“Huh?”
It’s all I can manage. She’s invading my bubble, dressed in a tight black mini dress with her hair and makeup looking professionally done, and I know she wants to tear me to pieces. I realize she must have shown up at the clearing only to find it empty. Maybe there was a cleanup crew picking up all the trash—and Danica standing there in her dress.
I want to feel bad for her, but it’s hard when she’s standing in my face like a death eater about to devour me whole. With panic surging through me, I respond with the first thing that comes to mind, which is definitely not the detailed excuse Dee instructed me to go with. “No!”
Danica narrows her eyes. “Oh really? Then where were you last night? Did you even come home?”
“I was on a date.” The lie comes as a surprise even to me, and Danica’s eyes seethe with suspicion.
“A date with my boyfriend?” she hisses.
It takes everything in me to not shout that he’s not her fucking boyfriend, that he’s mine, but I conquer the urge and hiss back at her. “With a guy from school. I spent the night at his place just to get away from you for a night.”
Danica’s face contorts into an ugly mask of disgust. “Wow, you really are a whore.”
“Takes one to know one,” I snap, and I stand there waiting for her to punch me in the mouth. Her fists are clenching at her sides, her eyes narrowed like a viper’s.
“Prove it,” she demands as I quiver with a mix of fear and impatience.
“Prove what?”
“Call him. Speakerphone. Fucking prove it, or get the hell out of my apartment.”
I hide the panic that squeezes in my veins as I try to think of some way to get out of this. But Danica’s narrowed eyes and her squared hips tell me that she’s not going to buy any excuses I try on her. With my heart pounding in my chest, I pick up my phone, and I find a number.
“You vixen!” Leti answers, and I jump in to stop him from spilling last night’s secrets.
“Leti, my paranoid cousin thinks I was at some video shoot with her ex-boyfriend last night.” Danica’s nose reddens with anger, but I press on with my veiled explanation. “Will you please tell her where I was so she’ll get off my back?”
My fairy godfriend pauses for a moment that feels like an eternity, but then he effortlessly comes to my rescue. “Are you cheating on me?”
“No!” I play along. “She just thinks—”
“I take you to the fanciest restaurant in town,” Leti pretend-complains. “I open your door and pull out your chair and give you a gorgeous bouquet of apricot amaryllis—” I hold my breath, wishing he would have just settled on roses. “I treat you like my queen, and you’re fucking cheating on me?”
Danica’s expression is something between suspicious and satisfied. I can tell she’s enjoying the fact that she’s causing problems in my fictional relationship, and I press on.
“I’m not seeing anyone else! That’s my whole point here!” I turn away from Danica for show. “But for the record, it’s not like you ever asked me to be exclusive anyway.”
“Well, I’m fucking asking, Hailey. I can’t stand the thought of you being with anyone else. You’re special to me, girl. I want to spoil you and treat you like the princess you are to me.”
I nearly laugh when I glance over my shoulder and see the jealousy that flashes across Danica’s face, and I silently vow to hug the life out of Leti next time I see him.
“Are you satisfied?” I whisper-yell at my cousin, and she glares at me but lets me turn off the speakerphone and walk away. In my room, I walk to the far corner and slide down onto the floor.
“You really are my fairy godfriend.”
Leti laughs. “She bought it?”
“I think she’s even jealous.”
He laughs harder, and I smile as I realize I can’t wait to get to know him better. My circle of friends in this town keeps growing and growing, and I don’t want to leave. It only cements my resolve to continue putting up with Danica, to continue trying to stay one step ahead in her game.
“I didn’t even get to use my best line,” he pouts.
“Use it.”
“Okay, are you sure you’re ready for this?”
I grin and tell him I am, and Leti clears his throat.
“Ever since I adopted that Saint Berdoodle from you at the pound, girl, I’ve wanted to get all up in your pound, kna wh’am sayin’?”
“Why are you talking like a gangster?” I ask through my laughter, and Leti snickers.
“’Cuz I’ve gone hard for you, girl.”
We both laugh like immature ten-year-olds until another call rings on the line, and I pull the phone away from my ear to see Dee-licious-andra’s name on my phone. A hot blush settles under my skin, and I press the phone back to my ear, whispering, “Hey, Leti, Mike’s calling so I’ve got to go. Thanks for covering for me.”
“Anytime, Hailey-rella.”
I take a deep breath before I answer Mike’s call, and then I accept it and find my voice. “Hey.”
“I miss you.”
Three words in his smooth baritone, and butterflies whirl in my stomach.
“You’ve only been gone a few hours,” I point out, wishing I had an ice pack to press against my heated cheeks.
“I know. Tomorrow is going to suck.”
I close my eyes and smile, wishing I didn’t have to worry about the volume of my voice as I talked to him. I wish my walls didn’t have ears.
“Did you get a ride back to your car?” he asks, and I tell him Rowan drove me. I even tell him about having pancakes with her at IHOP, but I don’t tell him about the serious conversation we had afterward.
I ask him how his flight was, and he tells me the band got recognized for the first time in the airport. I ask how Canada is, and he tells me about the freezing weather. I ask how preparation for the show is going, and he tells me they just finished sound check and that kids are already lining up outside.
“What about you?” he cuts in before I can ask anything else. “How was your day?”
I think back to the pit bulls I basically signed death warrants for, and my stomach sinks. “Fine,” I say, knowing Mike has to go onstage soon. He doesn’t have time to hear about it, and even if he did, I wouldn’t want to burden him.
“Why are you lying?”
“It’s a long story,” I confess. “I know you don’t have the time to—”
“I’ve always got time for you, Hailey. And if not, I’ll make time. Now talk to me.”