"Sorry. Haven't had a chance," Ariana replied, lifting her hair from the back of her neck to fan her skin.
"Your loss," he said.
"Well, maybe if you go up there and get me an iced latte I'll give them a try," Ariana replied.
She saw Soomie and Maria exchange a startled look. Ariana was flirting with their boy. Or Soomie's boy, as far as Soomie knew. Landon, oblivious to any games being played, simply smiled.
"I'm on it," he said, rising languidly from his seat. "You ladies need anything?"
"I'm good," Maria said, waving a hand at her espresso.
209
"I'll come with you," Soomie suggested predictably.
And then, just as Ariana had intended, she and Maria were left alone. Ariana turned her knees toward Maria's couch as Maria reached for her bag and extracted a W magazine.
"So, what was the nine-one-one?" Ariana asked.
"It was nothing," Maria said, flipping a page blithely. "I'm in this regional ballet company and I just found out I have to be a marching soldier again this year. I was hoping to move up to Sugarplum Fairy, but what are you gonna do?"
"That sucks," Ariana said, crooking her arms over the arm of her chair. "Are you sure it wasn't just that you saw Soomie and Landon flirting and wanted to get her away from him?"
Maria froze, but to her credit, didn't look up. "What is your obsession with me and Landon?"
"I know what it's like," Ariana said, lowering her voice as some senior boys walked by, headed for the coffee counter. "The whole forbidden-love thing. I've done it, believe me."
Her mind lingered for a moment on an image of Thomas Pearson, his blue eyes mischievous as he smiled at her from across the dining hall. She allowed herself one nostalgic pang, then let him disappear into the ether.
Maria started turning pages again, but slowly, and her eyes were unfocused.
"I know it's not your friends who disapprove, because Soomie talks about nothing but him and no one seems to care. So what is it . . . your family?" Ariana asked.
210
Finally, Maria looked up. Her expression was guarded. Ariana's heart tap-danced around in her chest. She was getting somewhere.
"Can I tell you something I haven't told anyone?" Ariana breathed, her fingers gripping the armrest.
"That's your prerogative," Maria said.
"I was engaged. Over the summer, my boyfriend asked me to marry him and I said yes," Ariana told her, thinking back to Teo's ever-so-public proposal to Briana Leigh in the middle of a street fair. "But when my grandmother found out, she freaked. She told me that if I didn't break up with him, she'd disinherit me."
Maria leaned forward slightly, and Ariana knew she had struck a nerve. This story sounded familiar to Maria. Very familiar.
"So what'd you do?" Maria asked.
Ariana leaned back in her chair. She sighed and looked down at her lap, toying with her fingers. "I broke up with him. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. He was the love of my life."
Maria looked over her shoulder at the coffee counter. Ariana watched her features tighten, as if the very idea of saying good-bye to Landon was passing through her consciousness. Then she glanced back at Ariana.
"You were weak," she said.
Ariana felt defensive and straightened her back. "I don't see it that way. It might sound terrible, but she won't live forever. And then we'll get back together."
"If he waits for you," Maria shot back.
"Oh, he'll wait," Ariana lied. If what Hudson had said about Teo