Page 102 of Anyone But the Superstar

Even though he’s afraid of house cats. Hilariously afraid, but afraid, nonetheless.

I lean over the side of the bed and slide out the container I stole from the condo. A container once full of Felix’sbiscoitocookies. Two left.

I pick one up, studying the small indents of Felix’s fingerprints baked into the dough. ‘And he can cook.’

‘Meow.’

Turning, I prop my head on my elbow and glare right back into his ice-blue eyes. ‘He called me talentless.’ Snapping my jaw over the cookie, I make quick work of its annihilation. ‘He thinks I sold him out.’ I close my eyes, feeling nauseous even as my taste buds sing happily.

Felix BASE jumps off a skyscraper on the television.

Mike continues his statue game.

‘Okay, so I should’ve told him my real name before we slepttogether.’ I grab another pillow, holding this one to my chest seeing as Mike has met his cuddle allowance for the day. ‘That was wrong of me.’

‘Meow.’

‘And Imayhave called him a douchebag and a cheater before I knew about the Camilla-mother-blackmail thing.’ I wince thinking of Felix’s charming mother and all she’s been going through. All Felix has been going through.

‘Meow.’

‘Still.’ I lower the pillow, glaring the worst pity-party wingman in existence. ‘After everything he said, you want me to what? Feel bad for the guy? Forgive him?’

Mike’s answer is a paw to the face.

‘Did you…’ I raise my hand to my scraped cheek. ‘Did you just paw slap me?’

‘Meow.’ And with that, Mike gets up on all fours, turns tail, and butthole to my face, sashays off the bed.

Never I have felt so thoroughly told off in all my life as I watch him disappear out of the bedroom and into the suite’s living area.

‘So,I’mso dumb?’

Silence is my only answer, and it isn’t the one I want.

Apparently, I’m not smart enough to figure out what comes next. In life or at work. So I do something I told myself I wouldn’t do when I left to figure things out last year. Something I didn’t do when I needed money for tuition. Something I didn’t even do when I needed medical attention thanks to lidocaine-lined condoms.

Something a dumb girl does when a dumb boy finds his dumb way into her even dumber heart.

I ask for help.

‘I don’t like it.’

My eldest brother Thomas, having traded his sequined cat t-shirt for one with a NASA emblem on it, stands like an ancient immovable oak at the end of the coffee table in front of the suite’s glass balcony doors overlooking the prestigious cityscape of Houston’s Galleria area.

I’m not sure if it’s Thomas’ innate sense of superiority that allows him to find the best vantage point during any negotiation, or his position just gives him his preferred distance from Chase, who’s across the room rocking Mike Hunt while humming an Elvis tune.

Mother gives her opinion to my suggestion by ignoring Thomas and kissing my cheek before heading to my bedroom to make the phone call I asked her to make.

‘I think it’s the right thing to do.’ I tell Thomas, knowing full well it won’t persuade him that my idea to help mitigate the damage and hopefully stop any more miscommunication is a good one.

‘I still don’t like it,’ Thomas says, proving me right.

‘To be fair Tommy-kins—’ Bell leans back on the couch ‘—you don’t like much of anything.’

‘Except Alice,’ Mary chimes in, not looking up from her spot on the floor between my legs, wearing her new astronaut jumpsuit and building the Lego set Thomas bought her during our trip to Space Center Houston.

Thomas’ eyebrow does its usual imperious lift, but a smile plays on his lips as his gaze drops to his daughter. ‘And you, little one.’