Chapter Ten
Layla
I should have punched that asshat right in the throat! Oh, and that cougar he was hanging around with. Oh my God, he ditched all of this for some ugly thirty-year-old. With fake blond hair. Yeah, her roots were showing big time, I can totally tell she bleached that shit.
I pull out Juliet’s phone and curse. I don’t have Rachel’s number in here. Damn it!
“Layla!” I hear his deep voice, and it melts my soul. I won’t turn around though. I won’t do it.
“Layla!” His skin caresses mine. I know I should just pull away, or turn around and kick him in his balls.
Instead, I blink back tears and face him. “What could you possibly want, Tyler? For me to say the final words? Fine. It’s over. There. Now you don’t have to look like a jackass. Even though you are one.”
“I’m a jackass for assuming you were with my friend, yes, but not for Kera. At least not how you think. That’s my sister, Layla.” His thumb swipes under my eye, and he kisses my forehead. “I have never been so pissed off at one of my friends before that I wanted to physically hurt them. Until just then.”
I let my gaze meet his. “Jared was helping me shop. I swear.”
He nods. “Okay. I’m sorry, then, for jumping to conclusions. I’ve been burned before and it’s not cool.”
I agree it totes sucks but I’m not like that.
Strangers with packages pass us by. When a guy bumps into my shoulder, Tyler growls, “Hey, you forgot to say ‘excuse me’ when you plowed into my girlfriend, asshole!”
I shake my head. “I’m fine. Really.”
“I mean unless you aren’t my girlfriend?”
“I don’t know, Richardson. Are you going to accuse me of hooking up with Austin next?” I question him with a raised brow.
“Uh no. I know you have more sense than that. Austin is cool, but he doesn’t have skills like me.”
“Wow. Cocky much?”
He smirks. “Nope. Not at all.” He rocks on his heels and says, “So, do you want to come with me and officially meet my sister?”
“I guess. She probably thinks I’m cray-cray.”
Tyler laughs. “It’s okay. You and I both looked cray-cray. They’ll probably ban us from that store forever.”
I hope not. I need to get some stuff in there.
His sister is still in the Pans-And-More store.
Maybe I shouldn’t do this. I mean hello, I completely made a huge fool out of myself in front of her. Even though Tyler keeps insisting I have nothing to worry about, I think he’s dead wrong. He doesn’t know how girls can truly be.
Yeah, I don’t have any brothers, but trust me I have friends who do, and they rag or bad mouth about the girlfriend all the time. Unless they really really like the girlfriend, which is rare.
Tyler walks up to the blond and taps on her shoulder. She turns around and smiles at me. “You must be Layla.” Then she wraps her arms around me.
Um … what?
“Yes. You must be …” Oh my God, what the hell did Tyler say her name was? Kerri, Krystal, Karen. Oh my God. I don’t remember.
“Kera,” Tyler whispers so faintly by my ear.
“Kera!” I shout. Why? I don’t know. I’m super nervous. The look she’s giving me is a cross between possibly amused or confused I’m not sure.
“Yep,” she says. Her eyes roam the area we’re in. “Do you bake?”
I shake my head. I’m not about to tell her baking requires reading well and well, I suck at it. Not because I’m a moron, I’m just dyslexic. There’s also the fact I don’t like to talk about my little handicap.
“Neither do I,” Kera says.
“Yeah, if this one is in the kitchen you better run because she’ll either burn the place down, give you food poisoning, or it will be so inedible even a dog wouldn’t eat it,” Tyler pipes in.
I’m not going to laugh because I screwed up baking many things, muffins, cookies, and brownies. Juliet cut me off from helping her bake anything. I’m allowed to ice things like cakes, brownies, or cookies and that’s it.
“Well, we all can’t be perfect,” Kera quips. “I never gave him food poisoning or burnt a kitchen down. I do manage to burn a lot of things though. Pancakes, biscuits, and one-time mac and cheese. But according to this one, I tried to kill him when he came to visit me in New York.”
“That’s because she did. I had to take over in the kitchen. She’s way worse than your mom. In fact, you two should write a cookbook together called ‘All the meals that we can’t cook’.”
Kera gasp. “That’s so freaking rude, Tyler. Talking about her mom like that. What’s wrong with you?” She moves over to the section of oven mitts all on display.
“Oh, no. It’s completely fine. My mom really does suck at cooking. My sister Juliet is amazing.”
Tyler clears his throat, as if to indicate he’s also here and is equally amazing.
“Tyler is pretty awesome too. Have you ever had his roast before?” I ask.
Kera glances back at us. “Can’t say that I have.”
