Arranged (8 page)

“Where are you going?”

“Away from you,” I murmur, and pull my shoes on again.

“Rose, please.” His voice is pleading. “Please don’t leave me like this.”

I finish tying my shoes and look at him, brow quirked. “Like what?”

He squirms around the tent in his boxers. I blush.

“T-That’s your problem. Take care of it yourself.”

“I’ll have to.” He buries his face in my pillow, words muffled. “Right here. Where it smells like you.”

I flush. “G-Go do it in your own room!”

“You really hate me, don’t you?” He laughs bitterly. “That’s what this is. You’re torturing me because you hate me.”

“I’m not torturing anyone! You’re just being melodramatic.”

He laughs, more sincere this time, and rolls over, watching me pull my jacket on. “Where are you going?”

“On a date.”

His eyes widen. “Oh. Good. Have fun.”

“You’re being very nonchalant about this. I thought you liked me.”

“I do. But I respect your choices.”

“Awfully gentlemanly of you.”

“I respect your choices, but that sure as hell doesn’t mean I won’t ‘happen’ to be going to the same restaurant you and your date are.”

“Movie theater,” I correct automatically, and wince that I gave it away that easily. “
Damnit!
”

His smile is precocious and satisfied. “Like I said. Have fun.”

~~~

“Do you really have to walk with me?” I snap, pulling my windbreaker tighter around me. Lee shrugs.

“We’re both going to the same place. Girls shouldn’t walk around alone at night in seedy alleys.”

“Which is why you’re walking with me. Because you were afraid you’d get jumped and need my protection.”

He snorts. I sidestep a dumpster. He jumps over a puddle easily with his long legs to catch up.

“Do you really have to stalk me all the way there?” I sigh.

“How dare you!” He squawks. “I’m simply going to watch a movie my friend recommended.”

“We’re not friends. And the only thing I’d recommend to you is walking off a cliff.”

He clutches his jacket over his heart. “Your tongue is sharp as your looks tonight, milady.”

I knead my forehead to ease my building headache. The lights of the megaplex glow warm against the cold city nightscape.

“Don’t you have some other girls you could be bothering?”

Lee heaves a sigh. “They’re boring. I’ve been up to my knees in boring girls since I was fifteen. You, you’re interesting. Weird and interesting.”

“Gee, thanks.” Red creeps into my cheeks. “Can you at least walk ahead or behind? I don’t want Brendan to see me with you.”

“It’s fine. Just say I’m your brother if you’re really worried about it.”

I whirl to face him, my cheeks burning ever redder.

“I don’t…I don’t know how these things work. I don’t want anything to go wrong, and you here isn’t helping, so –”

It dawns on Lee slowly. Very slowly. His mouth makes a little ‘o’.

“Is this your first date?” He asks, face a mix of awe and hilarity, like he wants to burst out laughing but is too amazed to. I draw myself up to my full height.

“Yeah. So? Is there something wrong with that?”

“What about high school? Didn’t you -?”

“I had braces,” I cut him off. “And I was – am – flat. And I had really bad zits, can you just drop it and keep walking? Preferably away from me?”

He makes a noise in his throat and starts walking ahead of me. There’s a line at the ticket booth, but Brendan’s at the entrance, waving two tickets like a flag. Lee gets in line and I breathe a sigh of relief and plaster on the best smile I can.

“Hey, sorry I’m late –”

“By thirty - ” Brendan checks his phone. “ - Three seconds. Shame on you.”

I laugh, small and timid. I should be brave. If I can’t actually be confident, I should at least act like it. It’ll make things smoother, easier.

“Quick,” I extend my hand. “Give me the peanut brittle and I’ll hide it.”

Brendan smiles and shoves a plastic bag of still-warm brittle in my hands. I mash it in my purse and cover it with a few tissues. The theater is pretty busy, but it
is
Saturday.

“Do you want anything else?” Brendan nods at the snack bar. “I might really like peanut brittle, but I’m not a cheap bastard.”

“N-No, it’s fine!” The last thing I want is a guy buying me things. It feels weird. “I’m just gonna get a water. Do you want to get the seats? I’ll meet you there.”

He nods and disappears in the crowd. I stand in line at the snack bar as a whistle hooks my attention.

“He’s a good-looking catch,” Lee’s voice is low in my ear. He’s behind me in line. “Blonde, nice butt. Isn’t he that guy who runs the school newspaper? Brando, or something?”

“Brendan,” I hiss. “And aren’t you straight?”

