Liana: Perfect! Can't wait! See you then!
Multiple exclamation points. Always with the exclamation points.
I set down my phone and lean back in my chair.
I can do this.
I've handled hostile negotiations, territory wars, and assassination attempts. I can handle one enthusiastic woman with questionable eating habits and a strange attachment to my grandmother.
Right?
Chapter 7: Liana
Day Five, and I'm starting to worry my plan is working too well.
Santino texted this morning asking about dinner tonight. Just the two of us. Casual place. I could keep up the chaos. Order a salad, eat his food, talk about reality TV until his eyes glaze over.
But I need to be strategic. If I'm relentlessly exhausting, he'll figure out I'm doing it on purpose. Better to give him a break. Let him think maybe I'm not so bad. That maybe he can handle this.
Then hit him with something worse later.
"You're thinking too much," Gia says from my doorway.
I'm standing in front of my closet again, but this time I'm actually trying to pick something appropriate. "I'm being strategic."
"You're being calculating."
"Same thing."
"Not really." She walks in, surveys my options. "What's the plan for tonight?"
"Be normal."
She raises an eyebrow. "Normal?"
"Well, my version of normal. Not his mother's version." I pull out a dress. Simple, dark green, fitted but not too tight. Appropriate for a casual dinner. "I'm going to eat my own food. Have an actual conversation. Be pleasant."
"Why?"
"Because if I'm crazy every single time we're together, he'll realize I'm doing it on purpose." I hold up the dress. "But if I'm occasionally normal? He'll think the crazy parts are just me being clueless. Unpredictable."
"That's devious."
"That's smart." I grab shoes that actually match. "Besides, I need to study him. Figure out what else will drive him insane. Can't do that if I'm too busy being exhausting."
Gia sits on my bed. "What if you actually have a good time?"
"I won't."
"But what if you do?"
"I'm not changing my mind about this." I head for the bathroom. "One nice dinner doesn't change anything."
But as I get ready, I can't shake Gia's question. What if I do have a good time? What if, without the performance, without the act, I actually like being with him?
No. That's not happening. This is reconnaissance. Information gathering. Strategy.
Nothing more.
