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Parisa
You certainly know how to give a girl a complex with that sudden departure this morning.
I contemplate how to respond. How much of an explanation do I owe her? It’s not like we’re dating. This whole thing is just casual. In fact, it’s so casual she doesn’t want anyone to know.
Sorry. Family emergency. I’ll talk to you later
After I press send, I turn my phone off. I have enough to worry about right now and Parisa is not on the top of that list. When I return to the seating area, I take a seat across from my brother. I rest my elbows on my knees and look up to him. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night. I should have been, and I wasn’t. I take responsibility for that. But I’m here now for whatever Mom and Dad need.”
Marcus mimics my pose. “Good. Mom and Dad are going to be busy for a while and they need help running The Lilith House.”
Twenty-One
There goes the best thing
Parisa
“We’ve been trying to hang out with you for the past week, where have you been?” Olivia sets her half empty margarita glass down on the wood top of our usual table at Porter’s. Even on a Sunday, patrons fill all the tables and barstools.
“I’ve been…busy.” I take a quick drink so I don’t have to answer any more questions.
“Busy as in work busy or busy getting it on?” Olivia asks before taking a drink of her own.
“If I had to guess by the way her cheeks turned the same color as her hair, it’s the latter,” Charlie says as she points her drink in my direction.
I can’t lie to my best friends, but I could always omit the truth. That’s not lying, right? “If you must know. Yes, it’s a guy, but it’s nothing serious.” I shrug, the lie more sour than the lime in my drink. Why do I feel so dirty? If I consider “nothing serious” as I can’t stop thinking about him or wanting to touch him or kiss him, then sure, it’s nothing serious. If I keep telling myself that, it must be true, right?
“Are you keeping a guy from us? Tell us everything.” Olivia leans in as if she wants all the dirty details.
“We want to see where it goes before we start telling people.” I twirl my straw around in my glass of vodka limeade, needing something to do so I don’t tell them the truth.
“What does he look like? What’s his name? What does he do?” Olivia starts rapid firing the questions at me, and I freeze. I’m unable to think of an answer that would get her off my back, so I spit out the first thing that pops into my head.
“His name is Josh. He has dark hair and he’s an engineer. He travels a lot for work, so I don’t get to see him often, which is why I couldn’t hang out all week.” The words just tumble out of my mouth and I’m not fully aware of what I even said. I hope they don’t ask me again later. But my answer seems to appease Olivia as she’s now stopped with her twenty questions and moved the conversation to more neutral topics like ones not involving my love life.
Shortly after our second round of drinks arrive at the table, I look up to see Bennett and Trey sauntering our way and of course, trailing not so far behind them is Seth. Bennett grabs a stool and cozies up next to Charlie while Trey takes a seat next to Olivia. Great, that leaves the only open spot for Seth next to me. I give him a tight-lipped smile as he sits down, not wanting to tip anyone off. Luckily, they all seem to be preoccupied with their own conversations to see the sexual energy radiating from this end of the table.
“So, did you hear Parisa has been keeping a secret guy from us?” Olivia raises an eyebrow while everyone else turns their heads in my direction. Dammit. What is she doing?
“Oh, I think we need to meet this guy to see if he’s qualified to hang with our tribe here.” Trey does a circle motion around the table with this finger.
“You’re the boyfriend police now? Whatever you say, Dad,” I say to Trey.
“That’s daddy to you.” Trey winks at me.
I crumple my napkin and throw it in his direction. “You’re a pig. But I wouldn’t put it past you to make your hook ups call you daddy.”
“Only when they’ve been bad little girls.”
“On second thought, I would rather not know about the girls you hook up with.”
“If you want, we can go out back and I’ll let you call me daddy.” Trey gives me a head nod.
From the corner of my eye, I see the whites of Seth’s knuckles as he grips his glass of beer. I swear, if he squeezes any harder our table is going to be covered in beer and shards of glass.
“I’ll pass on that, but thanks, Trey.”
“Plus, she’s seeing some super-hot engineer named Josh,” Olivia spits out.
