“What if we can make this work for everyone?”
Sophia stood, looking at me with concern. “Drew?”
“You need a place to stay in the city,” I said to Veronica, who’d turned her head enough that she could probably see me in her periphery. “And Brody needs a fake wife. At least until we can figure out how to undo this mess without obliterating our chance for a business.”
“Drew, you can’t be serious,” Sophia said. “We’ve seen how lying to my parents goes. And not to be an asshole, but you also made it clear you didn’t want their money.”
“I didn’t want to be bribed. But as a step to making something great with Brody? Yeah, I’m up for that.”
“What exactly are you proposing?” Veronica asked, and when we all looked at her blankly, she laughed. “Okay, maybe proposing was a poor choice of words. How about suggesting? What are you suggesting we do?”
Brody looked at me for a second before giving me a slight nod and returning his attention to Veronica. “He’s saying that you move in here with me. I’ll pay for all your living expenses so you can take the internship. In exchange, you pretend to be my wife for the summer.”
Veronica was silent for a minute as she looked around the room at all of us. “You’re all crazy, you know that?”
“You’ll get used to it,” Sophia said.
“I doubt that,” Veronica replied, but she said it softly and with a slight quirk of her lips that made the comment more of an endearment than an insult. “You’re serious about this?” she asked Brody.
“Absolutely.”
Veronica took another moment before she approached Brody with an outstretched hand. “Then you’ve got yourself a deal.”
We all breathed a collective sigh of relief, until Sophia said to Brody, “It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to start thinking of what lie you’re going to tell Mom and Dad when Veronica eventually leaves.”
Brody groaned.
Veronica smiled. “And you also have to figure out how you’re going to tell your girlfriend.”
Brody groaned louder.
I couldn’t help but give a small snort and look over at Sophia, who I figured would love to bear witness to the disaster that would be Brody relaying this news to Aamee.
But Sophia wasn’t smiling. “Drew?”
I looked over at her.
“If Veronica’s moving in, where are you going to live?”
Well…shit.
Chapter Three
S O P H I A
Drew paced around the living room. “Okay, so this is okay. I’ll just go home. It’ll just be for a couple months. I’ve survived longer than that under their roof. And I’m almost all healed now, so it’s not like I need to depend on them for anything. It’ll be fine. Totally fine.”
Watching Drew ramble was painful.
Brody had escaped to his room soon after Veronica had left to head back to New York, and I’d been watching Drew slowly descend into panic ever since.
“Seriously, you can stay at my apartment when Taylor and I find one. Veronica won’t be back until the end of the semester. You’ll be able to go right from here to there.” It wasn’t the first time I’d offered this as a solution, but he hadn’t been receptive. “I'll miss living with you.”
I felt the need to wrap my arms around his waist and make myself comfortable against his chest as he pulled me against him.
For the first time since Taylor and I had agreed to live together this summer, I regretted that we’d decided to go through with it. While Taylor was my best friend and I missed her terribly when she was at school out of state, I worried about how to juggle my time between her and Drew.
I felt Drew shake his head and knew he still wasn’t convinced. He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead before looking down at me. “Your dad said he didn’t want us living together, and I’d really like him not to hate me forever. Not to mention that I don’t think Taylor is going to want to share a one-bedroom with your boyfriend. That’s not fair to ask of her.”
Those things were all true, but the thought of Drew having to move back home made me not care about them as much as I should. Which was unfair to my dad and Taylor, but I couldn’t bring myself to care as much as I knew I should’ve.
I opened my mouth to continue to argue, but Brody rushing out of the bedroom stopped me.
“Okay, I called in reinforcements,” he said.
“What? Who?”
“Our Scooby Gang,” he replied as he headed into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. He grabbed a water and unscrewed the cap before taking a long drink.
“And that would be?”
“Everyone. Aamee, Carter, and those nerds you guys hang out with.”
My brow wrinkled in confusion. “But…they were just here a little while ago.”
“I know. But I sounded the alarm, so they’re all coming back. Everyone except Aamee was at the pizza place down the street, so they’ll be here soon.”
“Where was Aamee?”
“She said she was doing some research.”
I wondered what sort of research she was doing, but I figured it was best not to ask.
“Why did you call them?” Drew asked. “There’s nothing they can do.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, I guess I don’t know. But it’s not their problem. I’ll figure it out.”
Brody smiled. “You’re adorable when you’re noble.”
“Shut up,” Drew shot back, though his lips lifted into a smile.
A knock sounded at the door, and Brody hustled over to open it. “Hey, guys,” he said when he opened it.
The “Scooby Gang,” as Brody had called them, filed inside and made themselves comfortable.
“So what’s up?” Carter, who held a pizza box on his lap, asked. He opened the lid of the box and removed a slice. Noticing us all staring at him as he took a huge bite, he said with a full mouth, “Want some?”
“No thanks,” I replied.
Carter just shrugged as he continued chomping away.
“So, not that I don’t love hanging around your apartment for hours on end, but why are we here?” Xander asked as he leaned back into the sofa.
“Like you had better things to do?” Aniyah muttered.
“Is that jealousy I hear?” Xander teased.
“No. It was a simple statement of fact.”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
“Call me that again,” Aniyah warned. “I dare you.”
Xander opened his mouth, but Toby leaned over the back of the couch and put his hand over Xander’s mouth. “Please don’t. I’m not up for watching a murder today.”
Xander smirked but stayed quiet.
“I want to wait for Aamee before I get into what’s going on,” Brody explained. “But the short of it is, Drew needs a place to live.”
“Why?” Toby asked.
Brody sighed. “Because I need Veronica to move in here and be my wife.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
All of us whipped our attention to the doorway. There stood Aamee, clearly seething with anger.