Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
It didn’t seem likely I’d ever know.
16
MIA
Walking back to the house between Diego and Aaron, I was so keyed up that I was practically skipping.
“So, I take it you had a good time?” Aaron said rather dryly as I actually did skip for a few steps. Too bad the tutu was gone, I could’ve tried a pirouette or something.
“Yes! We kicked ass.” I raised my palm up, and Diego high-fived it. “Next time I have a really boring paper to write, remind me to go on a scavenger hunt to get my energy up.”
Diego laughed. “You may be energized, but I’m tired. Guess that makes me an old man.”
“An old man of twenty-three,” I scoffed.
“Yeah,” Aaron chimed in. “You’re not eighty. You just act like it sometimes.” They’d been friends for over a year, so I hoped Diego took the teasing in the spirit intended.
Even better, he defended himself. “Did I act like an eighty-year-old when I fielded that soccer ball?” he asked me.
“No,” I said cheerfully.
“Or when I lifted you up on my shoulders?”
I shook my head.
“Or when I caught you when you fell out of the tree?”
I laughed. “I’m very glad I didn’t land on a senior citizen.”
Aaron peered down at me. “You fell out of a tree?”
“Yes. But it was nothing a first-place team couldn’t handle.”
“All right,” Aaron said to Diego. “You don’t act like an old man. But you have old-man knees.”
We all glanced automatically at Diego’s tan legs. His knees were quite visible beneath the shorts.
“No, I don’t,” said Diego.
“No, he doesn’t,” I said at nearly the same time, and he smiled at me.
And I smiled back. And that was the moment I knew it was okay to talk to him. To like him, actually. As far as he knew, we’d met the day I moved in here. If he hadn’t recognized me by now, he wasn’t going to.
From now on, I was going to think about Diego as just another one of my roommates, not the guy from the party. Just like I didn’t feel like I was the girl who acted that way that night. That was a drunk, depressed version of myself that I didn’t intend to let take over again.
So that left me free to be myself around Diego and to like him for who he was now. Except for the part where he made me cook dinner every six weeks. To be fair, few people in the house liked that. Except maybe Diego himself.
When I got back to my room, I immediately changed. That was it… I wouldn’t have to don another Halloween costume for a year. Hopefully longer. Except I’d have to wash Jenna's shirt and see about getting her a new tutu.
Evan was in the kitchen when I entered. "Congrats!" he said. “Go Team Baylor House.”
I laughed at that. Team Baylor House did sound rather formidable. "Thanks.”
A noise came from the backyard.
"Who’s out there?"
"Cody's raking leaves," Evan said. "I don't see how that's better than cooking, but hey, if he’s fine with it, good for him."
I grabbed a water bottle and headed out back. Cody had on jeans and a hoodie—and headphones, of course. He’d raked the brown and crumbling leaves into a large pile that was nearly up to my chest.
I watched him for a minute or two. There was something I liked about his movements, which were efficient and controlled. Then he spotted me.
"Thought you could use this." I handed him the water bottle as he lowered his headphones, keeping them around his neck.
"Thanks." He opened it and drained about half of it.
"Good job out here."
He nodded. Apparently one word was all I was getting out of him today.
Then the back door opened, and Aaron came out.
"Did Mia tell you her news?"
Cody's eyebrows rose as he looked at me.
"We won," I said, unable to stop the smile that accompanied those words. "Diego and I—we won the scavenger hunt."
"Nice job," he said.
There, I’d gotten him to say two words. Then he added more.
"What did you win?"
"A gift certificate to some Italian place along the riverfront."
"Forzano's," Aaron said. "It's excellent. Have you been there before?"
I shook my head. "I think it's a little out of my price range."
Aaron's cheeks colored briefly, and I remembered what Raymond said about his family being loaded. Did that bother him? I didn’t see why it should matter to anyone.
"Well, now you’ll get to go,” he said. "I know you and Diego will enjoy the food."
That thought gave me pause. The gift certificate did belong to both of us, so I guess that meant it would be me and Diego going together? I hadn't thought that far ahead. Yes, I’d just vowed to accept him for who he was now, not who he was at the party, but the two of us together at a fancy Italian restaurant? That was a big leap from running around campus in costumes.