I huff. My phone beeps, interrupting my typing fingers.
Santiago: You can always pay me back if it really kills you to accept a gift.
The only way I could afford a dress like this is if I worked until the day gray hairs started sprouting from my head.
Santiago: But I’d rather you didn’t. That takes away from the fun of it. Just let someone else take care of you for once.
Let someone else take care of you for once. Something about his simple words makes my chest tighten. I can’t exactly reject him when he is this honest with me.
Me: Thank you.
I can’t think up anything else, and I doubt he expects me to. His words alone already incapacitated my brain for the morning.
“Is everything okay in there?” Santiago’s mom calls out.
“Just perfect!” I offer in the nicest voice I can fake.
I remove my clothes and put on the new dress and matching shoes. The material clings to my body, highlighting curves I didn’t know I possessed. My feet turn on their own, and the material swirls around me. Crystals reflect a spectrum of colors off the walls.
“Whoa.” I snap a picture of myself and send it to Brooke.
“Let us see!” Maya chants.
I exit the stall, doing a little twirl in my heels.
Maya claps. “That’s the one! Santiago is going to die when he sees you.”
Well, Maya doesn’t have to try too hard to convince me. I may not be the classiest gal to strut the red carpet, but I’ll play the part.
I should be wary of how our performance is becoming much more real by the day. Instead of feeding the mental monster, I chug the rest of my champagne and enjoy my day with Daniela and Maya.
This is the closest thing I’ve ever had to family bonding, and it brings fresh tears to my eyes. And they’re not exactly the happy kind. I traveled to Italy to find my family, but all I’ve done is throw myself into someone else’s.
The worst part is I want more of it. I shouldn’t crave more experiences with Santiago’s family, but I can’t resist. I’ve been denied a family to call my own for years. And my starved heart will suck up any kind of love it can get, even if it’s poison.
I walk into our hotel room after having a spa day with Maya in her penthouse suite. She welcomed me into the life of the rich and lavish with manicures, pedicures, and a private makeup artist before our night at the gala. I never knew joining the dark side meant having champagne and a charcuterie board, but now that I’ve tried it, I’ll never look at pre-gaming the same way again.
“Santiago?” I call out.
No response has me searching the large hotel room. I attempt the doorknob to our bedroom but find it locked. “Santiago?” I tap against the door.
“Give me a minute,” his voice croaks.
Shit, is he having more phantom pains? I press my ear to the door. He mumbles something I fail to catch.
I tap the door again. “Are you okay?”
“Define your meaning of okay?”
“Do I need to bust this door down to save your ass?”
“No. But I might need you to save me from myself because there is no way I can go tonight.”
“Huh?”
The door opens, and I tumble into his room. His hands dart out to stabilize me.
My eyes flit from his tux to his eyes. Damn, he fills out the material in the best kind of way. He looks regal, with his hair slicked back and his face cleanly shaven.
I love everything about his look except for the frown plastered on his face. “What’s the matter?”
“I don’t know why I thought I could do this,” he mumbles, turning away from me.
“Go to a gala?”
“A gala, seeing coworkers from before, and doing interviews with people asking me too many damn questions. I don’t think I can do it.” He takes a seat in a chair off to the side of his bed. His eyes avoid my gaze as he puts his head in his hands.
“If there is anyone who can do this, it’s you.”
He looks up at me, his eyes plagued with a darkness I hate. My breath lodges itself somewhere in my throat as his eyes roam down my body, taking in every detail. As good as it makes me feel to have his attention, it seems like a distraction for how he actually feels.
His chest heaves as he takes a few deep breaths. “Fuck. Here I am freaking out when I should be commenting on how beautiful you look.”
I take the seat across from him, halting his assessment. “Eh, you have all night to compliment me. You know, at the gala you probably should attend, seeing as it’s honoring your brother-in-law and whatnot. Plus you got all dressed up already. It would truly be a crime against humanity to hide you from the world when you look like that.”