“Are you sure you don’t mind me sleeping in your room?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “Not really my room anymore.”
I look around at the walls. “Are you sure? It’s so perfectly preserved.”
He’s silent. I look back at him and somehow his eyes seem even darker than normal.
Then it passes. He shrugs again. “My parents like to pretend I still live here.”
“So where do you live?” I know I’m pressing my luck by asking him even more questions but hey, he’s the one who decided to stop by and seductively eat an apple.
“Not too far from here.”
That’s as good as I’ll get.
“How old are you?”
He narrows his eyes. “Thirty-four.” Pause. “Why?”
“Because I’d like to know how many years have passed between this version of Tai,” I gesture to the room before gesturing to him, “and this version of Tai.”
He bites the apple again. Munch, munch, munch.
I stare at his throat as he swallows and why, oh why, do I find that so hot?
“Who is to say they aren’t the same person?”
“Uh huh,” I tell him, pointing at one of the pinups. “So you’re telling me that these cheesy artificial babes are still your top choice for a wankfest?”
He coughs, nearly spitting out the apple, his temples darkening. Then he smiles. “Wouldn’t they be your first choice for a wankfest?”
I look back at them and their vacantly cheery eyes. I mean, they are pretty. “I suppose…”
“So maybe my tastes have changed,” he goes on, adjusting his casual pose against the door. His eyes rake over my body in such a dark, heated way that I get goosebumps. “My top choice for your so-called wankfest happens to be petite and spicy redheads with big tits.” He grins. “But they have to know when to shut up. Luckily for you, you don’t.”
And with that he leaves the room.
Wow.
He went there.
My cheeks feel hot and I immediately press my hands there, hoping to calm the flush. The last thing he needs to know is how that look of his made me feel.
It made me realize how desperately I need to get laid.
And desperate is something I’ve never been.
I straighten up, ignoring my body that seeks to betray me every time I’m around him, and then I head downstairs.
I take a quick look around the kitchen and living room, just being nosy, and then head through the screen door at the back that leads into a sprawling green yard.
There’s about a dozen people here that I don’t know, all holding glasses of white wine or beer in dark amber bottles, a BBQ along the white fence is smoking and smelling like grilled meats and tangy sauce. In the distance, a group of guys, including Tai, are tossing around a rugby ball on the beach.
Shit. I didn’t realize it was a party. I look like ass, probably smell like ass. I’m about to head back inside to get changed and redo my makeup when Richard, of all people, waves me over.
“Oy, Miss Daisy Lewis,” he says, wiggling his fingers at me.
Ugh, please don’t do that. It’s creepy.
He’s with Lacey, and another young couple. My father heads over to join them, double-fisting white wine. He raises one of the glasses to me when he sees me.
Sigh.
There’s no escape.
But at least there is wine.
I head across the grass, giving everyone a big smile, the one that I’m used to, the one that tells everyone that I’m fine and always will be fine. That’s the Daisy they expect.
“So nice of you to join us,” Lacey says, as if I wasn’t in Tai’s room for a maximum of five minutes.
“Here you go sweetie,” my dad says as he hands me the wine.
I take it and thank him, waiting to see if the sharp mineral smell of the sauvignon blanc will either worsen my hangover or better it.
“Daisy, this is Eaton and Jana,” Richard says. “They’re both part of the wedding party.”
I politely say hello to them both, though I can tell right away that they aren’t my type of people. They seem to be in their late thirties and, judging by their boring outfits, they’re probably professors like my sister and Richard, or at least scientists. And though their smiles are innocent enough, I get the feeling they’re looking down at me.
But I fake that it doesn’t bother me. I’m good at that. All throughout high school, whatever few friends Lacey did have, they all treated me like I was some dummy. I liked makeup and I talked too much and smiled too much. It didn’t matter that at the time my whole goal in life was to be a marine biologist, and I was just as studious as my sister was. I swear Lacey tells people lies about me and I have no idea what they are or why she would do that. I guess it says a lot about me that I would even think that about my own sister.