“I’m sure he did it because he felt sorry for me.”
Jett rolled his eyes.
“Why is your face still here?” I asked, closing my eyes.
“It’s a beautiful face, and you know it.”
I snorted.
“Why don’t you just marry me, and then I can be a prince too?”
“Because I don’t love you and you don’t love me.”
“Pfft. Details. No royal marriage is for love.”
I opened my eyes to find him still there, looking at my mouth and making a weird face. “My parents love each other. My aunt and her husband love each other. I will not marry for anything other than love—and stop staring at my mouth like it’s covered in boils.”
“I was just wondering what it would feel like to kiss you.” He gagged.
“Get off.” I pushed him harder, and he fell off the bed.
“Ouch. Fine, I accept you don’t want this fine specimen of a human being. Tell me about your date with Troy.”
“It wasn’t a date. We just happened to be in the same place at the same time, and I couldn’t even come up with anything smart or interesting to say. How can I ever show him I’m not a kid anymore if I can’t even carry a conversation with him?”
“You could ask him to fuck you. I bet he’d be in to that.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, I forgot,” Jett whispered. “He doesn’t know your secret.”
I huffed and turned over to face the wall.
The first step in my mission had seemed the hardest: get my parents to let me continue my degree in the US without a security team following me.
The rest? I assumed it would all fall into place. Troy would find out, we’d hang together after class, and one night, after we’d watched too many movies, we’d fall asleep in each other’s arms. Then, the next morning, he’d wake me with a kiss, saying he’d been watching me sleep—in a non-creepy way—and he couldn’t resist.
I laughed to myself. Yup, I was deluded, in addition to inexperienced, and a total loser. Maybe this had all been a mistake.
“Hey, boo,” Jett said from his bed.
“What?”
“How about an American burger for dinner?”
“Aren’t all burgers here American?”
He chuckled. “This one comes with extra fat content, crispy bacon, and a free pie at the end. Can’t get more American than that. It’ll also make you feel better.”
“Okay, let’s do it.”
3
TROY
“These numbers are looking great,Troy. Any bugs in the system?” Marco, my best friend and business partner, asked.
I raised a brow, and he laughed. “Hey, dude, don’t get twitchy. Even Google has issues from time to time.”
