The Au Pairs (The Au Pairs 1)

She nodded.

"Good, because I don't want to get in the way of that, you know what I mean?"

"Sim."

"You know, I was so into you the moment I saw you," he said. "Me too," she lied.

174

He squeezed her tighter.

She was about to tell him that this was a mistake, that this was all wrong. That they shouldn't see each other again. It would hurt Luca's feelings if he knew she had hooked up with his best friend.

Wait.

It would hurt Luca's feelings. Or at least, put a huge dent in his pride.

Jacqui had an idea. Suddenly, being with Leo didn't feel like a mistake after all.

175

Mara finally gets a Backbone

The next morning Mara woke up to the interminable refrain of her cell phone melody.

"Herrhhhoo?" She wiped the sleep from her eyes. "No, I'm awake, I'm awake. Hi, Jim." Mara held the phone to her ear with a hand across her eyes. Jim's enthusiasm was unbearable at such an early hour.

"Enough is enough. I've got a great plan--you'll love it! My parents are going away for the weekend, so I've got the homestead all to my lonesome. Anyway, I was thinking, you know, I really want my girl--my Mara to be there, you know? Coz it's going to totally rock! I'm going to have a party for sure. And you know, I'm going to need someone to help me clean up afterward!" He laughed at his joke.

But Mara was beginning to realize Jim wasn't really kidding. "Jim, I'd love to, but I can't," she told him.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't. I have to work. It's not like I get the weekends off,

176

you know. This job is full-time, twenty-four hours a day."

"That's what you always say," Jim grumbled. "I don't believe it, Mara. Those rich losers you work for won't even let you take one stupid weekend off? What are you, some kind of slave? That's ridiculous!"

"It's not ridiculous. You always think what I do is stupid, and it's not. It's really important. I'm making a lot of money here, and you know my parents can't cover my whole college tuition."

"Whatever, Mara. Something's up. I can just tell. You're, like, different now, and I don't think I like it."

"What do you mean?" Mara propped her head up against her pillows.

"I dunno, it's like you're all hoity-toity all of a sudden... ."

"Excuse me?"

"You're acting kind of selfish, you know? It's like all you think about is yourself. It makes me sick, really it does."

Mara sat up at that. "I'M SELFISH? I'M SELFISH?" she yelped, suddenly very angry. "Oh, and I suppose when I hand- washed your football jersey for the big game instead of studying for my English final, I was just thinking of myself? And what about when I gave you my hamster when Bobo died, that was selfish? Or the time I let you and your stupid friends into Ye Old Tavern so you guys could see what nineteenth-century ale tastes like? Or the time I had to go to the ER when you had to get your stomach pumped and I had the SATs the next day?" Mara could keep going like this for hours. "Or, I don't know, Jim, what about

177

the time I sold my antique dollhouse so you could buy new hubcaps for your car?"