Page 6 of Love or Leave (Mapleton #4)

five

C ara gazed at the dark night sky through the telescope she'd positioned out her bedroom window. That night, the sunlight from the other side of the earth illuminated a full moon, and despite its low position in the sky from her viewpoint, it sat perfectly centered in her window.

Thinking about the vastness of space always helped her put her problems into perspective. Well, not always. Maybe more like ninety-eight-point-three percent of the time.

Unfortunately, this situation fell into that rare one-point-seven percent.

She'd typed and deleted a dozen messages to Cooper, all of varying degrees of anger, but none of which made her feel better about the situation.

She knew what she should do—forward the tickets to Cooper so she could finally wash her hands of the mess, and just see Jalen next week at golf. But it all felt icky somehow.

She couldn't let Cooper get away with bullying her out of the tickets. Not after everything he'd said to her. Still, it was probably best for her mental health to cut her losses and never see him again.

She stepped away from the telescope, grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and belly-flopped onto her bed.

"Just do it," she said to herself, suppressing her agitation.

She opened the text thread to Cooper and started typing a simple, to the point message.

You win. Fuck off forever.

Her finger hovered over the “send” arrow for a split second before her phone started ringing.

Unknown caller.

With a shrug, she answered the call, assuming it was just some scammy scammer that would ask her for her social insurance number and mother's maiden name. Her brain lit up, suddenly energized. Maybe scamming a scammer would bring her mood up.

She forced a silly accent that made her sound like a sweet old lady ripe for the taking. "Hello there."

A pause met her.

"Is this Cara?" a smooth, deep voice asked.

Holy shit.

Was this the world's sexiest voiced scammer? If so, her bank account was in trouble.

"Um, yes. Who's this?"

"Antonio."

Ohhh…

Wait, what? How did Antonio get her number?

And why?

And how?

Unless…

She gasped, then darted up onto her knees as the tension she’d been holding released. "Have you changed your mind?"

A moment of silence passed. "How did you guess?"

"It was that or phone sex, but the latter seemed unlikely. Are you really going to come to the concert with me?"

Another long pause, then Antonio’s cultured tone eased over the line once more.

"First, don't say sex to me ever again. If your brother finds out I’ve called you, let alone talked about sex with you, he'd drug me and sell me to organ harvesters on the black market."

Cara snorted as a grin took over her face. "He doesn't know how to sell things on the black market."

"He's resourceful."

She rolled her eyes but smiled at his quickness. "I'm surprised you think so little of your friend."

"Actually, I think very highly of him, which is why I feel like a dirt bag for calling you behind his back."

Cara flopped down on her bed, resting her head on her pillow and staring up at the ceiling. Something about laying back while listening to his voice was incredibly appealing. "So why did you?"

A heavy sigh came through the line. "Something came up and I'm hoping we can make a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"I need a date—a pretend date—for a family party."

Cara thought back to their first conversation. Well, second. She couldn't actually remember the first conversation she'd had with him on account of the drunkenness.

"Aren't you trying to get back together with your wife? Why don't you ask her?"

"She's already going to be there," he said, his voice heavy. "She's bringing a date."

His defeated tone had her chest squeezing. He was going through a really shitty time and she wanted to help him. But she couldn't see how her tagging along would make things better.

"Sorry," she said. "But if I show up with you, won't that kinda set you back on the whole reconcile-with-your-wife plan?"

Her words barely left her lips before her hand flew to her face.

What the fuck was she doing? Trying to talk him out of this deal that landed so neatly in her lap in her hour of need?

"I just need a band-aid solution for now. My family is very… involved."

Very involved, meaning prying and gossipy. Got it.

She actually didn't mind that. In fact, she got a tinge of envy toward him. Having a big family that cared about him enough to pry was a good thing.

Max was always there for her, and that was enough. She just hoped one day she could make her own big prying family.

She shook off the run-away thoughts and smiled. Everything was coming together.

