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“Well, whatever the reason you’re here, you are here, and you’ve been wonderful. I want you to enjoy this. We all do.”
“Yeah.” I nod and she side-eyes me. I’m just trying to get back on her good side. God, why is she being such a brat?
“Hmm. Well, if you insist…” she presses her finger to her lips, narrowing her round eyes. “Booth man?” She calls and a muffled, “Yes?” shouts back.
“Play,The Breakfast Club.” The lights dim after she says this, and she leans into Barth. They whisper together, and I almost feel like telling Barth to actually do his job and guard the fucking door, but I don’t because I know Espie will get even shittier with me and I don’t want that. Not while my plan to break our agreement is still intact.
“I hate this movie.” She mumbles and I chuckle. “What’s so funny?” She whispers and I shrug.
“You had a chance to choose a movie, and you hated the last one too, yet you’re still complaining.”
“I didn’t hate the last one.”
“Well, you didn’t watch it when we were in here.”
“I don’t particularly enjoy the movie, okay?”
“Why?”
“Because, I don’t.” She snaps, and I grimace accidentally, pulling my head back and resting it on the chair.
“I’m sorry.” She whispers, and I turn my head quickly because I’m surprised that she is actually saying sorry to me.
“It’s alright.” I shrug nonchalantly.
“It’s not—“
“It is—“
“No, Adrik… I’m saying… It’s not that I don’t like the movie, it’s that watching it reminds me of a time in my life where I thought I would be able to choose who I would marry. I used to watch it on repeat with Olive, and we’d discuss the types of boys we wanted to marry one day. Now…” She shakes her head.
“I get it.” I whisper, taking her hand that’s positioned on her armrest. She lets me and for a second, I feel chills up my arm and a weird knot in my throat as I interlace my fingers with her.
“You do, don’t you?” She whispers back, a soft smile that is definitely sadder than it is anything else, but I nod gently, slumping down in the seat a bit, so we’re more eye-level. We sit like this for a while, watching this truly pointless movie play out scene by scene, and I do mean, pointless. Nothing actually ever happens in it, and maybe I’d be a bad movie critic, but at least I watch things that have action. None of this boring high school shit.
I glance over at Espie a couple of times on parts that are stupid, and she does the same, squeezing my fingers as we hold in laughs and to be honest, I’m enjoying this. Enjoying the fact that she’s gotten over whatever twisted her up. The next time someone says something cheesy, I look over at her. Her eyelids look impossibly heavy as her long lashes slowly rise and fall with her efforts to stay awake.
“You can rest on my shoulder if you'd like…” Her eyes flutter over to me and without hesitation, she pulls the armrests between us, up, and curls up next to me, head on my shoulder, hand still clinging to mine, on my chest. I wrap an arm around her securely and my heart is pounding again. The way it did the other night when I held her like this. It’s weird, the effect she has on me. And I think it’s maybe because I know what I need to do to get her where I want her.
Seducing Espie isn’t an issue for me, it’s just the way I have to go about it because of the type of person she is. Most girls are easy. At least when I’m there, it’s like they throw themselves in my direction and even the ones that don’t, I can sway towards me. Those are the ones I like to pull, the ones that act like they don’t want me. And maybe they don’t at first, which makes it all the more fun.
But Espie isn’t like any of those girls. She likes smart things, things that make you think and show her that you’re thinking too. I have to be smarter with her, work harder to make her think I care. And maybe there’s a part of me that’s scared about thatactingbit. Because every so often when I’m with her, I actually enjoy her company.
But I won’t marry— not her, not ever. So, this should be a no-brainer. I shouldn’t like the way her head rests snuggly between my ear and the curve of my neck, or how her small fingers easily fit between mine like they’re supposed to be there. This shouldn’t be my thought process. But it's this stupid thing I’m doing that’s causing me to pay attention to those other things. I’m sure of it.
I just have to keep my head held high and my mind focused on theprize— freedom from this contract.
* * *
“Boss.”I’m shaking like I’m in the middle of an earthquake and everything is confusing. What day is it? What time is it? Why is it pitch-black?
My eyelids fly open when I realize I’ve fallen asleep and Barth is standing over me, Olive slightly behind him.
“Yeah?” I grumble, sitting up a little before I feel the weight of Espie’s head on my shoulder and I glance over to see she’s out too. Something about it takes me away from the concern that Barth’s urgent expression has induced, and I’m just watching Espie in a daze before he squeezes my shoulder.
“We’ve got trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” I arch a brow and force my head to turn back to his.
