I’m about to catch up with my friends when Ares joins me. I give him a strange look. “What are you doing?”
“I’m coming with you,” he informs me as if it were a fact. “I’m your ‘friend,’” again he makes those quotation marks with his fingers, “so I may as well be part of a friends’ celebration.”
I narrow my eyes and open my mouth to protest, but Ares steps forward to greet Dani. He introduces himself to Carlos, giving him a firm handshake. Dani gives me a what-the-hell look, and I answer her with a confused shrug.
“Where are we going?” Ares asks, smiling, his charisma on full display. Dani smiles back.
“We thought about going to the café on Main Street.”
“You celebrate with coffee?” he asks, giving us a confused look.
Dani arches an eyebrow. “Yes. Any problem with that?”
He raises his hands. “No, none, but I have alcohol at my house.”
Ha! Trying to take me to your territory, Greek God? Nice try.
“Really?” Carlos asks, his face lighting up.
Ares nods, finding an ally. “Yes, and very good quality.”
Carlos looks at us. “Shall we go?”
Dani and I exchange glances, but she saves the day.
“No, thank you. We prefer coffee.”
Carlos pouts. “But . . .” Dani grabs his arm, digging her nails into it. “Ow! Coffee! Yes, coffee is better.”
Ares looks disappointed. “Well, I guess I’ll have to drink alone with Apolo.”
“Apolo?” Dani looks at him suddenly.
“Yes, he must be so lonely at home.” He puts his hands in his jacket pockets.
Dani hesitates, and I can see that now she really wants to go to Ares’s house. He bought Carlos with alcohol, and Dani with Apolo. I must admit that his moves are good. Dani doesn’t say anything, keeping her eyes on the ground. I know she won’t say she wants to go, because she’ll put our friendship first, as usual. She’s leaving the decision in my hands, and that’s why I love her so much.
Carlos and Dani want to go, and I’ll feel like the bad guy if I say no. Ares knows that. He’s very good at manipulation but not at making things right with me. That’s where his brain fails him.
“All right, let’s go with him.” I surrender.
My house is behind the Hidalgos’。 I just have to go with them, wait until they’re comfortable, and then leave. It sounds like an easy plan, but every time I’ve gone to Ares’s house, we’ve ended up in bed together. But there’s something inside me that tells me this time will be different.
See it as a challenge, Raquel.
On the way to Ares’s house, I call my mom to tell her that I’m going to study with Dani at a café. The tension between us has dropped a bit, but I still have to let her know where I am from time to time.
The car smells of him, and, although I try to ignore what his closeness does to me, my body can’t control its reactions. Carlos keeps talking about everything he sees, and Dani rearranges her hair when she thinks no one is looking.
A smiling Apolo comes out and waves at us when we arrive, looking so cute with his messy hair. He’s wearing a loose unbuttoned plaid shirt, revealing a white T-shirt underneath, and jeans.
“Hey, kid,” Carlos greets him. “Do you live here?”
“He’s my brother,” Ares explains.
Claudia, the red-haired maid, comes down the stairs carrying an empty basket.
“Good evening,” she says. We all return the greeting politely.
Ares asks her in a gentle voice, “Claudia, can you make some drinks and take them to the playroom, please?”
Oh no, not the playroom.
Is he doing it on purpose?
I look at him for a second, and his mischievous grin tells me yes.
Dani and Apolo greet each other awkwardly, and I wonder what’s been going on between those two. We all go into the playroom, and it’s much the same as I remember it: the big TV, the different video game consoles, the couch . . . the couch where I lost my virginity.
The passion, the wildness, the sensations. His lips on mine, his hands all over my body, the friction of our naked bodies. Unconsciously, my fingers touch my lips. I miss him, and it’s torture to have him so close while having to keep the distance between us.
“Remembering something?” His voice brings me back to reality, and I lower my hand as fast as I can.
“No.” My eyes search for the others, who are turning on the console and setting everything up while laughing at something Carlos said.