What the hell are you doing, Jules?”
I knew better than to enlist my nosy cousin into my Leti plans, but Theo can’t keep a secret from his fiancée to save his life, and Marcela spilled the beans to Angela. It’s my own fault, really, for not seeing this coming. Marcela and Theo exchange glances from the kitchen table, twin looks of amusement sparkling in their eyes.
“No one invited you.”
My cousin merely shrugs and plops onto a barstool beside me. I start to close the lid of my laptop as she glances at the screen over my shoulder.
“If you’re not going to help, go sit over there and be quiet.” I point to Theo and Marcela’s sectional, and she pouts.
“See, when I heard from Marcela that you and Leti were dating, I was happy for you. Really,” she says. “Was there a bit of a weird factor since I nearly dated Leti myself? Sure, but nothing major I couldn’t get past. Now I come to find out you’re making this poor girl date at least two other people before taking her out yourself. So the question bears repeating: What thehellare you doing, Jules?”
The door cracks open before I can reply, and her girlfriend, Krystal, walks in. “Great. Just what I needed, more people in my business.”
“Maybe they can help us track down the gift you’re looking for,” Marcela says. “We’ve checked five websites so far, and we still can’t find a bottle of Wonderstruck under three hundred dollars.”
“Well, keep looking.” I right my laptop. “We have three months to find this thing before her birthday. Everyone, set a Google alert.”
“What are we talking about?” Krystal asks as she wraps an arm around Angela’s shoulders before pointing at my screen. “Oh hey, I used to have that perfume in high school.”
“Do you still have it?”
She shakes her head.
“Then why are you still talking to me?”
“Rude!” Angela exclaims. “Ignore him. He’s stressed out over his girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Found one for two fifty over here,” Theo says. “The website is sketchy as fuck, so I wouldn’t use a debit card if I were you.”
“That’s still too high.” I let loose a long sigh. “Okay, we’ll keep looking at a later date. Time to switch to date mode.”
“Can you explain to me first why you and Leti aren’t exclusive yet?” Angela asks. “You obviously like this girl a lot, and from what I hear she likes you too. What’s the holdup?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“As someone who once thought dating the entire sapphic internet was a good idea, I beg to differ.” She closes the lid to my laptop. “What’s going on, Julian?”
“It’s a mess, okay?” I shake my head. “A mess that started with her brother giving me a concussion, or maybe it started much earlier and I was too oblivious to notice.”
“You never told me you got a concussion. Where’s this brother of hers so I can fuck him up a bit?”
“It’s Andrew.”
“Yourbest friendgave you a concussion?” she shouts. “Does your mom know about this? When I get my hands on him, I swear to god—”
“I hit him first,” I tell her. “And my mom already had her boyfriend look me over. Andrew and I are cool. It was a stupid idea to fight him, and his girlfriend is giving him more hell than anyone else possibly could, so I’d say his karma is balanced enough without you getting involved.”
“So, aside from fighting with her brother, why are you and Leti such a mess?” Marcela asks, getting us back on track. “You have a wealth of expertise here. Theo and I did the no-strings thing once upon a time and look where we are now.” They make googly eyes at each other, and my heart clenches at the same time I consider barfing.
“And we fell into the no-strings thing a few times even though we said a million times we wouldn’t.” Krystal’s hand interlocks with Angela’s. “You have a whole panel of help to utilize in us.”
“The problem here is Iwantthe strings,” I say. “But she’s convinced a relationship with me is impossible because of her brother, who she has so much animosity toward it’s terrifying. Not to mention, she thinks I’m in love with someone else.”
“Why does she think that?” Angela asks.
“Because my stupid best friend got drunk on his birthday and told her as much,” I say. “And she has no idea he was talking about her. That she’s the one I’ve been in love with this entire time.”
