. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the store we were in and into the main part of the mall. I was sure we’d passed by a store selling photography equipment before. “You could’ve saved us so much time!”
“Sorry,” Carlo said a bit sheepishly.
I couldn’t be mad though, because after only half an hour in the photography store, I found what I was looking for. All I needed was to put my project together before Zack’s birthday. The end result wasn’t going to be a boat or Cartier cuff links or anything, but at least it was thoughtful.
“Thanks,” I said a bit excitedly as the cashier placed my purchases into a brown paper shopping tote.
She smiled warmly at me. “You’re welcome. Have a nice day.”
“You too!” I chirped, grabbing the bag and swinging it happily. I was so happy I finally knew what I was getting Zack for his present. I kept thinking I should get Adriana something too, but Carlo insisted the group present would be enough.
He hadn’t told me how I could contribute to the group present yet though.
“Are you hungry? We can grab something to eat before we go,” Carlo said as we walked out of the store. “There’s some pretty decent restaurants in here.”
“Sure,” I said. “Where do you want to eat?”
After some indecision, we finally settled for good old pizza at a charmingly rustic parlor tucked into a quiet corner of the mall.
I sighed with relief as I sank down into the red leather booth, my feet thanking me for the reprieve from a hard afternoon of shopping.
“Thanks so much for coming with me, I know guys hate shopping,” I said, lifting my hair off my shoulders and smiling at the waiter as he handed us our menus.
“It’s ok, I don’t mind.” Carlo shrugged, his eyes skimming over the menu. “It’s a nice break.”
“From what?”
Judging from the deer-caught-in-headlights look on his face, it was clear he’d said the wrong thing. “Uh…just from Valesca,” he answered, looking down.
“Right,” I said a bit suspiciously. I had a feeling he was lying to me.
“I’ll be right back, I need to go to bathroom,” Carlo suddenly said, setting down his menu. “You can order for us if you want, I eat anything.”
“Ok.” I stared at his back as he headed towards the bathroom, slightly confused. Why was he acting so weird?
When the waiter came back, I decided to order some breadsticks and a margherita pizza for the two of us. Everyone liked those, right?
“Maya?”
I blinked when a familiar sandy-brown head came into view. “James?”
He grinned when he saw me. “Hey!” he said happily. “Fancy running into you here!”
“Oh, yeah, I was just doing a bit of shopping,” I murmured, blushing a bit as I indicated the bag next to me. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here with a few friends. I live in La Terra, remember?” he added when the questioning look stayed on my face.
“Oh, right.” Now I felt like an idiot. He had told me he lived in La Terra when I met him at Stan Hoffman’s party.
“So, you here alone or are you with Parker?” James asked casually, glancing at the two water glasses on the table.
“No, I’m here with—wait, why’d you ask about Parker?” I frowned a bit, trying to remember if I’d told him I was ‘dating’ Parker. I was pretty sure I hadn’t.
“Some of my friends at Valesca mentioned he had a new girlfriend named Maya,” James explained. “And you’re the only Maya I’ve heard of there, so I figured…”
“Oh, yeah. Well, I’m not here with him.” I cleared my throat. “I’m here with, uh, another friend actually. I needed to find a birthday present.”
“Cool.” James nodded. “I didn’t get a phone call from you, by the way…” He raised his eyebrows playfully.
I blushed. “I have a boyfriend, remember?”
“You can do better than Parker Remington.”
My head jerked up, as his tone seemed a bit sharp, but when I saw his face, it was as relaxed as ever. “Or are you dating him because he’s a Scion?” James questioned.
“Of course not!” I was insulted he would even ask such a thing. “I don’t care about anyone’s social status or whatnot. Parker’s a nice guy once you get to know him. Really.”
“Maybe.” James sounded unconvinced. “I’d advise you stay away from all the Scions though, they’re bad news.”
“Thanks for the warning, but I think I can handle myself.” I used to think they were bad news too, but now that I’d gotten to know them better, they honestly weren’t that bad.
“So, how about it?” James said, sliding into the booth opposite me and abruptly changing the subject.
I was confused. “How about what?”
“A date with me.”
My jaw dropped. “James! You know I have a boyfriend.”
He shrugged, smiling a bit impishly. “Ok, not a date then. A friendly outing?” He gave me a puppy-dog face.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry, I don’t think I can.”
“Come on,” James persisted. “It’ll be fun, I promise! There won’t be champagne and caviar, but it’ll be a nice, simple da—er, outing.”
“I don’t know…”
“How about we go to an amusement park?” he suggested. “There’s one right by La Terra. It’s pretty cool, and I know you guys don’t have one in Valesca…”
“Well…” I bit my lip, unsure. An amusement park did sound fun, but I didn’t lead him on.
“I promise, we will go as just friends.” James held up one hand solemnly, as if he were taking an oath. “I won’t get the wrong idea. We shall only eat lots of corn dogs and pray we won’t throw them up after a day of scream-inducing roller coasters and long lines filled with screaming children.”
