He shrugged. “I mean, yeah, but it’s still a chunk of change. He needed to know. This is going to be worse because he asked me over breakfast if I’d met the boy you were dating. I said yes, so now he’s going to be mad at me, too. Because I didn’t tell.” He stuck his tongue out at me.
I sighed. “This isn’t that.”
He hummed as if he didn’t agree—but fuck him. His life would be completely boring without me.
“Let me get a foot in the door with Flynn before I try to spring Dad One and Dad Two on him. They’re going to be extra-special about this,” I grumbled and narrowed my eyes at my reflection. I’d shaved but could already see the blue shadow of the stubble growing in on my jaw.
He snickered.
I turned just enough to glare while smoothing down my suit coat.
“You can fuckMr. Goddardin the library, but you can’t bringMr. Goddardhome?” The evil twinkle in his eyes made me want to punch him, but I didn’t want to fuck up the suit when he got me back.
“Don’t be a cockgoblin. Jesus, you were completely fine running distraction for me at the front desk. You’re not innocent here.”
Jury snorted. “Flirting with the cute, nerdy librarian is not the same as fucking on school grounds.”
Spinning toward him I held up my hands. “How do I look?”
He rolled to a seated position and gave me a critical once-over. “I’m stealing that suit. Good.”
“My shoulders are bigger than yours right now because you’re lazy.”
He shrugged and crossed his legs, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning his chin on his palm. “Where are you taking him?”
I stuffed my hands in my pockets and stared at my glossy black shoes. “Cardigan’s. That place Papa was trying to convince Dad to go to, but Dad said he’d rather stick a fork in his eye because he hates pretension. Which, he doesn’t, so it must be really bad. I think that would impress Flynn.”
He slapped a hand over his mouth, and I narrowed my eyes on him as his shoulders shook. His face got red and his cheeks puffed out, but finally a snort slipped free.
“Asshole.”
“You don’t think you’re trying too hard here? He already likes.... Well, he likes you fucking him.” Jury shrugged. “There is such a thing as too much effort.”
“That is the problem. I want to date him.” I pointed at Jury and stalked closer, and he leaned away from me, so I stopped. “I need to show him I’m more than the guy who is good for a fuck in a bathroom.”
He gagged and his face went a little green around the edges. It was my turn to laugh at him until he flipped me off. He sighed. “You’re right, if a guy did that to me, he’d have to try really fucking hard to redeem himself.” He stuck out his tongue and his whole body moved in a fake gag. I was laughing all over again.
“It can’t hurt to drop cash, right?” I frowned at myself in the mirror, and Jury got up to come stand beside me. It was nice to see how I would look in jeans and a T-shirt, like a cheap real-life glow up. I beamed at him, and he sighed, nudging his shoulder against mine.
“Cardigan’s isn’t dropping cash. It’s taking a dump truck full of dollar bills to the edge of the Grand Canyon, setting the whole thing on fire, then pushing it in.”
Desperation clawed at my chest for a moment before I forced myself to ignore it. “I need him to like me.”
Jury’s smile went pained. “You can be a dick, but I don’t think you need to do this.”
Shrugging, I checked myself in the mirror one more time. “I am.”
“I know,” he said, smacking me on the back. “You might as well bring him here and let him meet Truth. It would be slightly less obnoxious.”
“I’m not embarrassed about our age difference,” I said quietly.
“I didn’t say a word about it.” He raised his eyebrows at me in the mirror.
“You were thinking it. But I haven’t decided how to handle Dad and Papa. I don’t want to get into it right now. Papa told me to ‘bring that nice boy’ over tonight. It’s already going to be a... a....”
“Fiasco?” Jury said along with a snort.
“Yes, because Papa built it up in his head.”
