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I sit down on the sorry excuse for a bed, grinning when she scoots as far away from me as she physically can.
“Well, I hope you like sushi,” I say, pulling out one container and placing it on her lap. “Full sushi combo. Unless you’re vegetarian, but I got a bunch of cucumber rolls. And inari-zushi. Those are the ones with the tofu on the outside.” I open my own tray and use chopsticks to hold up the inari-zushi. “I tried to find a decent sushi place in Benton, but you guys are allergic to good food there.”
“I’m not vegetarian,” Vanessa says. Her stomach grumbles, and she looks at the spread in front of me. “And the food there is fine.”
“No way. The rehearsal lunch was mediocre at best.” I laugh, because the food isn’t the part I remember most about the rehearsal lunch for the wedding. “Do you remember how fucking angry my old man was with your mom? God, she’s a hoot.”
Of course, Vanessa’s mother had been very drunk at the time. I can’t imagine Vanessa is thrilled to talk about her, but I can’t help but needle her a little. I know all about fucked-up families, but she needs to get over it.
Vanessa flinches at the memory, looking away from me. “Can we… not talk about that?”
I’d known it would be a sensitive subject, but that’s why I’d brought it up. I love seeing how people react to the unpleasant stuff.
“Sure. What would you rather talk about?” I pop a cucumber roll into my mouth and use the chopsticks to point at her food. “You should eat. Don’t let the good stuff go to waste.”
“I’m not hungry,” she says, even though her stomach is saying the exact opposite. She doesn’t reach for the other set of chopsticks. “And I don’t like sushi.”
“Aw, man,” I say. “Is it the raw fish? Because the vegetarian stuff doesn’t have raw fish.” I pick up a cucumber roll with the chopsticks and hold it close to her mouth. “Sayahh.”
She grimaces and leans back, shaking her head. “I don’t… You don’t need to try to feed me,” she says, her voice quiet but brimming with disgust. I can’t tell if it’s because of the food or because of me, but I only grin at her.
It’s not like it really matters.
“Well, your choices are feeding yourself or me feeding you,” I say. “We can trade if the problem is the fish, but I gotta be honest, people who are picky with their food annoy me a bit.”
“Good thing I don’t care if I annoy you,” she mumbles, but she picks up one of the cucumber rolls with her fingers and pops it into her mouth.
I shake my head in mock disappointment. “With yourfingers? Didn’t your parents teach you manners? Or do you not know how to use chopsticks? Benton is just so… provincial.”
Her cheeks flush slightly. She swallows her bite and shakes her head. “I don’t really eat sushi or Japanese food in general, so no, I don’t know how to use chopsticks.”
“You’re discounting all of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean… y’know, just a lot of Asian cuisines.” I grab one of the tuna sushi, dip it in soy sauce, and pop it into my mouth. Despite what Slayer thinks, I’m not actually vegetarian or vegan. “What I’m getting here is that you aren’t very adventurous at all.”
“I’m not,” she mumbles. She chooses another piece of the cucumber roll and eats it, looking down at her hands instead of up at me. “You should just… send me back to Benton City and be done with me. I’m not going to be what you or Damien want from me.”
I pretend to think about it for a few seconds, then shake my head. “Nah. Damien would be so, so disappointed if I got rid of you. I can’t do that to him.”
Vanessa shakes her head. “He only wants me because he thinksyoushould. He’s not interested in me.” But her voice is flimsy, like even she knows she’s lying to herself.
“Man, you don’t know Damien like I do. He’s usually really chill, but he was just… Like, he has never called me to tell me about a chick. But he really wanted me to know aboutyou. Waxed poetic about how pretty you were, and smart, and obedient, and… no, I think that was the gist of it.” I laugh and pat her on the head. “He got at least two of those right.”
Instead of replying, she takes another bite of food. Her stomach is still grumbling despite her protestations that she wasn’t hungry, and she takes her time. I get the hint before long. She’s not going to respond to me. Does she think ignoring me will make me go away?
“Ooh, I was thinking of this great scenario. You and me, we can both be students. And Damien’s the hot teacher. He catches us passing notes, only the notes are about how hot we both think he is, and how we’d love to have a threesome with him. And Damien, being Damien, would pretend he wasn’t into it at first, except man, you write some extremely explicit notes, and he decides he needs to punish us in detention…” I finish my fishy sushi and set the tray on the floor. Then I place a hand on Vanessa’s thigh over the blanket. “What do you think?”
She gives me a flat, disinterested look. “I don’t want to play games with you, Giulio, and I don’t want to play games with Damien, either. That’s not… I’m not…” She shakes her head. “I’m not that type of person. You have plenty of other girls you can play with if that's what you’re into.”
I give her a lazy smile. “Yeah? Like who? You think I should play with Stef instead?”
Vanessa freezes at that. “No!” she says quickly. “Leave her alone.”
It was a bit of a gamble, bringing Stef up. Some of the other girls would have been quick to throw a total stranger under the bus. But Donny had mentioned he’d sent Stef to show Vanessa around, and Stef hadn’t had anythingbadto say about Vanessa, which said something in itself. It was a very different reaction from Traci and Cat, who were both quick to point out Vanessa’s supposed flaws. Not that I mind; I like a bit of healthy competition among the girls.
I also enjoy knowing which buttons to press. Now I know that Vanessa has a lot of empathy, and I can use that.
“I mean, it’s gotta be someone. And before you come at me with ‘find a willing gold-digger,’ you don’t honestly believe Damien would put up with one of those, right? He’d see right through anybody who was only in it for the money. He’d never let me get taken advantage of!” I laugh to diffuse some of my own tension. I definitely don’t want a gold-digger. Anybody who tries to steal from me will wish they’d pissed off my old man instead.
“Then how about you go pick someone up at a bar and take them home?” she says. “You don’t have to… force yourself on women. That’s your choice. Yours and Damien’s.”
