I chuck a piece of bread at her but miss.
“Leave my brother, and I will go to every newspaper that will listen and tell your anal story.” She starts to laugh, and I mimic her sarcastically.
“Yeah, because they will wanna hear that story. Idiot.” I giggle.
“You’d be surprised what strings I can pull. I have connections at The Times.” She nods but ends up snorting through her nose and breaking out into hysterics. “I can see it now. Dance prodigy QUITS to become Anal Champion.”
“STOP IT!” I heave out, trying to control my laughter.
“Heard it here first, folks.”
It’s eight o’clock, and I’m starting to get tipsy. We’ve only had a bottle of wine between us, but the great outdoors has made it go to my head.
We escape the cold outside and head for the kitchen. “I need to call a taxi,” I say, searching for my phone.
“Just stay. I can drop you home in the morning.”
“No, Mase would lose his head if he knew I was here.”
“Screw him. How would he even know?”
I think on it for a moment. “I should go home.”
“Nina, you’re more than welcome here,” Anthony says, appearing in the doorway.
“It’s nice to have the company around here with him sleeping the day away.” Scarlet nods to her dad, smirking. “Besides, who is going to help me finish this?” She holds up a bottle of wine.
Rolling my eyes, I give in. “Okay,” I drawl.
It’s late when we finally make it to bed, and Scarlet leads me to a room at the end of the hallway. She walks me inside with a wide smile on her face.
“What do you think?” she asks.
“It’s... nice,” I tell her, looking around at the mostly bare room.
My gaze catches a stack of boxes in the corner.
“It’s Mason’s old room.”
“It is?” I start to look around with more interest.
“Uh-huh.” Scarlet waggles her brows at me, and I chuckle. She is a little more than tipsy.
“Go to bed, you creeper.” I laugh, stepping farther into the room.
“Good night, champ.”
“Good night,” I call back.
The bedroom is smaller than I expected. It’s decorated in creams and navy tones, but nothing really matches. Other than the few boxes it’s empty, the walls and surfaces are all free of life. I undress and pull on the pyjamas that Scar had already left out for me, then climb into the bed. She must have expected me to stay the whole time.
I scroll through my phone, feeling close to him but not close enough.
“Pix,” he answers on the first ring.
“Hey.”
“Are you okay?” he asks, his tone laced with concern.