"I'm in,” she said with a definitive nod. “When's the party?"

"I have one condition," Antonio said, his tone much more serious than what Cara thought the situation warranted.

Cara smiled to herself. "Do I have to go through a series of agility tests? Kill someone? Solve several riddles? Sleep with you?"

A moment of silence passed, and she imagined Antonio with his chin dropped to his chest and his head shaking back and forth in exasperation.

The image made her smile wider.

"Make that two conditions," he said, his tone grave. "One, you don't joke about anything to do with you and I having sex. In any way. Ever."

She rolled her eyes but in truth, she was happy with the ease of the conversation. "I'll give it my best effort," she said. "And two?"

"We don't tell Max."

She shot up in her bed like a vampire waking up. "You don't want to tell Max?"

"Absolutely not."

"Why?"

Antonio paused, seemingly weighing his response. Eventually he replied but completely ignored her question. "Do we have a deal?"

"Ugh," she said, annoyed that he wouldn't just tell her. She hated not knowing things. "Just a sec."

She put him on hold and tried to think. She couldn't go to the concert alone, but what would Jalen think of Antonio?

She brought up the image of Antonio in her mind, all smooth and steamy and well dressed, then laughed off her worry. One look at him, and Jalen would know they were just friends. He was so obviously way out of Cara's league. No one with hair that perfect and a jaw that chiselled was in her league.

She definitely wanted Antonio to come with her, but lying to Max wasn't something she did lightly.

Or at all.

And then there was the commitment to go to a family party with him. She didn't know what to expect from that.

She took him off hold. "What's this family party going to be like?"

"It's my parents' fortieth anniversary party. About a hundred people at La Tavola Club."

"So… fancy?"

"Yes."

Fuck.

"Just a sec."

"You don't have to put me on—"

She put him on hold again, then stewed over what would be the formal dress code, unfamiliar faces, and crowded ballroom. The whole scenario was puke-inducing.

Cara took him off hold. "Antonio?"

"I've never been put on hold in a normal conversation before."

Cara rolled her eyes. "I really want to say yes, but I'm not great at small talk in large, intimidating groups of strangers. You might want to find someone better."

He paused for a moment, as if thinking up his own move. Why did it feel like a game?

"Didn't you say you wanted to get out of your comfort zone?"

"Yes," she conceded. "But this feels like nuking my comfort zone."

"I just need to make an appearance. If it's too much, we'll bail. Do we have a deal?"

Cara squeezed her eyes shut as he threw the final blow. Yes or no. In or out.

She held her breath and took the proverbial leap. "Fine."

"Perfect," he said with a smile in his voice. She half expected him to say “check mate.”

"The party starts at six. Could you meet me at my place around five-thirty? I don't want anyone seeing me pick you up."

Cara rolled her eyes and told herself not to be offended. This wasn't a date. It was a deal between… whatever the hell they were. Group friends.

"Fine. Text me your address," Cara said.

"Will do. Thanks."

Cara let her shoulders sag into her chest. "Yeah," she said. "Bye."

Cara hung up the phone and stared at it, feeling just as icky and weird as she had before, except for different reasons.

She hated sneaking around, and hated formal situations with people she didn't know, but Antonio had a point—she'd said she wanted to step out of her comfort zone, and she intended to do just that.

Plus, once this horrible party was over, she'd get to go to the concert and see Jalen outside of golf. Not to mention telling Cooper “no” to the tickets would be very satisfying.

And maybe things with Jalen would work out so well that he'd invite her to one of his family parties, and she'd have to impress them. She could use this experience with Antonio as practice.

And she'd be helping a friend—a group friend—out. Maybe she and Antonio could shake off some of their awkwardness and become real friends. Then one day when the dust settled, they'd tell Max, and he'd laugh and ask why they hadn't just told him.

With a decisive nod she opened her conversation with Cooper, deleted you win and sent him the text fuck off forever.