voices in the background. Music too. I wanted to know what he was doing, but I didn’t want to seem desperate.
“Have fun on your date,” I added casually.
“I’m not on a date.”
“Oh.” I smiled, butterflies erupting in my stomach.
“You guys have an hour before I get home. Be out of the hot tub before then.”
“Or what?” I dared.
The line went dead. I glanced down at my phone to see he’d hung up. Jerk.
“Sorry.” Lexi shrugged. “Guess you didn’t need to call him after all.”
I tossed my phone onto our pile of towels and slid into the hot tub. It wasn’t hot yet, but it was starting to warm up fast and I was too cold to care. A few minutes later, we’d all settled into our designated sides, letting the jets pound against our aching muscles. It felt like heaven.
“Molly, do you and Host Boy fight a lot?” I asked, opening my eyes to peer over at her. She was as blissed out as I was.
She blushed at the mention of her crush. “No, not really. He’s super nice.”
I rolled my eyes, bored.
“My last boyfriend and I fought all the time,” Lexi offered up.
“Really?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, but there was a language barrier there, so most of it was just miscommunication.”
“Did he ever infuriate you?”
She snorted. “Every day I was with him.”
“But you liked it?” I asked.
“I loved it,” she insisted. “He turned me on like crazy.”
“We heard you shout at Erik last night out front,” Rosie offered, blushing and glancing away when I met her eye.
“It sounded intense,” Molly added.
“It was nothing.” I shrugged and stared down at the water. “He just gets under my skin.”
“And under your dress too.”
I punched Lexi in the shoulder.
“Hey!”
“I told you that in confidence.”
She shrugged. “And then I told Molly and Rosie in confidence too. So now I’m confident we’re all up to speed.”
Molly was smiling, seemingly proud of me for acting on my crush on Erik, but Rosie was averting eye contact as if uncomfortable with the topic altogether.
“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she insisted. “I mean…he is handsome and I can’t really blame you, but are you sure it’s a good idea? Fooling around with him?”
I laughed at her question. “Of course I don’t think it’s a good idea! I have no clue what I’m doing. For all I know he’s out with another woman right now. I just…can’t really make myself stay away no matter how much he infuriates me.”
Lexi waggled her eyebrows. “Because you loooooovveeee him.”
I reached out to punch her arm, but she whipped out of the way before I could. I groaned and relaxed back against my side of the hot tub, trying to think of a way to turn the conversation away from Erik and me.
I turned my attention back to Molly. “Did you and Host Boy ever shout at each other like what you heard last night?”
She grinned. “No. Duncan is really easy to get along with. He’s sweet and considerate.”
Lexi held up her hand with a bored expression. “Say no more. Clearly, Molly is into some Full House shit, whereas you and me, Brie, we’re looking for the kind of love they can’t show on daytime television.”
“That’s not true! Sometimes he kisses me when his parents are home,” Molly added.
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Real titillating stuff, Molly. Tell us more.”
She crossed her arms to pout, but I nudged her shoulder playfully.
“It’s not that I enjoy arguing with Erik,” I continued, though it felt like a lie. Is it healthy to want to argue with someone? To get off on it? I sighed and stared up at the sky to avoid their judgmental stares. “I just can’t decide if I like him or if I hate him. One minute he drives me insane, and then the next he’s opening himself up to me. It’s hard to resist his vulnerable side.”
“Well, we have a week until the Olympics,” Lexi said. “I would figure out if you hate him or not before then.”
I scrunched my brows. “Why?”
Her smile unfurled, slow and devilish. “Because once you arrive in that Olympic Village and you see the wealth of athletes Rio has to offer, he might not be worth the trouble anymore.”
Chapter Nineteen
Erik
“How is your team coming along?” my grandfather asked over the phone.
It’d been a few days since I’d last talked to him and I knew he was itching to talk about my father. For now, I was more than happy to discuss my work.
“They’re doing well, but I’m