“Umm…” I open and close my mouth twice before I’m able to say, “I know that, but I still want to train.”
“Why?”
Okay. I didn’t expect him to ask questions.
“It’s the only way for me to get my phone back.”
Nicolo lifts a single brow as if to say he doesn’t believe me. “Is that the only reason?” He doesn’t wait for an answer to his question before asking another. “Or did you enjoy pissing me off?”
If he thinks he can intimidate me into backing down, he’s wrong.
“That’s a plus, I guess.”
He makes a sound at the back of his throat before repeating what I said. “You guess.”
I shrug, not sure what else to say. My brain clearly doesn’t work before ten in the morning.
“Well, I’m not training you any longer. Not until you can behave yourself.”
“That isn’t fair. I want my phone. I have no way of telling my brother about the crimes against humanity that you’re committing against me.”
He makes a face like…I don’t even know what kind of face that is. I don’t think he understands facial expressions.
“Funny,” he mutters under his breath. “Anything else, nixie?”
“I want my phone,” I insist again.
“Yes, I heard you the first time,” he drawls.
“Good, I was starting to think that you’d lost your hearing due to old age.”
He clicks his tongue before saying, “Brat.”
“Robot,” I counter.
We both stand there for a minute in silence, neither of us willing to break eye contact. But the cheat snaps his fingers in front of my face.
“You’re such a cheat.”
“It’s not a competition.” He shakes his head.
I wonder what he’d do if I slapped his smug face. But before I can act on the thought, he speaks up.
“Wait here.”
He turns around, going back into his bedroom. He’s in there for a bit, but when he steps back out, he throws my phone at me. I catch it, and by the time I turn to look at him, he’s at the head of the stairs.
“Asshole,” I mutter under my breath.
When I press the power button on my phone, I of course find that it has no charge at all. Trudging back to my bedroom, I pull out the charger and plug it in. It powers on after five minutes, and at least twenty texts flood the screen.
Taking a minute to read what the hell everyone’s been texting me, I ignore the texts from two of my classmates from college.
Val
Heyyy Mara, just doing a check-in x
Sent three days ago
