“Now, Lilah.”
I groaned, but held the phone out to Tino. “He wants to talk to you.”
Tino’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Be grateful it’s not an in-person interrogation.”
He sighed, took the phone, and said cautiously, “Uh, hey?”
Then, knowing he was distracted, I stole the bucket of popcorn back. I’d regretted giving it to him pretty much the moment it left my hands. He scowled at me but it only lasted a moment since he was busy listening to whatever my brother was saying at the same time.
“Oh, yeah, I know who you are. Hard to miss, man.” Pause. “No, I promise I’m not secretly plotting her doom.” Another pause, and he actually laughed. “Yeah, I can do that. We’ll see you when you’re back in town.”
He held the phone out to me, still smiling.
“He didn’t threaten to kill you?” I asked, taking it back.
“Nope. Surprisingly civil.”
I lifted it to my ear again. “Luca?”
“Still here,” he said. “Seems like a nice enough guy, although I’m still not convinced I shouldn’t fight him since you have been complaining about him for the last three years.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, opinions on people can change. And I never really hated him, he just annoyed me sometimes.”
“Annoyed you because you’re in love?”
I snorted. “We’ve been dating for a day—it seems a little premature to say love.”
“Well, anyway, there was actually another reason why I wanted to call you.”
“You mean other than to harass my boyfriend?” It felt weird to say my boyfriend like that, especially when talking about Tino, but I guess I needed to get used to it.
“As a matter of fact, yes. That was just a benefit.” He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure if you’ve seen but we’re up for this music award and there’s an event for it next weekend. They gave us extra tickets for friends and family, and I figured you might want to come.”
“Of course I want to come,” I said immediately. Even though I often found my brother’s fame overwhelming—such as when I was being chased through an alleyway by rabid fangirls—I would always support him. I loved going to his concerts, either in the audience or backstage, and I wanted to be there for something like this.
“Really?” Luca said in a relieved tone. By the sound of it, you would think he’d expected me to say no and yell at him for even inviting me in the first place. “Well, I was thinking you could come spend the weekend at our house—the band’s house, I mean, in Bibridge. We’ve got a guest room you can stay in and, uh…” He paused for a second then practically mumbled, “I guess you could bring your boyfriend if you want.”
“What was that?” I asked in a teasing voice.
“You can invite what’s-his-name along if you want,” he repeated in a more normal tone. “We’ve got extra tickets anyway and it seems like he makes you happy.”
I looked over at Tino. He’d moved down the line slightly, talking animatedly to Mako about the worst movie sequels of all time, his breath coming out in white puffs. The glow from the streetlights made his hair look almost gold.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Something like that.”
Luca must’ve heard something in my tone, because his voice gentled. “Have fun, okay? You deserve it. And I was just kidding about fighting him, for the record.”
I grinned to myself. “As if you could take him anyway.”
“Hey!” He sounded genuinely offended, which only made me laugh harder.
“Goodnight, Luca.” I hung up before he could get another word in and slipped my phone back into my pocket.
Tino looked over, abandoning his conversation with Mako. “Everything good?”
“Yeah. He just wanted to… vet you, I guess.”
