Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Huh.
There’s this other thing that I also want to get to the bottom of, and well, I think I have my answer, with how I’ve been here for some time now, surrounded by a smorgasbord of good-looking billionaires of all ages, and it’s just not happening at all.
My skin, that is.
It’s not crawling!
Not a bit. Not a twinge. None of the I-need-to-leave-this-room feeling I’ve had around every other good-looking boy I’ve ever shared air with. And it’s been—I check my phone—nearly an hour. An hour with four of them. Four. And nothing.
Which is weird.
It’s not the kind of weird I want to examine right this second, though, because the dinner has started to do something I also wasn’t expecting.
Joy is asking me about Cornwall and actually listening when I answer. Aldrich is slicing into his steak with the calm of a man who has never rushed a meal in his life. Raiden says something absolutely shocking to Icelle, purely to gain a reaction from his sister, but when it just makes her blink—
We all laugh.
Her family. Me. And it’s all natural, and that’s when it hits me.
These people are my tribe, just a billion dollars richer. They talk over each other and they argue about small things. They switch once in a while between English and Mandarin, and this is totally normal for me, too (it’s just like Mom switching between your-average-broke-person-English and rich-people-English), and it’s somewhere in the middle of all this that Aldrich glances down the table, and wow.
Joy nods, Icelle turns to him like she’s ready to take notes, while his sons snap to attention and all of this from a single look?
Was he, like, army or something before he inherited his billions?
“Speaking of tomorrow—”
The mildness of Aldrich’s voice reminds me of Ark—
Stop thinking of him, Ti!
“We have an event to attend as a family.” His gaze turns to his daughter. “I need you to start practicing your smile in advance.”
“I understand.”
I honestly thought Icelle was joking, but then her lips start moving, and wow.
Just wow.
I have never seen anything this grotesque, and it’s a terrifying, lightning-quick transformation, too, with her beautiful face resembling Barbie one second, and Annabelle the next second, and I just...I just can’t hold it back any longer.
Snough.
That’s a new word I’ve made up on the spot. From now on, it’s what I’m going to use to describe when you’re snorting and laughing at the same time because that’s just what came out from my mouth, and the moment the sound explodes in the dining room—
Everyone’s laughing, too.
Not sure if they’re laughing at me or at Icelle since she’s laughing, too—or at least as much as her RBF is capable of showing—but who cares, right?
Because this right here, this is a good moment shared by good people while enjoying good food, and everything’s just so, so good—
Buzz.
That I’m not even surprised when my phone lights up on my lap at that very moment. It’s the story of my life. Whenever something really good happens, life finds a way to remind me that good things never last.
Mom: How’s Texas?
Or at least it never does for someone like me, whose mother’s way of showing concern for her daughter can be easily encapsulated in a three-worded text—or two if you take the abbreviation into account.
How’s Texas?
That’s Mom doing her duty, just so she can enjoy the rest of her own vacation with a clear-as-day conscience.
I don’t answer, and since I’m not clicking anything either, my phone goes dark again. Message preview seen, message still unread.
I take a sip of water, and as I try to convince myself that it’s fine, I’m fine, and everything’s fine—
“Icelle, darling.”
That’s when I hear Joy addressing my friend.
“You never told us. You did remember introducing Tiara to Arkane?”
“They introduced themselves to each other.”
And I completely forget about Mom being a candidate of World’s Best Mom (not!) with every head at the table swiveling to my direction, and I...I’m just lost for words.
Oh, Icelle, you...you...snitch!
“How remarkable,” Lucius says, mild, “for Arkane to take the time to introduce himself.”
And then Icelle...
Icelle nods.
Just once. RBF fully in place. Not looking at anyone. Not explaining anything.
And that’s when the entire family lights up.
Raiden starts snickering into his napkin. Marius hides his smile behind his wineglass. Aldrich sighs in the way that men sigh when their dinner has just become more entertaining than they planned for.
And Joy.
Dear, sweet Joy—
“Oh, that’s wonderful!”
Oh boy.
She’s actually clapping her hands in glee—but elegantly, mind you, because everything this woman does is very, very naturally posh—and she’s looking at me in a way that feels rather...threatening?
Like how you’d used to have this sinking feeling as a kid when your mom looks at you a certain way, and then you find out they’ve suddenly had this bright idea that they know exactly what you need to wear for a school event?