My eyebrows scrunched together. I look up at Theo, less blinding now that the sun is setting.
“Last place has cleanup duty,” he says to me.
“I can help you clean up. It is my shirt after all.” I stay with Theo as the others start to head inside for dinner. Well, everyone except for Alex, who has lingered for some reason.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you have more important things to do anyway,” Theo replies. I try not to show the hurt on my face.
“Is this about the application I submitted?” I ask. “I wanted to talk to you about that?—”
I’m cut off when Alex joins the conversation. “I’ll help him clean up. I wanted an excuse to talk to this fucker anyway.” Throwing his arm around Theo’s shoulders, he has to extend, considering their small height difference.
When Alex smiles at me, I get a strong feeling that leaving the two of them to clean up alone isn’t up for debate. Honestly, it’s a relief. The farther away I can get from the tie-dying supplies, the better. Although I can’t help but feel worse as my distance from Theo grows.
I’m surprised Theo seems upset over my decision to apply for this job. After all, the goal of this trip is to secure a job offer. Theo couldn’t possibly have a valid reason to be upset if I received a job offer through a means other than him.
16
THEO
It wasn’t my intention to avoid Sienna all day, but the thought of her getting a job by other means left me more irritated than I’d like to admit. She doesn’t seem like the type of woman who would go back on a deal she made. Then again, we don’t know each other that well.
I was looking forward to getting to know her better over the course of this trip more than I care to admit. If she got a job offer only two days into this vacation, she’d have every excuse to leave.
If she left now, not only would it ruin my chances of Roman hiring me but I’d also have no excuse to see her again. For some reason, not seeing Sienna again scares me more than losing out on a job.
Pushing those feelings aside, I decide it’s an issue to be dealt with later and stare at the pile of shirts in front of me. The shirt she designed is pretty bad, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit it to her face. The pout that overtook her when she unraveled her shirt was so cute, I hadto repress a smile at her failure. That’s when I first noticed the carnal piece of me that would do anything to see her smile, even if it meant relinquishing my chances at beating my brothers in the games this year.
There was nothing in her rules about not making her smile. I see no harm in indulging in that impulse. As long as I don’t indulge in my urge to kiss her every time her eyes dart toward my lips. I may have a history of partying, but I've never crossed the line of violating a woman’s boundaries. I don’t plan on starting now.
“I give it until day five.” I jump at the sound of Alex’s voice beside me. I had forgotten he stood next to me as I stared at the pile of shirts on the table.
“Day five until what?” I turn to him, taking the shirts from the table and putting them into a basket for the wash. I move away from him toward Roman’s table, not sure if I want to hear his answer.
“Until you two are dating for real.” Startled, I knock over a few bottles of dye at his statement. They roll off the table and tumble to the ground.
“Wha- What are you talking about?” I busy myself by picking up the bottles from the ground, not looking at him out of fear of giving anything away. We’ve been here two days, and my brothers are already suspicious of us. If Alex thinks we’re lying, then Roman probably does too. If Roman thinks we’re lying, there’s no way either one of us will end up with a job by the end of this trip. That is, if Sienna doesn’t get this other job offer first.
Alex chuckles. “Theo, come on, man, you two aren’t fooling any of us. What I don’t understand is why you told Roman you had a girlfriend in the first place.” Hegathers a few of the supplies from the tables, putting them in the bin we dragged out from the storage closet.
“Is it really that obvious?”
He answers my question with one look thrown my way. Sienna and I are screwed.
Having put all the supplies into the bin, I hear four distinctive clicks as Alex secures the lid. With only the tables left to fold up, we’ve cleaned up in half the time it would’ve taken me by myself, so I’m thankful for my brother’s help.
“Look, it’s obvious you two are faking to me because I don’t buy for a second that you’d settle down so easily.”
“Hey now.” I point my finger at him as a warning. He laughs as we place one of the tables on its side and begin folding in the legs.
“Oh relax, I’m not calling you a slut. I’m just…Well, yeah, actually, you are a little bit of a man-whore.” He says it as we fold the table in half. Now in closer proximity, I punch him in the shoulder at his insult, though it’s not completely inaccurate.
Alex rubs his shoulder, feigning injury for my entertainment. I know for a fact it didn’t hurt him because if any one of us knows how to fightandtake a punch, it’s him.
“I’m just saying, I know the two of you aren’t dating, because I know you. But I think we can still convince Roman and Leo that the two of you are together.”
After folding up the last of the three tables, we begin moving them toward the small storage room attached to the side of the house. The silence stretches between us aswe finish cleaning. My brain is stuck on whether I should admit to Sienna’s and my scheme.
“What gave us away?” I ask Alex, finally deciding there’s no fooling him. When we place the last table in the storage room, Alex is sure to lock the door before shutting it. We’re miles away from any other houses or public roads. Locking the doors always seemed pointless to me, but Alex says we can never be too careful.
