The waitress stopped by and took our orders, then Theo and Luc fell into an easy conversation about her school and skateboarding. I’d made a mistake sitting here. First, she’d never let me hear the end of Theo from this point forward. But more importantly, Saturday breakfasts were a way for me to touch base and find out what our mom had been pulling during the week. So far, nothing alarming had gone down, but I spent a lot of time waiting for the other shoe to drop. It had definitely dropped on me a few times growing up, and it had always been filled with lead, leaving me bloody and broken. But Mom knew I was watching. I hadn’t had anyone watching out for me—Luc always would.
Our food arrived, and Luc tucked in. Her omelet was as big as her head, and she’d devour every last bite. I cut into my stack of pancakes. Right as I stuffed a huge bite in my mouth, two blonde girls stopped at our table, and Theo stiffened.
“Hi, The.” Blondie One reached out and squeezed his hand.
“Hey, Theo.” Blondie Two tossed her hair behind her shoulder, giving me and Luciana her back, and since I was sitting, her ass.
Nice.
He nodded at them, but no eye twinkle. “Hey.”
Luciana elbowed me, but I was too interested in the show to look at her. Blondie One was still touching Theo’s hand. Interesting.
“How are you, The?” she asked.
“Good. Fine. You?” Theo was polite but curt.
“I’m okay. I was hoping we could talk. Don’t you think we should?”
His eyes didn’t sparkle. Instead, they hardened like stone. “I don’t think we have anything to say. But you can text me, and I’ll see if I have time. Right now, I’m having breakfast with my friends.”
“Oh.” She dragged her index finger from his wrist to his fingertip, then twisted her head to glance back at Luciana and me. “I didn’t even notice you had company.”
He exhaled heavily through his nose, his cheeks tinting pink. “I’m gonna guess my company is the only reason you walked into this restaurant, Abby.”
She sucked in a breath, the sound covering my own gasp. This bitch. I’d bet my hat Blondie Two was Zadie’s other roommate from last year.
“That isn’t true. Kayleigh saw you through the window when we were on our way to the café for coffee. We had to come in and say hi,” Abby explained.
Kayleigh nodded hard enough for her hair to swish around her shoulders. “She’s right, Theo. We were just walking by. I haven’t seen you in ages, so I made Abs come in with me.” Even though I could only see her ass, I imagined she was poking her lip out in a pout. “I miss you.”
Theo moved his hand from under Abby’s to grip the edge of the table. “You’ve said hello. I’ll text you when I’m not having breakfast with friends.”
That was a dismissal if I ever heard one. These bitches had to be dense because they didn’t leave, so I was done. They could stay or go, I didn’t care. I just wanted to eat my food. I looked at Luciana. She was staring at me with wide eyes.
“Eat, boo,” I whispered. “Don’t let it get cold.”
“You too,” she said softly.
I stabbed my fork into my pancakes, holding up the bite I was about to take. “Down the hatch.”
Giggling, she followed suit, digging into her omelet. The blondes lingered, but my ears were closed to them, and I had lifted my leg onto the seat to face Luciana, giving them my back. Abby was still murmuring to Theo, but I decided not to give a damn.
“I’m sorry.” Theo tapped the table in front of my plate to get my attention. “They’re gone.”
Luciana scrunched her nose. “Those girls were so rude. One of them stuck her butt in Helen’s face, and the other one was all smoochy touchy with you, then pretended like she hadn’t even seen us sitting here. God, who were those girls?”
I snorted a laugh, peeking at Theo from under my lashes. His shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
“Theodore has unfortunate taste in girls. The smoochy-touchy one is his ex. Although, I’m not sure she’s gotten the message that they’re broken up.”
Luciana’s gaze whipped to Theo. “That rude girl was your girlfriend? Ugh.”
He wiped his hand over his mouth, somewhat sobering. “I don’t have any idea what was up with her. Never seen her do anything like that.” His eyes flicked to me. “Considering she did the breaking, pretty sure she knows we’re through.”
Something about the knowledge that that beautiful, rude girl dumped Theo lodged in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t really explain it, except now I knew he’d still be with her if he’d had a choice.
“Didn’t look like it,” I muttered, giving my attention to my pancakes again.
“Yeah,” Luc agreed. “She was being all flirty. But that’s probably because she saw you sitting here with Helen, who’s ten times hotter than she is, and got jealous. Honestly, no one can compete with Helen, so why even try?”
“You have a point, little hell-raiser,” Theo told her.
“You just agreed Helen’s hot.” She elbowed me hard under the table, and from his huff of breath, Theo didn’t miss it.
He picked up his coffee, staring at me over the brim. “I can’t argue with facts.”
She fell back against her seat and sighed. “Wow. Just wow.”
I groaned. “Don’t fall for it, boo. Yesterday, a guy with no teeth and extremely questionable personal hygiene practices told me I was hot. It’s not the compliment you might think it is.” Not to mention the slimy assholes who’d thrown money at me while I shook my tits for them last night. But I’d really rather not think about them. Really, really.
He winced at that but didn’t argue. A man calling his girl hot was a compliment. A man calling a woman he barely knew and who’d never belong to him hot wasn’t.
When our plates were empty and we were waiting for the check, Theo checked his phone, then asked, “What’s the plan for today?”
Luc answered before I could spit out ‘None of your business.’ “Hells always takes me grocery shopping for the week because our mom is a loser and would let me starve if it was up to her. She’d let herself starve too, so it’s not like personal or anything.”
I squeezed her leg, digging my fingers into the hollow beside her knee. “You don’t need to tell Theodore our business, kid.”
She frowned at me. “It’s my business. I can tell it to whoever I want.”
Theo mimed zipping his lips. “I won’t tell anyone. I can’t say I’ll forget what you just said, because damn, little hell-raiser, I don’t think I ever will. But your business is yours, and I’m really glad you have Helen watching out for you.”
I squared my shoulders, not appreciating his rich-boy sympathy in the least. “We don’t need your pity, dude.” I slapped a twenty on the table. “This should cover us plus tip. We’re out. It’s been real.”
Grabbing my board off the floor, I slid from the booth and gestured for Luc to follow me. She was slower, more reluctant, moving at a snail’s pace. That gave Theo the opportunity to slap down another twenty on top of mine and rise to his feet. His mouth was pinched with displeasure. When he eyed our boards tucked under our arms, it became even tighter.
Outside the diner, Theo rounded on me. “You’re going to the store on your skateboards?”
“Yeah. We’re fine.”
Luc got between us. “Helen carries the bags herself. She’s so good at balancing, you wouldn’t believe it. Mom has a car, but it doesn’t run anymore. But Helen skateboards everywhere, and she can carry a lot when she’s doing it. I mean, it’d be easier if we had a car, but she’s the GOAT, I’m telling you. She doesn’t let anything stop her.”
I grabbed Luciana’s arm. “Enough telling tales. We’ve got places to go.”