Two Truths & a Lime (The Love Game #3) - Elizabeth Hayley Page 0,2

apartment for the summer too. We can probably send you some ideas if you don’t mind a studio or something.”

“Yeah, anything would be great. I grew up with three brothers in a small place in Brooklyn. Doesn’t need to be big. This internship’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but if I can’t find a place to stay that’s reasonable, I might have to pass it up.”

“Great, good luck with that,” Aamee said with a toothy smile that was as sarcastic as her words.

Drew grabbed my hand and squeezed. “This is super awkward,” he whispered, though I was sure everyone in the room could hear. I’m not sure if that made it more awkward or less.

I whispered back, “Yeah, we probably should’ve left with the rest of them.”

“I think Veronica should be the one who leaves,” Aamee snapped.

“Aamee,” Brody began, before he seemed to realize his mistake and shut his mouth.

“I’m going,” Vee said with a smile much more genuine than Aamee’s.

I couldn’t help but like her, though I wasn’t sure why since I barely knew much more about her than her name.

D R E W

“Drew, get out here!” Brody didn’t give much time for me to respond before he called me again. “Drew! You awake?”

I was now. The morning had wiped me out, more emotionally than physically, but I’d needed a nap either way.

“Yeah, coming.”

I made it out to the living room a few seconds later to see Mr. Mason sitting on the couch next to Brody. Sophia was on the chair sitting quietly, not nearly as excited as Brody seemed. And Aamee was nowhere to be found. She must’ve left at some point while I was asleep.

“Drew, listen to this,” Brody said. “Tell him.”

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Mason.” I reached my hand out to his.

He shook it, though he didn’t exactly seem thrilled about it. Then he gestured to the other chair.

“Have a seat, Drew.”

I did as I was told, like I was a teenager about to be chastised by the principal for cutting class or smoking in the bathroom. Mr. Mason came across as intimidating whether he wanted to or not. He didn’t wear the judgment on his face like a mask; it was his face.

Sophia could probably sense my discomfort because she gave me a reassuring smile.

“He wants to give us some money for a real business,” Brody announced. He was like a kid who’d been told a secret he never had any chance of keeping. “He was impressed by what we did with Nite Bites!”

“Could you let me speak for a minute, Brody?”

Brody made an event out of pressing his lips together and pretending to zip them shut.

When Mr. Mason seemed satisfied that he’d get the floor, he continued. “For once my son is telling the truth. Though ‘impressed’ may be too strong a word. You did break a few rules—and possibly laws,” he added, “in the process. And you almost got Sophia kicked out of school. But you showed…potential. I told Brody that not many people could start up a business like yours with very few resources and take it as far as the two of you did.”

“See? Told you,” Brody chimed in, clearly unable to contain his excitement.

Mr. Mason shot Brody a look of warning. “I wanted to talk to Brody about this first anyway,” he explained. “So in a way it worked out that you were sleeping…during the day.”

It would’ve been useless to remind him that I was still recovering from my accident and everyday activities still took a lot out of me, so I let him speak uninterrupted. Besides, I’d already allowed myself to take interest in what Mr. Mason was going to tell me—though not close to the level Brody was displaying. He was practically vibrating in his seat.

“Admittedly, I don’t know much about you, Drew, but I do know my son. To put it mildly, he’s never shown much drive, his work ethic is severely lacking, and his follow-through is typically weak.”

Somehow Brody managed to appear shocked. “I thought you were gonna put it mildly.”

“I did.”

That almost made me laugh, but I managed to stifle it.

“Had you guys told me about Nite Bites before you began it, I would’ve said it was destined to fail. You had no plan and no experience. On paper it should’ve flopped. But business isn’t all about projections. You need something special to make a business successful. I’m not sure what that ‘something special’ is when it comes to the two of you, but your