“Hey, I’ve got all night.”

“Okay, sure.” I followed her into the room.

The first mistake. One I would live with the rest of my life.

“Alec!” Nat called from the other side of the door. “The food’s here. You okay?”

“Yeah.” My hoarse voice sounded anything but okay. “I’ll be right out.”

I was in some deep shit.

Chapter Eight

Demetri

“Dude, you look depressed.” Jaymeson nudged me in the shoulder. “What? Someone run over your dog or something?” He put his feet on the coffee table and checked his cell.

“Yeah, my imaginary dog. Some giant ass British man ran it over with his tiny car. Weird.” I rolled my eyes at Jaymeson and flipped to another channel.

“You do realize you and Alec are part English right?” Jayemson felt the need to point out. “Furthermore, my accent gets me laid, what’s yours do?”

I sighed and showed him a picture of Alyssa on my phone.

“Point Demetri.”

I wasn’t in the mood to joke around. I mean, I loved Jaymeson as much as anyone. He was one of my best friends. I just couldn’t shake the horrible feeling I had about Alec and everything going on.

After much coaxing and pleading with the producers, Alyssa was given the rest of the night off to spend with her family. Technically, they only needed the celebrities to appear tonight, leaving me stuck in the car with Jaymeson, Angelica, and Alec’s dark mood. I could only pray that Nat took his mind off things… hmm. Weird thought. Was I actually praying that Nat had sex with my brother? See, now he had me losing my damn mind!

I needed to back off of the taffy if I was going to have any appetite at the restaurant, but I was a nervous chewer. If I didn’t have taffy — especially now, you’d better believe I’d be drowning myself in the ocean with a bottle of Jack.

“You morons ready?” Angelica came around the corner in the shortest dress I’d ever seen on a human being.

“I didn’t know it was Halloween.” Jaymeson laughed.

I winked at Angelica. “Dressing up as a whore… nice. I’m sure that will get great press for the new family restaurant. Good thinking. Let me just take off my pants and grab my stripper pole.”

“Ah, the stripper pole!” Angelica slammed her hand against her forehead. “I knew I was forgetting something.” Her evil eyes bored into mine. “Care to oil me up before my dance?”

“Do you promise to slip and bleed to death?”

“Why? Blood turn you on?” She purred.

Holy hell this woman had to go.

“Too far.” Jaymeson stood between us. “Alright, fake girlfriend, let me go…” He tilted his head and took in her outfit again. “Find coveralls or something.”

“Coveralls?” Angelica squawked.

“Yeah.” Jaymeson nodded. “To make up for your nak*dness.”

“Brilliant,” I exclaimed in a fake British accent while Angelica flipped off Jaymeson’s disappearing form.

The sound of the TV made the silence in the room worse. Um, awkward. Angelica and I hadn’t really talked about that one week we spent together a year ago.

Shit. The elephant was getting bigger by the second.

“So you hate me now?” Angelica managed to sit without flashing me her goodies. Her face fell into a pout. “I thought we got along really well when you visited me and—”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you right there. I was high.”

“But—”

“—On drugs, Angelica. I would have slept with an ant had it looked at me cross-eyed, okay? Drop it. And if I remember correctly the one and only time you and I did hook up was so damn horrible I was traumatized for weeks. Thanks for calling me by my brother’s name by the way. That didn’t make me want to kill myself.”

“I didn’t do that.” Angelica’s face blushed a bright red. “I hate Alec. I would never, ever…” Her shrill laughter gave me a headache.

“Right. And I wasn’t taking like five party drugs at the same time in order to envision Nat’s face while I screwed you. Okay, yeah. Let’s just lie because that always solves everything.”

“Does Alyssa know?” The gleam in Angelica’s eyes made me want to pull out every piece of her hair one by one. If she didn’t shut up I was going to fight her chick-style.

“Yup.” I exhaled and leaned back against the couch. It had been the best and worst night of my life. I had to come clean about Angelica before the show started. Alyssa was pissed and then worried I would fall back into old habits.

But that was all before she actually met Angelica. I believe her words were, “What the hell were you thinking?”

My answer was always the same. “I was high.”

Seriously. A guy would have to be either high or stupid to sleep with that bitch.

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t want it.” Angelica leaned forward, her boobs literally begging to be released from her dress. It was like they were holding up signs that said save me, save me!

“Um.” I averted my eyes and pointed. “You’re about to lose the natives, and I don’t want to get puke on the carpet.”

She stuffed her boobs further into her dress. Poor dress. Poor boobs. Poor me. Where the hell was Jaymeson?

Within seconds he was bounding down the stairs. “Alright, this is as good as it gets.” He did a quick turn in front of us and held out his hand to Angelica.