As she marches on, Tyler pulls me aside toward a display of pots. “Hey, uh, I know you said Rachel ditched you. Does that mean you can’t get ahold of her because you have your sister’s phone?”
I wince. “Yeah.”
“That reaction right there basically tells me you’re aware of what you’ve done. I just need to know for one, did you do it on purpose? And the second thing I need to know is, did you tell Juliet what you did?”
“I didn’t mean to. I meant to delete them. Mark seriously blew up her phone with all this crap. I was just trying to help her out and I clicked on the wrong button. She knows though. I sent it to all her contacts, including myself. I didn’t think it would have reached you though. She doesn’t even have your phone number in here. It’s not like … Oh, Crap! I sent those texts and videos to my mom. Juliet is going to murder me.”
Tyler and I move to the aisle with table settings while he says, “Yeah. Juliet called. I thought it was you. She was really upset, but look, I can fix this. You just have to play along.”
“Play along? What do you plan on doing?”
“I’m going to say that Juliet gave you her phone to hold on to. She was sick of hearing it go off every second with inexcusable apologies. While we were hanging out, I said I would help make the problem go away.”
“So … you’re going to tell everyone you sent it out?”
“Yes. People won’t give me any crap about it. I’ll simply say, when I saw Mark breakdown on his teary video, I couldn’t help myself. I felt like everyone needed to see it. So, I shared and sent to everyone I knew. Done deal.”
“But …” I run my hand over a white linen cloth and glance over at him.
He smiles. “Juliet won’t be labeled as a heartless person with an ax to grind. People already know I will prank people all day long. They also know I love making fun of people. It’s my style.”
I wrap my arms around him and hug him tight. “Thank you!”
“Anything for you, babe.”
He pulls back and kisses my forehead right as a throat clears. “Ty, I was wondering if I can borrow her for a moment or two?” Kera asks.
His expression is unreadable. “It’s up to you.”
Up to me? Wow. Way to really make me look like a jerk if I refuse. I swallow hard. “Sure.” Even though I really don’t want to go with her.
“Great.” She links our arms and pulls me in the opposite direction of Tyler. Her floral perfume all but strangles me. I glance back at Tyler and he’s scrubbing his hand down his face. Is this a sign that I should have said no? He could have told me. Nudged me, something. What the hell? When I look over at his sister, she winks at me. “Tyler’s never brought a girl home. Not one we were all aware he was dating at least. So, call me nosy.”
Does she seriously want me to call her that? Wait, he never introduced any other girls he’s dated to his family? I want to blush and puke at the same time. My skin feels so hot like I’m burning up. What if I really screw this up?
“Girl to girl, you scared the hell out of me a moment ago. I’m surprised you didn’t tear my hair out of my head.” I must look confused or something because she starts elaborating. “Because of the look on your face when you thought he and I were together. It’s nice to know you really care about him and aren’t using him.” She eyes me up as we pause near a selection of magnets. “You aren’t using my brother, are you?”
“Using him? No. What would I use him for?”
“To get to me. Look you’re adorable. But I don’t pick who will cast the characters in the movies.”
What the heck is she talking about? Did his sister escape from the looney bin and if so why the hell did my boyfriend leave me alone with her. “Um … I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I should leave.” I start to untangle myself from her and she laughs. Like literally laughs. What the flip!
She stops laughing. “You seriously have no clue who I am?”
“You’re Tyler’s sister.” What the hell is wrong with her? Is this why Tyler seems all weird right now? I don’t know what to do about these things. I mean holy shit is she mental? If I do something wrong will she kill me in this aisle?
“Layla?” Tyler says.
Oh, thank Jesus or someone. “I got to go.”
“But … we were just,” Kera says.
“Kera, shut up! She’s gotta go.” Tyler walks me out of the store. I don’t know if I’m grateful or pissed off. Because I want to know why he left me alone with his sister if he knew she was batshit crazy? Is he … oh man, is he trying to get me to break up with him?
I come to a complete stop which makes Tyler slam into my back. “Why are … Are you okay?”
“Are you trying to get me to dump you or something?”
“The hell, Layla, no. Why would you? What did she say to you?”
I shake my head. I’ve done this dumb dance one time before and I’m not doing it again. “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to hunt Rachel down and go home.”
“I can take you.”
“No. Tyler, you should go hang out with your sister. She clearly needs someone to supervise her.”
“Super-what? Layla?” I start to walk away. “Layla, damn it! Slow down!”
I shout over my shoulder. “It’s fine really. We can talk later.” Hopefully over text where I won’t have to reign in my emotions because this … whatever this is, is not working.