WE SIT in the living room of our hotel suite, watching Lily’s phone light up with Avery’s name. We’ve been anticipating this call since we landed, but it won’t make explaining Lily’s abrupt change of plans any easier.
I glance over at her, and she shoots me a tight smile. I answer the video call.
“Was this part of some big, elaborate plan, Nico? I thought we talked about this already.” My brother’s voice booms through the speaker.
“Hello, how are you doing? is also an appropriate way to greet someone,” I say.
“Let’s leave that for later,” Avery chimes in, and her smiling face appears on the screen.
Lily scoots closer to me on the couch, tilting her head toward the camera. “Hey, Ave.” Lily waves, but her eyes nervously bounce around the room.
“Shouldn’t you be going on your honeymoon already?” I deflect the round of questioning for Lily’s sake.
“You already know our honeymoon in the Azores is at the end of July. Besides, we’re going to spend the summer working out of the beach house and we’ll miss you guys so much.” Avery leans into the camera, looking at Lily. “I have to admit I’m glad you’re finally taking some time off, Lil.”
“Sure, you’ll be missed, but we need an explanation.” Luca’s face entirely overtakes the screen.
For all his success, my brother is the spitting image of our technologically-inept abuelito operating a phone for the first time. Avery
nudges him out of the way, resting her hand on his thigh as a sign to chill out.
“We didn’t plan it,” Lily says.
“I just had an extra ticket.” The lie sounds more convincing each time I say it aloud.
Luca huffs as if he can sense my dishonesty from thousands of miles away. “Convenient.”
“It’s true. My flight home was canceled, and I boarded Nico’s plane on a complete whim.” Lily rushes through her words as if she’s in the final push of a marathon. “We didn’t plan the kiss either. It was an accident, and it won’t be happening again.”
Avery practically leaps out of her seat. “So, you did kiss?” “I’ll tell you about it later.”
I can’t resist bragging, “Earlier, Lily said it was very nice.” “I never said very.”
Avery laughs. “Molly and I had a bet on if you guys were actually going to kiss.”
That’s not what I expected to hear. “Who won?”
“Me,” Avery says proudly. “I had a feeling you would.”
Huh. I tuck her support into the back of my mind.
“You have no faith in me, Ave,” Lily bellows at the screen, her beautiful smile on full display.
“So, I was thinking, if Nico doesn’t mind, you should stay the whole summer,” Ave suggests.
I like my sister-in-law more and more every day. “Great idea, I don’t mind at all,” I chip in.
Lily digs her fingernails into my arm off camera, but I ignore her attempt to get me to be quiet.
This is my chance to convince her to stay.
“I can’t really afford to spend all summer doing this,” Lily insists. “I need to be back in the city to find a job before the fall semester.”
“I’d be happy to cover the entire trip,” I offer.
Lily shoots me a glare, but returns to her back-and-forth with Avery.
Money is not the issue here. In the past, when my dates found out I’m the creator of Flight Falcon, they immediately acted differently around me. Being on a Thirty Under Thirty list, all those years ago, made them forget I’m a person—not a wallet with legs.
Lily must know about my success, and she manages to treat me the same. If, occasionally, with a little extra distance and bite.
But maybe that’s how a true friend acts.
A friend I occasionally—or very often—fantasize about in very un- friend-like ways.
“You deserve a break,” Avery pleads, pulling me back into their debate. “All you do is work and go to school. Everyone needs some time off.”
A voice of reason sent to me from above. There’s no way Lily will ignore her best friend’s advice.
“Yeah, yeah,” Lily says dismissively. She reaches for her phone, but I yank it out of her grasp.
Luca sidebars with his wife as if they’re not literally on camera in front of us. “I don’t like this. Think of everything that can go wrong.”
Avery whispers something into his ear, making my brother look as excited as when he buys a suit. Alright, we have a few minutes before this conversation goes in an entirely different direction.
Lily senses the boiling tension on the other side of the video call. She clears her throat. “Don’t worry. I’m only staying a month.”
“You always give me tough love. It’s time for you to hear it too.” Avery’s brows snap together with ironclad seriousness. “There’s nothing waiting for you in New York City right now, Lily.”
“Ouch, Ave. Definitely didn’t need a reminder.” Lily’s hands clasp together. I much preferred it when she was taking out her agitation on me. “Besides, I don’t need this makeshift you-work-too-hard intervention from all three of you with your successful careers.”
She has a point there.
“You know that’s not what this is,” Avery says. “I want to see you happy.”
“I am happy.”
An awkwardness returns to the call. Maybe this is what Luca meant about complicating things between Lily and me.
Avery’s voice returns to the speaker. “Fine. I love you and I’ll talk to you later.”
All of us quickly say our goodbyes and hang up the call.
I turn to face Lily, whose previously agitated expression is gone. “Well, that was fun.”
“Sure.”
I set her phone down and rake my fingers through my hair. “The real question is what are you going to tell Ave about our kiss?”
“I’ll have to tell her the truth.” Lily shrugs.
My heart cycles with the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. “Oh yeah, and what’s the truth?”
“It was one of the worst I’ve ever had.”
Should’ve seen that coming.
“It’s so easy for you to lie to yourself,” I tease. At least she’s not ignoring the fact that the kiss happened.
A loud vibration from my own cell saves me from another of Lily’s comebacks. I already know who the text will be from before I open the message.
LUCA
Watch out for Lily. But not too closely.
I appreciate the sentiment, I do, but I got this. I travel all the time. I click off my phone, toss it on the couch, and pluck myself out of my seat.
