We go downstairs and through some fucking castle-esque halls and down the giant-ass staircase in the center of the house and pause outside some double doors. Kira nervously adjusts my shirt, brushing off invisible lint. Poor thing, so anxious.
“We’ll hang out in the parlor for a bit, then dinner will be served. We can go right back to our room after we eat. Okay?”
“The parlor?” I parrot, but it’s too late. Lexie is swinging the doors open. I take Kira’s shaking hands in mine and place a kiss on her knuckles, staring into her terrified eyes, as the light spills out onto us both.
“We’ll be alright,” I murmur. Then I wink. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Her shoulders relax, and a timid smile appears.
“Hello everyone!” Lexie sings as she skips into the room. That’s our cue, so Kira and I face the vultures as a united front.
I immediately deduce thatparloris just a fancy name for a room. But as we walk inside, I amend thatparlormight actually mean game room. But only games for rich people, none of thegood stuff like video games or movies. I don’t even see a board game. Not even Connect Four.
Instead, there’s a billiards table near one wall where a few young men are already playing, a chessboard where one couple is intensely focused on their match, a fully-serviced bar where a few more guests are chatting over delicate glasses of bubbly champagne, and enough books on the wall-to-wall shelf to fill a library. I count fifteen guests in the room, nineteen including me, Kira, Lexie, and the woman behind the bar.
A word of advice–when you get inside a place you think might not be safe, always count the fucking staff members, too. Too many people discount the staff as potential enemies.
Speaking of enemies, I see ours now, and I zero in on him.
Brian, the blonde idiot who broke Kira’s heart and humiliated her, is shuffling cards at a round table near the bar with a leering grin on his face. Two other guys are sitting with him, joking with him and trying to steal cards out of his hands.
“That’s Gregory and Leonard,” Kira whispers to me. “They’re brothers, and they follow Brian everywhere.”
“Classic mouth-breather behavior,” I mutter back to her. She blinks at me in surprise, then her little hand flies to her mouth to cover her laughter and her eyes crinkle at the corners. I grin down at her until she ends up hiding her face against my shoulder to muffle her giggles.
“Tommy, don’t,” she whispers through her mirth, her eyes twinkling. “We can’t be impolite.”
I sigh. “If you say so, Kira darling.”
“Kira?” A young woman’s voice makes my fake girlfriend stiffen and lose all her amusement. Suddenly, Lexie is skidding to a stop at our side and linking her fingers in Kira’s other hand, so my frightened fake girlfriend is bookended between us. I’m immediately on my guard as the newcomer joins our small group.
Ah, Janessa.I recognize the girl from the video. Unfortunately, she’s even more flawless in person. Golden with a tan, stunningly beautiful with perfect features and a great body, wearing her designer dress like it was made for her, and it probably was.
I hate her on sight, because I can tell immediately that Kira is comparing herself to this bitch-ass hoe.
“Janessa,” Lexie greets, her tone saccharinely sweet. “Lovely seeing you.”
“Glad you could make it,” Kira manages, playing the good hostess despite the bad blood.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Janessa says, a seductive smile growing on her face. It’s a real stunner, too, slow and deliberate enough that I can tell it’s been practiced. She knows how beautiful she is, and she knows how to appear ‘effortlessly’ breathtaking. But no one really acts like that, or smiles like that.
Kira flushes and looks down, like she can’t stand to see this paragon of womanhood who stole her boyfriend. “Th-this is my boyfriend, Tommy Claremont. Tommy, this is my frie–” she almost chokes on the word, and has to cough it out, “--friend, Janessa. We’ve known each other since elementary school.”
“A new boyfriend?” Janessa asks, all innocent interest and friendly excitement. “It must be new, hm? I haven’t seen anything on your socials about him.”
“Well…” Kira hesitates.
“Heis right here,” I chime in. “And Kira has been very respectful of my desire for internet privacy.”
The young woman sizes me up and squares her shoulders at me like she’s trying to hit me with a ray of hypnotism from her chest, like a Care Bear but with her boobs.
“Charmed,” Janessa says, offering a hand, the movement graceful. But it doesn’t even look like she’s offering it for ahandshake; she’s doing that movie-princess thing, expecting me to, like, kiss her knuckles, I guess?
I take her fingers in mine and give them a little shake. “Nice to meet you.”
Lexie chokes on a laugh. Meanwhile, Kira appears to be dissociating, a serene smile frozen on her face.
I slide my arm around Kira’s waist, bringing us closer together. I’m sending a silent signal to Janessa that I only have eyes for one woman here.
