“Not at all, madam. Where would you like me to take you?”
After a long day of shopping and pampering, I feel floaty and relaxed, and more tempted than ever before to trade in my working girl status to be a professional girlfriend.
I won’t, but the temptation is real.
Professional girlfriend life is not terrible.
I wasn’t paying attention when Mom told the driver—his real name is Thomas—where to take us, so I’m surprised when we pull into Target.
“What are we doing here?” I ask, looking over at her.
“I want to buy a move-in present for Ray while we still have your boyfriend’s credit card. He wants one of those electric toothbrushes, but the one he likes is like $200, which is obviously an awful lot of money to spend on a toothbrush. But if Hunter’s buying….”
I shake my head at her. “Wow, you have really come around on his gift-giving tendencies, haven’t you?”
“Well, when it started I was worried he was trying to buy your virginity. Now you’ve given the damn thing to him, so he might as well pay.”
“I’m going to tell him my bride price is a toothbrush.”
“And all the shopping bags in the trunk. Don’t forget the shopping bags.”
The driver puts the car in park and gets out to open Mom’s door.
Instead of climbing right out, she looks over at me. “Are you coming?”
“No, you can just run in, I’ll wait in the car. I’m comfy. Plus, if I go, you’ll just talk me into buying more stuff.”
“That’s true, but do I want the store to have video surveillance of me using Hunter’s credit card? What if this is all an elaborate scheme to have me arrested for credit card fraud so he can whisk you off to his castle and keep you all to himself?”
“I don’t think he has a castle,” I say, as if that’s the only far-fetched part of the scenario.
She gives me a funny look. “What kind of prince doesn’t have a castle?”
“He’s not a prince. His dad was a prince, or… his dad’s dad was a prince? Someone somewhere down the line was a prince. I don’t know, we haven’t had enough time together for him to fill me in on his European adventure. Speaking of…”
“Uh oh.”
“No uh oh. I just wanted to tell you that since I don’t have to work next weekend, Hunter wants to know if I can spend it at his place.”
She blinks at me.
“Remember the toothbrush,” I tell her.
“The whole weekend. As in, sleep at his house for two nights without ever coming home.”
“Correct.”
She stares at me.
“But I’ll have my phone, we can text all we want. And he lives like five minutes away, obviously I can come home if I need to.” I gesture to her and say brightly, “And think of it this way—a whole weekend kid-free. Ray can stay over; it’ll be like a trial run of him moving in.”
She narrows her eyes.
“If it helps… I really want to go. And yes, we will have sex, but we would do that even if I didn’t get to spend the night. This way, we’ll get to have more quality time together, and it’ll be a lot nicer for me. I want to spend the night, I want to wake up with him in the morning. I don’t want to ‘wham, bam, thank you, man’ and get out of there. And I promise to make him buy condoms beforehand. We won’t be as careless this time.”
Mom sighs heavily.
Poor Jeeves stands there holding the door and pretending he can’t hear this conversation.
I give Mom my best puppy dog eyes.
“Fine.” She sighs again, much more dramatically.
“Really?” I flash her a grin. “Yay! Thanks, Mom.”
She narrows her eyes. “Just for that, he’s buying me another purse.”
With that, she gets out.
I smile as she sulkily heads into the store, then pull out my cell phone so I can text Hunter.
“How is the best non-boyfriend in the world doing tonight?”
“A little sore, but otherwise good. How was your shopping trip?”
I frown at the phone. “Shopping was amazing. The spa was heavenly. My mom is spitefully purchasing a toothbrush, then we’re heading home. Why are you sore?”
“I’m gonna need more details about this spiteful toothbrush purchase,” he tells me.
Since he evaded my question, I type it again. “Why are you sore?”
“I got into it with Sherlock at practice tonight, no big deal.”
My heart sinks a little. “What do you mean, got into it? Like a fight?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Hunter… I really don’t think you should make him a mortal enemy over all this. I know what he did was shitty and his methods are certainly unorthodox, but I truly think he was trying to help you. I don’t think he had bad intentions. And to be honest, without his interference, there would have been no day pass. We probably still wouldn’t be talking. And my mom agreed to let me spend the weekend with you! None of this would be happening if he hadn’t brought me to that stupid party.”
“He kissed you. He MARKED you. I couldn’t NOT punch him in the face.”
I sigh. “Hunter.”
“Riley.”
“You need to be nicer to your friend.”
“Not when he kisses my goddamn girlfriend I don’t.”
This is not the right time to remind him I am not—in fact—his girlfriend. I know what he means, anyway, so I overlook it and type back, “You know it didn’t mean anything. I think you should talk to him. No fists. Use your words. Find out if he was legitimately looking out for you or he just wanted to make trouble. I really believe it’s the former. If it is, you need to let it go. Don’t lose a real friend over this. You don’t have many of those.”
“It bothers me that you’re defending him,” he tells me.
“I’m only looking out for you,” I assure him. “I have zero fucks to give about Ryden Sherlock myself, but I don’t want to see you alienate someone who truly cares about you, even if it’s in his own weird way.”
“Well, when you put it that way,” he writes back.
“Makes a lot of sense, huh?”
“This is why I’m dating a smart girl,” he tells me.
I bite back a smile. “Do you think if you slip in ‘girlfriend’ and ‘dating’ enough times, I’ll forget it’s not true?”
“It’s worth a shot.”
I grin. “I love you,” I tell him with a trio of emoji hearts.
“I love you too,” he texts back, emoji-free.
Chapter Forty Four
Riley
I get another flower delivery Monday morning.
Mom complains that we’re going to run out of places to put flowers, but I wave her off.
I put the flowers in my bedroom and read the card.
“My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.” -Peeta
(You’ve made me quote my fictional nemesis. Good job.)
I laugh out loud at what he wrote in parentheses.