I laughed. “How could I resist an offer like that?” I teased, but I finally relented. “Ok, fine. One outing, as friends. That’s it. But if you throw up on me, you’re going to be in big trouble.”
James grinned happily. “Deal. This Saturday then? Or is that too soon?”
“This Saturday’s fine.”
“Great! Do you need a ride, or do you want me to come get you?”
“Oh, no, I think I can get here by myself.” I remembered there was a bus that went from Valesca to La Terra. “There’s no point in you driving all the way to Valesca and back again.”
“Well, then, I look forward to seeing your lovely face this weekend.” James winked at me. “You have my number if you need anything. I’ll see you later!”
“Bye.” I smiled, his enthusiasm contagious.
James left just as Carlo came back from the bathroom.
“You took a long time in there. What were you doing?” I teased.
“Let’s just say someone wasn’t feeling too well in there and I decided to play the Good Samaritan,” Carlo said with a bit of a grimace, just as the waiter came back out with our food.
I wrinkled my nose. Eew.
“So homecoming’s next week,” Carlo commented casually, placing a slice of pizza on his plate. “Who’re you going with?”
I stared at him, chewing my bread slowly. I swallowed before answering, “Um, Parker?”
“Oh.” He frowned a bit. “Are you guys still pretending to date then?”
“I…guess so,” I replied slowly. I mean, Parker hadn’t said anything, so I’d just assumed. “Why? Did he say anything?”
“No, but I thought he was finally going to—well, anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Carlo said quickly. “It’s too bad though.”
“What is?” I swear, it’s like he was speaking in riddles today or something.
“If you weren’t going with him, I would’ve asked you to homecoming,” Carlo said nonchalantly, taking a bite of his pizza.
I immediately started choking on my food. My breath came out in wheezing gasps as I struggled not to suffocate myself with carbs.
“Are you ok?” Carlo asked with a concerned frown.
“Uh huh,” I gasped, grabbing my water and taking frantic gulps.
Once I’d calmed down, I wiped my mouth and gaped at him. “Why would you ask me to homecoming?” I blurted. He couldn’t—he didn’t like me, did he?
“I actually enjoy talking to you.” Carlo was still acting infuriatingly calm. “I usually go with random girls whom I can’t stand, so it’d be a nice change.”
“Well, why don’t you go alone?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m a Scion. Bad for the image and all that.”
“Oh.” I bit my lip, feeling a bit disappointed with his explanation. Suddenly, I thought of something. “Does that mean Roman and Zack are going with dates too?”
“Yep. I think they already found dates.”
My face fell, the disappointment heightening. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t care if Rom—if the others had dates. It wasn’t like I wanted to go with hi—with any of them anyway.
I grabbed another breadstick and tore it apart semi-angrily, ignoring Carlo’s questioning stare.
Nope, I didn’t care. Not at all.
* * *
It turns out James wasn’t the only surprise of the day, because when I got back to Roman’s house, I got a double whammy.
The first occurred right as I set foot in the foyer. Hava Nagila started playing on my phone, indicating a call from my mom. I’m not sure why it’s my ringtone, since neither of us were Jewish, but I liked the way it sounded.
“Hello?” I shut the door behind me and pressed the button for the elevator. “Mom?”
“Hi, sweetie!” my mom said cheerfully. “How are you doing?”
I smiled at the sound of her voice. “I’m good, how are you? How’s Napa Valley?” And my jerk of a dad?
“It’s amazing! The wine tasting your friend set up for us was out of this world,” she gushed. “So, you’re enjoying your time at Adriana’s house?”
My eyes narrowed as my defenses came up. I knew that tone of voice. It never boded well. “Yeeesss…” I answered slowly, even though I wasn’t staying at Adriana’s house. But she didn’t need to know that.
“That’s wonderful, dear. Really.”
I pulled open the doors to my suite and kicked off my shoes.
“Mom, what is it? I know something’s wrong.”
“Well.” My mom hesitated. “It’s not that something’s wrong, per se. I’m just not sure—“
“Mom, just spit it out. I’m a big girl, I can handle it,” I said patiently.
“Ok, fine. Your father and I entered a contest here at the inn and we ended up getting an extra two weeks’ stay here for free!”
“What?” I exclaimed, then quickly lowered my voice. “What?” I repeated.
I could practically see my mom fretting over the phone. “I know, dear, it’s a bit…unexpected, but it’s a wonderful opportunity. Of course, if you don’t want to stay there for an extra two weeks, that’s fine, we’ll come back—“
“No, no.” I shook my head, trying to process the information. “I mean, it’s great, it really is. But what about work?”
“We both have enough vacation days accumulated to fit an extra two weeks into our schedule.”