“I can appreciate a handsome guy,” Lee insists. “It’s why I look in the mirror every day.”

“You’re a piece of work.” I force myself to breathe deeply to keep the massive headache at bay.

“This is your first date,” Lee picks up a box of candy and a soda. “So let me give you some tips.”

“No thank you.” I choose a bottled water.

“Listen, sweetheart, I’ve been on more dates than the number of times you’ve inhaled.”

“I wasn’t aware there were that many stupid females on planet Earth.”

He laughs, and we go quiet, me angry and him too amused.

“So when did it happen?” He finally asks.

“When did what happen?”

“The transformation.” He gestures at my body. “You said you had braces and zits but you don’t have them now. And you’re beautiful, now. Too beautiful to go first dateless for long. When did the transformation happen?”

“You mean from high school ugly to college ugly? Only took one day, really, and it was the first day of freshmen year –”

“Don’t talk like that,” He interrupts.

“Like what?”

“You’re not ugly. You never have been and you never will be and it pisses me off when I hear you talk like that.” He grabs the water bottle out of my hands and puts it with his stuff in front of the cashier.

“Hey!”

“Just these, please,” Lee flashes a winsome smile at the cashier that makes her eyes bug out of her head. He hands me the bottle and I snatch it angrily.

“I can pay for things myself,” I hiss. He shrugs.

“Consider it my apology. For following you here.”

I hesitate. His voice in this moment is sincere, like his voice was when he cooked dinner at Grace’s. This is what I like about him. I like him when he’s sincere like this, none of the overconfident swagger and playboy sleaze.

“Excuse me,” I bounce over to the counter. “An apology for being a clingy weirdo is going to cost you more than just a water.”

I hear him snort and his body heat radiates into my shoulder as he comes up behind me, not touching, but almost.

“Well then, pick your poison.”

I grab four packs of skittles, two trays of nachos, and a carton of ice cream bonbons.

“You sure you can eat all this?” He grumbles. “You can’t even carry it.”

“Can too!” I stuff the skittles and bonbons in my purse and balance the nachos in either hand. “Tahdah!”

“That nacho cheese is so gross.”

“You’re gross!” I stride ahead of him, and stop. “Oh crap, which theater did they say? It’s on my ticket.” I look for a place to put the nachos down, but Lee leans in.

“Where’s your ticket?”

“My right pocket. But don’t get any - ” I’m cut off as he slides his hand in my jeans. It’s bizarre to have someone else’s palm warmth in your pocket, so close to your hip skin. His fingers are digging into my hip, just separated by a thin layer of denim –

“A6,” Lee’s voice brings me back to reality. “C’mon, nacho girl.”

I shake my head to clear it and catch up with him. “Nacho girl! Get it? Not-yo-girl.”

“Ha. Ha.” He holds the door open for me and we’re engulfed in darkness.

“Why are you following me into this movie?” I snarl. “You didn’t buy a ticket for it.”

“I’ve changed my mind - I want to see this movie. Is that a problem, Your Majesty?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a problem when I’m on a date with another guy!”

“Oy, would the two of you quit your old-married-couple arguing and sit the hell down?” A fat guy growls at us from the seats. My face goes instantly red, and even though it’s dark I swear Lee’s strong roman profile gets a little red-tinged. I scan the seats for Brendan’s blonde, gelled hair and find him toward the middle-front. Lee mercifully sits a few rows behind us.

“Did you get lost?” Brendan whispers. I laugh softly.

“No, just couldn’t decide what to get.”

“So you got
everything
?” He raises a brow at the nachos.

“What, don’t like synthetic cheese?” I tease.

“Not as much as you.” He smirks, and flinches. “Ow!” He glances behind him. “Something hit me.”

“Some punk throwing candy, probably.” I glare into the darkness behind us.

The movie is action-packed, the car chases are fairly well-done and the main actress is gorgeous. I want her legs and face and breasts and, well, everything. The sex scene is a little squirm-worthy and uncomfortable, especially sitting next to Brendan. It’s like the screen is screaming
HAVE
SEX
at us, and it’s only our first sort-of date. Not to mention Lee is in the same theater. That’s triple-uncomfortable territory.

