My grip strangled the dress. “The vest was a test to see if I would wear it? That is so…underhanded.” An entire day wasted on a stupid test. Indignation unfurled in my stomach. “I hate when you do stuff like this.”
A grim half-smile touched Rhys’s lips. “I’d rather you hate me alive than love me dead.” He released my shoulders. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”
The door shut behind him.
I could finally breathe easy again, but I couldn’t stop his words from echoing in my mind.
I’d rather you hate me alive than love me dead.
The problem was, I didn’t hate him. I hated his rules and restrictions, but I didn’t hate him.
I wished I did.
It would make my life a lot simpler.
Trial Month Three
“I can’t go.”
“What do you mean you can’t go?” Jules’s disbelief oozed over the line. “We’ve been talking about the festival since sophomore year. We have coordinated outfits. Stella rented a car! We might die on the road because she’s a terrible driver—”
“I heard that!” Stella yelled in the background.
“—but she’s the only one with a license.”
“I know.” I glared at Rhys, who sat on the couch polishing a knife like a psycho. “A certain bodyguard deemed it unsafe.”
My friends and I had planned on attending the Rokbury music festival for years, and now, I had to sit it out.
“So? Come anyway. He works for you, not the other way around.”
I wished I could, but we were still in the trial period of our deal, and Rhys’s concerns weren’t totally off base. Rokbury took place at a campground an hour and a half outside New York City, and while it looked like a blast, something inevitably went wrong every year—a festival goer’s tent catching fire, a drunken group fight leading to several hospitalizations, a panic-induced stampede. It was also supposed to storm the weekend of this year’s festival, which meant the campground would probably turn into a giant mud pit, but my friends were risking it, anyway.
“Sorry, J. Next time.”
Jules sighed. “Tell your man he’s hot as hell but a total buzzkill.”
“He’s not my man. He’s my bodyguard.” I lowered my voice, but I thought I saw Rhys pause for a millisecond before he resumed polishing his knife.
“Even worse. He’s running your life and you’re not getting any dick from it.”
“Jules.”
“You know it’s true.” Another sigh. “Fine, I get it. We’ll miss you, but we’ll catch up when we’re back.”
“Sounds good.”
I hung up and sank into the armchair, FOMO—Fear of Missing Out—hitting me hard. I’d bought the festival tickets months ago, before Rhys started working for me, and I’d had to sell them to a random junior in my political theory class.
“I hope you’re happy,” I said pointedly.
He didn’t respond.
Rhys and I had settled into a more functional dynamic over the past three months, but there were still times I wanted to chuck a textbook at him. Like now.
When the day of the festival rolled around the following weekend, however, I woke up to the shock of my life.
I walked into the living room, bleary-eyed, only to find it transformed. The furniture had been pushed to the side, replaced with a pile of boho-printed pillows and cushions on the floor. The coffee table groaned beneath various snacks and drinks, and the Rokbury festival played out in real time on-screen. The pièce de résistance, however, was the indoor tent decorated with string lights, which looked exactly like the ones people set up on the festival grounds.
Rhys sat on the couch, which was now pressed flush against the wall beneath the window, frowning at his phone.
“What…” I rubbed my eyes. Nope, I wasn’t dreaming. The tent, the snacks, they were all there. “What is this?”
“Indoor festival,” he grunted.
“You put this together.” It was a statement of disbelief more than a question.
“Reluctantly, and with help.” Rhys glanced up. “Your redheaded friend is a menace.”
Of course. That made more sense. My friends must’ve felt bad I was missing the festival, so they put together a consolation party, so to speak. But something didn’t add up.
“They left last night.”
“They dropped everything off beforehand while you were in the shower.”
Hmm, plausible. I took long showers.
Appeased and delighted, I grabbed an armful of chips, candy, and soda and crawled into the cushioned tent, where I watched my favorite bands perform their sets on the TV. The sound and picture quality was so good I almost felt like I was there.
Admittedly, I was more comfortable than I would’ve been at the actual festival, but I missed having people to enjoy it with.
An hour in, I poked my head out from the tent, hesitant. “Mr. Larsen. Why don’t you join me? There’s plenty of food.”
He was still sitting on the couch, frowning like a bear who’d woken up on the wrong side of the cave.
“No, thanks.”
“Come on.” I waved my hand around. “Don’t make me party alone. That’s just sad.”
Rhys’s mouth tugged in a small smirk before he unfolded himself from his seat. “Only because you listened about not attending the festival.”
This time, I was the one who frowned. “You say it like you’re training a dog.”
“Most things in life are like training a dog.”
“That’s not true.”
“Show up to work, get paid. Woo a girl, get laid. Study, get good grades. Action and reward. Society runs on it.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he had a point.
“No one uses the word woo anymore,” I muttered. I hated when he was right.
His smirk deepened a fraction of an inch.
He was too large to fit in the tent with me, so he settled on the floor next to it. Despite my cajoling, he refused to touch the food, leaving me to inhale the snacks on my own.
Another hour later, I’d ingested so much sugar and carbs I felt a little sick, and Rhys looked bored enough to fall asleep.
“I take it you’re not a fan of electronic music.” I stretched and winced. The last bag of salt and vinegar chips had been a bad idea.
“It sounds like a Mountain Dew commercial gone wrong.”
I almost choked on my water. “Fair enough.” I wiped my mouth with a napkin, unable to hide my smile. Rhys was so serious I delighted whenever his stony mask cracked. “So, tell me. If you don’t like EDM, what do you like?”
“Don’t listen to much music.”
“A hobby?” I persisted. “You must have a hobby.”
He didn’t answer, but the brief flash of wariness in his eyes told me all I needed to know.
“You do have one!” I knew so little about Rhys outside his job, I latched onto the morsel of information like a starved animal. “What is it? Let me guess, knitting. No, bird watching. No, cosplay.”
I picked the most random, un-Rhys-like hobbies I could think of.
“No.”
“Stamp collecting? Yoga? Pokémon—”