“Oh.” I was a bit disappointed I wouldn’t be able to see my mom for longer than I’d thought, but I was happy she was having fun, I really was. Besides, I didn’t really want to face my dad anytime soon anyway. “You should stay, mom. Don’t worry about me. I’m having a lot of fun at, uh, Adriana’s house.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, mom,” I replied. “Really. Enjoy your time there.”
“Ok.” She sounded both worried and happy. “If you need anything, you have all the emergency numbers, right?”
“Yep.” A knock sounded on my door, and I frowned, wondering who it was. “I have to go right now, but I’ll talk to you later, ok? Love you.”
“I love you too, sweetie. And your father says hi.”
Right. “Bye.” I didn’t acknowledge her last statement.
I hung up and called out, “Come in!”
When I saw Parker stride in, I couldn’t help but smirk at the pink polo he was wearing.
“You look like such a prep,” I said dryly, eyeing the signature Lacoste alligator on the front of his shirt.
“What? Not even a hello kiss from my girlfriend? You really do have a thing with Carlo,” Parker joked, dropping down on the bed next to me and draping an arm over my shoulder.
“Yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you, but I decided things just aren’t going to work out between us,” I teased. “So what’s up? Are you here to visit Roman?”
“Not really.” He dropped his arm from my shoulder as a more serious expression came over his face. “I’m here to see you actually.”
I tilted my head curiously. “Ok…”
“Well, you know how we started dating because you basically forced me into it to get your grandmother off your back?”
I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks for making it sound like I tortured you or something.”
Parker smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, but you know what I mean. Anyway, now that she’s gone, we technically don’t have to pretend anymore…”
I had a feeling I knew where this was going. “Uh-huh…” I dragged out the last syllable, prompting him to continue.
He cleared his throat. “Well, I wasjustwonderingifperhapswe couldstoppretending?” He asked in a rush. “I mean, it’s not that I don’t like you or anything. I really do. You’re so hot, I would totally do you, especially if you wore that lingerie—“
“Parker!” I held up a hand. “Stay on track.”
“Right. Sorry. Anyway, like I said, I really do like you, and it’s kind of an assholish thing for me to do, what with homecoming next week and all, but…er, I think it’s best if we told everyone the truth, you know?”
“Ok.”
“I’m sorry! I really—wait, ok?” He blinked at me.
I smiled in amusement at his face, resisting the urge to pinch his cheeks. He looked so cute with that dumbfounded expression replacing his usual smirk. “Yes, ok. What, did you think I was going to slap you or something? You did me a favor, for which I’m incredibly thankful, but you’re right. We should tell them the truth soon.”
Relief washed across Parker’s handsome features. “Oh, thank god.” He groaned, flopping down on my bed. “You have no idea how nervous I was all afternoon!”
“You, nervous?” I playfully poked him in the stomach. “Darn it, I should’ve made you squirm.”
“But you didn’t, because you’re such a nice person,” he said happily. “You’re the best, Maya.”
“I know,” I joked. “So who is she?”
Parker shot up so fast I was surprised he didn’t sprain anything. “What do you mean?” His cheeks turned red.
I snickered. “Who’s the girl you want to ask to homecoming? That’s the reason why you don’t want to fake date me anymore, right?”
He turned even redder. “No one! I mean, no one,” he repeated in a lower voice. “I just…it didn’t feel right, lying to my friends like that.”
“Sure.” I didn’t really believe him. “Oh, hey, what’s the big gift you guys are planning for Adri anyway? Carlo won’t tell me, which sucks, because I’m supposed to be part of it.”
“You’ll see. And don’t worry about it.”
I groaned. “Why does everyone tell me that?”
Suddenly, I realized something. The flush on Parker’s face seemed to have deepened a bit at the mention of a certain someone’s name, and my eyes widened in realization. No way. He did not have a crush on—
“So, we have to figure out how we’re going to tell everyone else we’re not really dating,” Parker said, breaking through my thoughts. “I don’t think they’ll be too happy to find out we’ve been lying to them.”
“Well, Carlo already knows,” I mused. “That’s one less angry person we’ll have on our heels.”
Parker shook his head. “He’s too smart for his own good. I’m not too worried about Zack. Adri…well, I have no idea how she’ll take it. I’m most worried about Roman though. I feel like he’s going to flip a shit when he finds out we’ve been lying to him about our relationship.”
I nodded in agreement, shuddering a bit as I imagined Roman’s reaction.
Turns out, I didn’t need to imagine it, because a second later, a very familiar voice roared, “What do you mean you’ve been lying about your relationship?!”
Parker and I froze, staring at each other with wide eyes before turning slowly around.
I gulped when I saw Roman standing there, sparks flying from his stormy violet eyes as he glared at us. He looked very, very angry.
I whipped my head around. “Parker! Did you forget to close the door?” I hissed.
Parker ran a hand nervously through his hair. “Haha, um…oops?”
Oops. That’s what he had to say. Oops.
I turned back to Roman with my sweetest, brightest smile, hoping that’ll calm him down. It didn’t work.
We are so dead.