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“Well, what would we do?” I began fiddling with a loose thread on my sleeve, my heart skipping a beat. Then two, then three. A tickle ran up my spine as the atmosphere shifted to something lighter, more fluttery. Like a basketful of butterflies had been let loose in the car.
I mirrored him, fixing my gaze onto the red taillights in front of us.
“Whatever you want,” he answered. “Something casual like today. Or we could go to dinner. Drinks.”
I paused to think before answering. “I’m going to leave tomorrow.”
“And we can’t see each other when we’re both back in Toronto?”
The butterflies had infiltrated my stomach. “I’m not sure if...” But I stopped. I wasn’t sure whyI stopped, but I did. “Can I think about it?” I asked instead.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay,” I said.
I brought my knees up to the dashboard and turned toward my window.
And, no, I didnotspend the rest of the comfortably silent car ride fighting a smile. My reflection was a damn liar.
29
“Ew, what the hell?”
I choked on a laugh in response to the palpable disgust on Alice’s face when we walked into the house. She was sitting on the floor in the living room, an open textbook laid out on the table in front of her.
“Why are you dressed up as the blue Koolaid Man wearing a suede diaper?” she asked Adrien judgmentally.
I laughed harder. She should have seen him with the raptor teeth, bull horns, samurai wig, and fox tail still on. Her reaction would have been priceless.
“It's a loincloth, Lice. Not a diaper.”
“That’s worse, not better. You look like an idiot,” she said, and then, as though suddenly struck by a realization, her eyes flared in horror. “You didnotget into my car like that.”
“I’ll take it to get detailed tomorrow” was Adrien’s response.
“Adrien! My seats are beige!”
“They’re also leather. It probably won’t stain.”
“Your blood will when I gut you!” She hurled a highlighter at his head, but he snatched it out of the air with ease.
“What’s with all the—Addy! What did you do!” Julie stopped in her tracks, her hands flying to her mouth. Anthony, who’d walked in behind her, burst into laughter.
“It was Ria’s idea,” Adrien accused without hesitation, pointing the highlighter at my head.
“Wait,” Alice said, her narrowing eyes gliding suspiciously between her brother and me. “This isn’t like a weird sex thing, is it?”
“No!” I exclaimed at the same time as Adrien said, “Absolutely it is.”
I smacked his arm. He laughed. Alice threw her whole pencil case at him, slammed her textbook shut, and declared that she’d be in dire need of extensive therapy after our visit.
Adrien winked at me, Anthony started snapping pictures with his phone, and Julie pinched the bridge of her nose, quietly chuckling to herself.
I’d have been a lot more mortified if this whole thing wasn’t so ridiculouslyridiculous. And if I wasn’t so charmed by it.
Once the ruckus had somewhat died down, Julie insisted that Adrien go upstairs and shower before he got body paint on her beloved hand-picked furniture.
“Dinner will be ready in thirty,” Anthony called after us as we made our exit. He also said something about a patch being installed somewhere, but I was too busy trying to fight off Adrien’s hands to put two and two together.