“I’m going to need to lie down after that.”
“Don’t blame you.” She stretches her neck from side to side. “Are we doing anything for dinner? I’m going to get hungry soon.”
“How do you feel about street food?”
“If it has the word food in it, I think I’ll love it.”
My mouth curls into a smile. “Cool. There’s a market with different vendors we can check out in an hour or so.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
 |
“AHH!” I thrust my hands into the air above me, attempting to fight off whoever is suffocating me in my sleep.
Through a mess of fabric, hair, and flesh, I grab something and crush my fist over it.
“Ouch!” Lily shrieks above me. “You grabbed my boob, Nico.” She smacks me with the plush murder device.
“Were you trying to kill me?” I lift myself off the mattress.
“You sleep like a dead man.” She collapses on the bed beside me. The room is pitch-black except for the stream of light coming from the crack in the doorway. “I’ve been trying to wake you for a half hour. I had to take extreme measures.”
“By choking me?”
“I didn’t know what else to do. The next attempt was going to involve my hair curler.” Her voice is unusually shaky.
I pull myself out of the covers and walk over to the window to roll up the shades. In the light of sunset, I can see her better.
Lily sits on the bed dressed in a low-cut black tank top, a tight skirt, and her combat boots. Sharp black eyeliner stretches across her lash line, giving her Cleopatra eyes. The swells of her cheeks and the slope of her nose are pink, her freckles mimicking a night sky. Her obsidian hair sits loosely across her reddened shoulders.
I need to stop staring at her, especially when she looks about as angry as a starved panther.
“Next time, I’d prefer a bucket of ice water.” I smirk. “Or, better yet, a kiss.”
“You freaked me the fuck out, Nico.” Her eyes don’t lie. Lily actually looks concerned.
“It’s just the jet lag, Lil.”
She frowns. “We made plans.”
“And I fell asleep; it’s no big deal.” My tired legs carry me back to the bed, and I plop down beside her, the sun fading in the windows behind me.
“You could’ve set an alarm or something. I don’t appreciate being stood up.”
“I didn’t stand you up,” I say defensively, but the torn look on her face sours my attempt to put up a fight. “Look, I’m sorry. I—I overslept. I can be ready in five minutes.”
“Nico, you said we were going to leave two hours ago. I checked online, and the market you mentioned is already closed.”
Two hours? “What are you talking about?” I search for my phone between the sheets but remember it’s still out in the living room. “Look, I’ll just find some other place for us. Sound good?”
“I’m starving. Can you hurry up, and we’ll just grab something downstairs?”
Her shoulders arch downward, disappointment on her face. Because of something I did.
“I really am sorry.”
“I’m sure you’re used to doing things your way, and I don’t blame you, okay? I still want to take things day by day, but if we make plans, it would be nice if you stuck to them.”
“You’re right.” I take her hand. My thumb traces the lines inside her palm. “I’ll try to be better.”
The stern look on her face dissipates.
“Okay.” She slips away from me, and it takes everything in my power to not reach for her again. Lily climbs off the bed, already making her way out of the bedroom. “We should get going. I’ll give you some privacy.”
“You’re more than welcome to stay and watch me get dressed,” I call after her, but for the first time, she doesn’t turn back to entertain me.
Five minutes later, I enter the living room. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Lily is nowhere to be found. Her ancient laptop, however, sits open on the coffee table.
That’s unusual.
I peer at the screen, hoping to see what Lily’s been secretive about every time she uses her computer, but she has a privacy shield attached to her monitor.
Impressive.
I can only make out some kind of website. A cursive heading spells out two words I can’t quite decipher from way over here.
“What are you looking at?” She appears at her door, runs over to the laptop, and slams it shut.
“Do you have some sort of porn addiction I should know about?”
“You’re disgusting.” Lily scoops the device off the coffee table, then stalks to her bedroom. “And you’re nosier than my two sisters were growing up.”
I watch her toss the computer onto her mattress before closing the door and returning to the living room.
“You know, I always forget you’re not an only child.”
“Middle child, only child, what’s the difference?” Lily slides on her flip-flops, not looking back at me.
“Are you close to your family?”
She rarely talks about her parents or siblings. I don’t think it’s a sore topic, but my own family is so close, it’s strange to not have them be a part of the conversation.
What do I know? Maybe it’s no different for Lily. Maybe the relationship she has with them is perfectly fine, and she simply prefers her chosen family with Avery over her own.
“No, but before you ask, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve always been more of a lone wolf,” she says sharply.
I try to avoid asking any more questions about things Lily doesn’t want to share with me. I’m already on thin ice after sleeping past our original dinner plans.
Let’s try brightening the mood.
“You’re statistically twice as likely to be a serial killer if you’re the middle child.”
“I didn’t need to know that. At all.” She shudders. “You watch way too many scary movies.”
“This coming from a person whose favorite movie is a movie star getting rejected by a bookstore owner.”
Lily isn’t remotely amused. “They figure it out eventually, okay?
Notting Hill is a great movie.”
“You’ll have to play it for me again sometime,” I offer, but Lily keeps her gaze off of me. This is torture. “So, are you going to explain what you were doing on your computer, or is it some big secret?”
Lily dismissively waves her hand. “Job applications, planning out the schedule for next semester, recruiting for a heist.”
“Find anything interesting?”
Our eyes lock for a second that could easily stretch into hours. Her red- painted lips remain stitched together as she shakes her head.
I guess that’s the end of the conversation.
“Nothing to report to you.” She smirks. “Now, let’s go, I’m reaching a level of hangry I’ve never been before.”