I wonder if Lee’s sex is like that – hollywood dramatic and so good it leaves the actress gasping and looking like she’s injecting nirvana right into her veins. The second I start to feel my face burn and my curiosity can’t be pushed down anymore, I excuse myself to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. I come out, my hands still not fully dry thanks to the crappy air-driers, and Lee is leaning on the wall outside.

“You!” I sputter. “You really
are
a stalker.”

“Did you even try to hold his hand, yet?” Lee yawns, hazel eyes tearing up.

“Were you the one throwing candy at Brendan?”

“Popcorn,” He corrects. “Answer my question, princess.”

“No! I haven’t touched him. And don’t call me princess, it’s way too Han Solo for my tastes.”

“Everybody loves Han Solo,” Lee argues. “He’s a delightful rogue. Like me.”

“You’re a popcorn-throwing girl-stalking four-year-old,” I correct.

“You should touch him. Guys like that. Knee touching, hand touching, something to let him know you’re interested. Do you even like him?”

“I –” I stop myself. Am I really interested in Brendan? So far this entire ‘date’ has been me being harassed by Lee, and I sort of…
like it
. But I’ll never voice that out loud, lest I inflate Lee’s already-enormous ego more.

“I think I like him,” I say. “I feel like we could be compatible. Or whatever people call it these days.”

And suddenly, Lee’s gaze snaps from light and playful to dark and deadly, burning like nothing I’ve felt before.

“What?” I cross my arms and try to look tough.

“Kiss him,” Lee responds simply. “When the movie’s over, kiss your Brando, and come back here and kiss me. It’s the quickest way to tell if you’re really into someone. If you do it, and you like him better, I’ll leave you alone for good.”

“You said that last time.”

“I mean it, this time. No more popcorn-throwing at would-be boyfriends. No more tailing you. I won’t even spare a glance at you in the halls at school. I’ll leave you alone and let you experience love with the guy of your choice.”

“And if I,” I swallow, hard. So hard I’m afraid he heard it. “Somehow, beyond all logic, like you better?”

Lee smirks, infuriating and devastating all at once. “Then you and I, princess, have a lot to catch up on.”

I roll my eyes. “Keep dreaming. For the last time – I’ll never fall for your plan.”

“Which one? The plan where we rent a fancy hotel room for a week and completely destroy it?”

“The plan where you wed me, get the money, and run to Brazil to bathe in champagne and bikini models.”

“Tempting as that is,” He sucks in a breath. “I’d rather just have you. And the money would be nice. But you would be better.”

“Why? Why am I so great to you?” My voice rises. An old man walking by shoots us a look but I don’t care.

“You’re beautiful. Not party girl cute or cheerleader slutty, but a soft, quiet sort of beautiful. Elegant.” Lee counts off on his fingers. “You’re sweet, even to people you don’t know. You’re smart as a whip – the professors on campus won’t shut up about you.”

For once, I don’t have an insult to hurl at him on the tip of my tongue. I’m speechless. Lee flashes a smile and counts on another finger.

“And you saved me. You saved my life, Rose. And even if you don’t remember that, I do.
You
saved
my
life. So I want to make yours better – no, the best. I want you to have the best food and the best laughs and the best sex. I want you to have the best of everything.”

A distant boom of a movie sound effect pierces through the walls, breaks the tension between us. Lee’s smile gets bigger, and he pushes the small of my back with his hand lightly, steering me toward the theater.

“Go on. Finish the movie and kiss your Brando. I’ll be waiting here.”

“I-I don’t know how to kiss.”

He laughs, low, in my ear. “Yes you do. We’ve done it two times already. You’re delightful at it.”

My face is burning but I’m still indignant.

“I’ll show you ‘delightful’,” I growl.

“There’s the spirit!” He pushes me through the door and shuts it behind me. I make my way back to our seats, my legs shaking. A kiss. I should be able to do that much, right? And Brendan deserves at least that much. He and I deserve a chance to prove ourselves. I’ve kissed a guy before, so I can do it again. Wasn’t like I had much control, but hell, it was a kiss and now I have experience. And I’m good at it, or so Lee said. Oh my god.
Lee
said I’m good at
kissing
. It hits me like a ton of bricks and I freeze in the aisle. Someone hisses for me to move and it jolts me back to reality. I scuttle to my seat and slide in next to Brendan.

“Everything okay?” He smiles.