Throttled (Dirty Air 1)

The whole thing may be a terrible idea, but at least I can look good while doing it.

We end up going shopping together around the streets of Barcelona. I don’t mind because I love feeling surrounded by my type of people for the first time in months. Hearing others speak Spanish and smelling fresh food from different restaurants makes me feel at home.

Sophie and I grab lunch together at one of the local spots. We chat while stuffing our faces with tapas, draining the contents of our sangria glasses. Home sweet home.

Sophie’s cheeks flush, alcohol getting to her head, as she admits a fascinating tidbit of information to me.

“One of the reasons I’m stuck going on this date isn’t only because of the bet.” She lets out a deep breath.

My eyebrows draw up. I keep quiet, not wanting to interrupt and make her lose her nerve. Call me curious to get

more information about her and Liam.

Sophie rattles on. “I created a Fuck It list for my time traveling with Bandini. Basically, it’s a mix of different things I googled, from normal bucket list stuff to sexy items.”

I choke on my drink. “Did sweet Sophie come up with a naughty bucket list? How bold of you.” I waggle my brows at her. She snorts, not holding back.

“I was tired of living the perfect life my dad wanted. So I decided to create a list before I came here.” She pulls out a small laminated square from her purse, unfolding the page so it becomes the size of a standard piece of paper. I have no clue how she did that.

I check out the different items, my eyebrows rising at a few of them.

“Then what’s the connection to Liam?”

“Well…remember the time we sang karaoke in Shanghai?”

I nod my head.

She swallows a gulp of sangria before continuing. “The list fell out of my bag and Liam grabbed it. He knows about it and added, ‘Go on a date with a bad boy.’ See?”

Black scrawl mars the bottom of the page, messing up her perfectly color-coded list of items. Dots connect in my head.

“Oh my God, he offered to help with these?”

Red flush crawls from Sophie’s neck to her cheeks.

“I only agreed to this one date. That’s it, no others because I don’t want his help. No matter how hard he tries. But I wanted to tell you because we’re friends and all, which means we share everything together.” Her honesty fills me with happiness because our friendship has reached a new level of trust.

My brother did, in fact, disagree with the date. Not a shocker.

He paces the floor of my room while I finish getting ready, his feet dragging across the carpet while he mumbles to himself. I snicker as he runs a hand down his face for the fourth time today.

“You’re going to give yourself wrinkles by thirty if you keep that up.” I point to his face with my mascara wand. He crosses his arms against his chest and scowls at me.

“Why Jax and Liam? Seriously, it couldn’t be anyone besides them?”

I give him a pointed look. Yeah, right. Imagine if I had said Noah asked me on a date.

“What about the nice guy you talked to at the press conference last week? Nerdy, has a combover, but can ask a decent question?”

If the combover isn’t enough to ward me away, the suspenders are a hard no.

I shake my head at him and exhale. “It’s a favor for Sophie. She begged me to join her because she didn’t want to go alone with Liam. So here I am. No need to freak out about it.”

He should congratulate me for sacrificing myself for the greater good and my friendship.

“Do you need to wear that?”

I look down at my short red dress and shrug. “Eh, it’s cute. I don’t want to be underdressed since we’re going to a nice restaurant.”