Page 49 of Maid For Each Other
“Ah,” I said, realizing yet again that I knew nothing about what rich people did with their time and money.
“So tell me, kiddo,” Roman said to me with a grin, which was funny since he looked like he was my age. “How does this work? Does he drop you off at his building before he reports to his hotel? I just love this so very much.”
“Shut up, asshole,” Declan said, rolling his eyes. “The particulars of our deal are none of your bus—”
“It’s just so beautiful, though,” Roman interrupted, nudging me like we were in cahoots. “Please tell me you sleep on his pillow and eat potato chips in bed, Abi.”
“I haven’t yet, but I might have to tonight.”
It was a little freeing, talking to somebody who knew what was going on, that I was basically a stranger to Declan. The honesty felt relaxing. Liberating.
Although Iwasa little embarrassed that he’d seen that kiss, and I wondered again what he thought of me.
“So were you two, like, boarding school roommates or something?” I asked, my eyes roaming over his stylish suit.
“No, we met in college; I was his poor friend.”
“You don’t look poor,” I said, revisiting the suit.
“Compared to Declan, everyone’s poor,” he explained, giving me a look.
“That checks out,” I said, sharing a smile with him.
We talked to Roman for a few more minutes before he left us to rejoin the event, and I realized as I watched him walk away that I genuinely liked him.
Liking Declan’s people hadnotbeen on my fake-dating bingo card.
I got into his car, and my seat belt was barely buckled when Declan spoke up.
“About that kiss,” he said, his face unreadable. “I want to apologize if I took it too far. It was all part of the act, just a fun part that I thoroughly enjoyed playing, but I would never want to do anything that made you feel uncomfortable or that you hadn’t consented to.”
“Oh.” I was surprised by his words. “No. I was the one who started it, and hard same for me. I got into our act and just had a little too much fun with it. I think our tequila shots gave me a little boldness that usually isn’t there.”
“That’s kind of what I assumed,” he said. “But just know that I’m happy to sleep somewhere else tonight if I made you feel compromised in any way.”
“No, but I appreciate the consideration.” I was shocked by how concerned he was. I hadn’t hadthaton my bingo card, either. “Thank you for being cool, bro.”
He rolled his eyes, fully aware I called him “bro” just to mess with him.
Things were relaxed on the rest of the drive home because we’d cleared the air. It was refreshing to candidly discuss things instead of letting them fester. We’d kissed, explored why and what it meant, and now there was no reason to feel weird about it because we’d both admitted we were just having fun and it was nothing to care about.
When we got back to his place, we quickly ran through our plan for the morning, like what time we’d be leaving for the race, and then we said good night.
But after I washed my face and changed into my pajamas, I started worrying all over again. About everything. Even though he’d been nice, what if he thought I was angling for more when I kissed him? Like I was trying to wriggle my way into his life with my mouth…or something like that. I was already asking him to pay me a small fortune for pretending to be his girlfriend; what if he thought I was trying to deepen the relationship in order to get more from him?
I hated the thought of that. I tossed and turned for a while, unable to sleep, until finally I had enough.
18
Couch Picnic
Declan
I was almost asleep when my phone buzzed.
I grabbed it off the nightstand and for some reason was not at all surprised to see it was a text from Abi.
You do know that the kiss was just a spontaneous part of our game, right?
