Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
"Have you eaten?"
"Actually, I wanted to invite you for dinner." And here it comes, the whole reason, bubbling up out of me. "I got the job! My first one! There was an audition and everything, this director, he had me read in his suite at the—"
"You went inside the hotel room of a man."
The temperature of the room drops about forty degrees.
"I mean, when you put it like that—"
"How stupid can you get?" His jaw has gone to stone. "You could have been raped."
"I have pepper spray," I offer.
"And what if he has a gun?"
"It was broad daylight."
"You really think sunlight will keep a psychopath from hurting you if he wanted to?"
And here's the truly unfair, upside-down thing about me. He's furious. Properly furious, the kind that has a man like him spending a word like raped in that expensive unbothered voice. And he's furious because he doesn't want me hurt. A smart girl would be chastened. Instead my whole traitor chest goes warm and my heart does its little unauthorized skip because apparently his temper is just one more thing to love about him, which is the exact opposite of the lesson I'm supposed to be learning here.
"You're right," I admit, all the fight going out of me. "I was foolish and careless. Forgive me?"
His mouth works. He looks at the ceiling like it owes him money. "Do whatever you want."
"Thank you for forgiving me." "I didn't say—" He stops himself. Closes his eyes. Opens them. "Never mind. What do you want to eat?"
"What do you want to eat? My treat."
"You should be more prudent with managing your earnings."
"But I love spending my money on someone hot and honorable."
He glares at me. It's a truly world-class glare.
"And mine," I add.
Silence.
I let it stretch because I'm brave, and stupid, and both of those things are having a wonderful time.
"This is the part," I inform him, "where you shut me up with a kiss."
"Or I can just kick you out."
"I'm sorry, I'll behave."
"Then don't make me repeat myself." There's an edge under it now, the voice of a man who's not used to saying anything twice and doesn't intend to start. "What do you want to eat?"
I want to keep every glare he makes in a little box. Instead, I pick Chinese.
A WHILE LATER HE'S watching me demolish my second carton of takeout with the expression of a man witnessing a slow-motion accident he's legally required to attend.
"Have you been starving yourself?" he asks.
"I need to keep an eye on my weight," I explain with my mouth full, which somewhat undercuts the glamour.
"When was your last meal before this?" I open my mouth to lie. I'm good at lying, thank you, with references.
"I catch you lying," he warns, before I get a syllable out, "I'll have the doorman bar you from the building."
"You can't really do that."
"Lie to me, then. See for yourself."
I put down the carton. "Last night," I fess up.
He looks at me like I've personally disappointed several generations of his family. "Why?"
"I was saving money."
"The same money you wanted to spend on me."
"Okay, I admit it, I'm not that good at handling money."
"Clearly."
"But since I plan on becoming a successful actress, I can just pay someone to look after my money."
"You need to learn how to do the things you're intending to outsource." His voice doesn't rise. Somehow that's worse. "Otherwise you'll be taken advantage of."
"If you're the one taking advantage."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Fine, then." He leans back and folds his arms. The forearms are back, doing nothing, ruining my life. And he gives me his whole terrible attention, the kind that makes the rest of the room go quiet and out of focus. "What are you so serious about?"
And I could joke. I'm always joking. It's my best trick and my only shield and it's gotten me out of every room I ever needed to leave. But since he asked...
"You," I tell him. "I fell in love with you at first sight."
He doesn't so much as blink. "Then you're even dumber than I thought. I won't change my mind. I'll never see you as a woman."
"Then how do you see me?"
A pause. A small one, but I've started collecting his pauses, and this one has weight.
"A little sister."
Oh.
And my heart, the one that isn't originally mine, the one a stranger died to hand me, gives a hard, off-beat thud at those two words, little sister, like they reached a room in me I've never once been inside. It doesn't make sense. It hurts for no reason I can find, and I do what I always do with a thing that hurts for no reason I can name. I shove it somewhere I won't have to look at it, and I keep going.
"Okay. I'll take it." I stick out my hand across the ruins of the takeout. "You're my big brother from now on."