“Nice.” He was sporting nice jeans and a long shirt with a blazer. At least he was covered up, whereas his little arm candy was going to get dollar bills thrown at her all night. Guess that was normal for her kind anyways.

“Where are Nat and Alec?” Jaymeson asked looking at his watch. “We have to be there in ten minutes.”

I sent a quick text to Alec.

MEET US THERE? OR U WANT US 2 WAIT?

He answered back right away.

MEET U THERE.

“Well, let’s get this show on the road!” I jumped from my seat and walked out the door. Since Alec had taken his SUV it meant I had to drive, which also meant that air was going to be in limited supply in the car ride over. I didn’t want to catch anything that girl had.

Jaymeson opened the back door for Angelica. She scooted over but he slammed it right away and took the front seat.

“Hey!” She smacked the seat with her talons, I mean hands. “What the hell, Jaymeson? We’re supposed to be happily dating!”

“And if you want it to stay that way. I suggest you stop complaining.” He winked in the rearview mirror and put on his seatbelt. “Plus Brits have this thing about… umm.” He looked to me for help.

I rolled my eyes. “Backseats. They hate backseats.”

“Huh?” Angelica leaned forward. If she didn’t stop breathing down my neck I was going to run my car into a building. This time on purpose.

“Backseats,” I repeated. “They hate backseats because…” I cleared my throat and glared at Jaymeson.

“It’s not Brits.” He shook his head solemnly. “It’s just me. I’m scared of backseats. I can’t sit in them.”

“Fine. I’ll go for it. Why the hell are you afraid of backseats?”

“Sex.” Jaymeson’s lower lip trembled. “Bad experience in the backseat of a girl’s car when I was twelve—” I nudged him. “I mean sixteen.”

I nodded.

“Bloody awful experience. She said I wasn’t doing it right and then I just freaked. I couldn’t perform and she made fun of me. There was lots of pointing and laughing and… well, I’ve been scared ever since that if I sit in a backseat, I’ll not be able to have sex ever again.”

“I’m really sorry, man.” I choked on my laughter and patted his shoulder. “That must be hard for you. Is that why you’re such a man-whore?”

He nodded and wiped a fake tear. “I just worry that one day I won’t be able to… you know? It’s the nightmares that are the worst. The nights are the hardest.”

“I bet they are,” Angelica murmured.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I burst out laughing. Jaymeson glared and then joined in.

“I seriously hate you guys,” was Angelica’s heated reply.

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to us,” I retorted. “Now stop, and let the parents talk.”

“Ugh!” She punched our backseats. “Why the hell did I agree to do this show anyways?”

“Money,” Jaymeson answered just as I said, “To torture humanity?”

The car fell silent.

Had we finally pushed her too far?

“You just wait,” she said in a very chilling voice. “In a few weeks you won’t know what hit any of you. Hell, you have no idea now. And I’m just biding my time.”

“Until the world ends?”

“Nope.” She laughed. “Until I come out on top.”

“You mean you’re always on bottom? Lazy American.” Jaymeson shook his head in the rearview mirror and winked at her.

“I’m not even going to answer that. Just know, Jaymeson, your time is almost up too. And I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you find out the truth.”

I slammed on the brakes. “He’s adopted!”

“Laugh it up now,” Angelica hissed. “Laugh it up now.”

Chapter Nine

Alec

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nat asked, feeling my forehead for the fiftieth time that afternoon.

I hadn’t been able to bring myself to eat, so I told her I thought I was possibly coming down with something. Just more lies on top of more lies on top of more lies. Damn.

We had spent our free hours watching movies in the room. I didn’t have to pretend to keep throwing up. Each time she asked me if I was okay I felt sicker. And then she started giving me a massage to feel better, which only made it worse. I finally resorted to pretending to sleep the last hour so I could push away the crappy feeling.

I had woken up to Demetri’s text and felt even more like a failure. Could I do nothing right these days?

I nodded and continued the short drive to the new restaurant opening just outside Seaside. “It’s probably just stress.”

Nat’s eyes narrowed. “Alec, no offense, but you’ve dealt with way more stress than a stupid TV show before.”

“Right.” I swallowed the dryness in my throat. “But I didn’t have you. And I can’t—” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat. “I can’t lose you.” And that was the God-honest truth. The crux of the matter. I was so afraid that if I lost her, I’d lose me. Wow, didn’t realize I was that incredibly selfish.

“You won’t.” She rolled her eyes. “Geez, you’re almost as emotional as Demetri these days.”

“Ha ha.” Shit. Even my laugh was fake.

Cameras flashed as we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. Nat was used to this part by now. Jump out of the car, make nice with the mean photographers, smile, wave, and say no comment.