Chapter 19

By the time Nick woke up, someone had hit snooze on the alarm clock twice and he was already running twenty minutes late. He wouldn’t have traded a second of the night before to be up earlier this morning, but he would have to try to remember to fall asleep on the same side of the bed as his alarm clock next time if Kiki was here. Even as he slid out from behind Jazz, Kiki blindly groped for and hit the snooze button again.

Nick mercifully turned off the alarm before jumping into the shower for the world’s quickest wash, then throwing on some clothes. Neither woman had moved when he left the bedroom.

As he grabbed his suitcase, he wondered if he’d broken some unstated rule of Stone etiquette by staying up late having a threesome before flying off with Pilar for a weekend in which she explicitly hoped to have some time alone with him. He marveled at how far he’d come in a couple of weeks that he was considering any aspect of this acceptable to begin with, but he lived in a different world than he had even known existed a few weeks ago.

He didn’t have time to make himself breakfast or even coffee. He had decided against asking any of the staff to be here so godawful early just so he could save a few minutes on his way out, but wished now that one of them had decided to get an early start on their own.

He wished it so strongly that he actually smelled coffee as he walked down the hall towards the quiet lounge. He looked to the counter and saw the mostly-full pot of coffee before he saw who was sitting at the table drinking a cup of it and was already pouring before he said, “Jesse, I didn’t know you were coming over. When did you get here?”

“About a half an hour ago,” Jesse sipped his coffee. “You’re running late.”

Nick was in the refrigerator reaching for the milk when he made enough sense of what Jesse had said to ask. “You’re not my driver today. Are you?”

Jesse chuckled. “Am I, in addition to being a billionaire philanthropist and medal-winning Olympic fencer, also an Uber driver? No. I came up your fire escape.”

Nick wanted to laugh, but his brain finally caught up. He looked over to the open door of the game room and could see the open window beyond. “You’re serious?”

“Your security is terrible, Nick. You need to take it more seriously. Those guys downstairs are just kabuki theater.”

A little flash of adrenaline shot through Nick. Everybody who knew Jesse seemed to be a little bit in awe of him. Nick had only met him once, but found him fairly affable. But he was also built like the silver medal winning Olympic saber fencer he happened to be. If he meant Nick harm, Nick’s best bet would be to run away, scream like a girl, and hope he could hide until maybe Lev showed up. “What are you doing here? You didn’t drop by at five in the morning to pen test my security.”

“Threnody wanted me to ask you to reconsider the favor you refused to do her,” Jesse said, then took a big gulp of his beverage. “You’ve got really good coffee here by the way.”

“Thanks,” Nick said automatically before adding. “I don’t suppose Threnody told you her reasons for wanting me to break my agreement with Jazz.”

“She didn’t even tell me what her request was - just that you had refused it, that she would appreciate if I would ask you to reconsider, and that I needed to be here before five in the morning if I was going to catch you.”

Nick felt a fresh rush of adrenaline, but shook his head. “Does she think that threatening me is going to get me to cave?”

“I spend too much time wondering what Threnody’s thinking for my own sake to want to consult on the subject for anyone else.” Jesse sounded amused and faintly tired. He drained his coffee cup and rose. “I should get going. It’s going to be hot out today and I’d like to get a run in before sunrise.”

“Tell her my answer is still ‘no,’” said Nick.

“Good for you,” said Jesse. “If she asks me, I’ll tell her.”

“You ... don’t want to try to convince me?” Nick asked.

Jesse shook his head. “No. Fuck her. Once you start giving into her, it never ends.”

“But, you broke in here to give me her message,” Nick protested, not quite sure why he was protesting.

“I broke in to tell you that you really need to call Gibraltar and get some real security in here,” said Jesse.

“You couldn’t text me that?” Nick asked.

Jesse started walking back towards the game room. “I wanted to make sure you took it seriously. Stones get kidnapped - even when they have good security. Gibraltar’s expensive, but they cost less than you’d pay if someone broke in here and snatched somebody you cared about.”

“Wait,” Nick followed him. “Why are you playing message boy for Threnody, but telling me not to give in to her?”

Jesse sighed. “I have a ... complicated relationship with our cousin, Threnody. She asked me to do this and I have good reasons not to tell her ‘no’ unnecessarily. She has a way of knowing when I’m lying to her. So, I delivered her message, but as one billionaire philanthropist to another, I can comfortably say you’re probably better off with her pissed at you than you are if she thinks you’re her ally. I would have saved myself a lot of heartache if I’d learned to say no to her years ago.”

Nick frowned at that. He hadn’t known much of anything about Jesse when they first met and the more he learned about his cousin, the farther he seemed to be from the relaxed, but vaguely out-of-touch rich boy Nick thought he was.

As Jesse again turned to the game room, Nick said, “Is there a time we can sit and talk again? I know you’re busy, but...”

“Sure. Call Penny. When you’re ready, I’ll make time,” said Jesse. “You’ve probably been a billionaire long enough to have better questions than last time by now. How are you handling the situation with women?”

“Either better than I expected or hurtling headlong into disaster,” said Nick.

“Good. You’re doing better than I was at your age, then,” said Jesse. “If you are hurtling headlong into disaster, at least try to enjoy the ride. Beyond that, you should really ask anybody but me your questions about sex in the future. I’m so not the person to be giving advice on the subject.”

“Do you really have a playroom?” Nick asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.

“I really do,” said Jesse. “It was much cooler before that fucking book came out. How did you know about it?”

“Kiki told me about it,” said Nick.

Jesse frowned. “I don’t remember playing with a Kiki. Did I show it to her or did she hear about it from someone else?”

“You and Threnody almost had sex with her,” said Nick.

Jesse rolled his eyes. “I don’t really remember everyone Threnody brought me and I scared away. She makes a game of it. Was Kiki terribly traumatized?”

“I don’t think much can traumatize Kiki,” said Nick. His phone chirped. He glanced down at it. When he looked up, Jesse was halfway to the game room.

“The exit’s the other way,” said Nick.

“I’m going out the way I came in,” said Jesse. “I don’t want to make the kabuki players cry. Talk to Gibraltar and close the window behind me.”

And then he was gone. Nick muttered to himself, closed and locked the window, then ran to meet his car.

Pilar was too nervous to sleep. Knowing she would have to be up again at four, she took a melatonin tablet and climbed into bed just after ten, but she tossed and turned and thought she might never sleep. Some time around 1:30, she looked at her alarm clock, decided to get up and start getting ready, blinked, and woke to the clock now reading 4:00 with the alarm going off.

A brisk shower and two cups of coffee left her human enough to put her makeup on and dress. She cursed the idiot who had told Nick he should make the effort to arrive on time for the barbecue their Montana cousins wanted to throw in his honor, but of course she’d been that idiot, so it didn’t do much good.

Normally, she wouldn’t have put on her full makeup to fly, but she was flying with Nick and she didn’t want him getting cold feet at the last minute because she looked too old or tired for him. She couldn’t help but be tired now, but she could at least be beautiful and tired.

The early hour saved her from agonizing over her flying clothes again. From the waist down, jeans had been an easy choice. She had a dancer’s legs and the form-fitting blue jeans she wore showed them to their best advantage. She wasn’t sure how rustic their ultimate destination was, so she wore a pair of knee-high leather cowboy boots she’d bought years before for an ill-fated experiment in line dancing.

On the top, she’d been torn between practical travel-wear and something sexier. In the end, she split the difference, wearing a tight-fitting black tank shirt that showed off the shape of her lingerie model chest and some chunky, dramatic turquois jewelry that wouldn’t set off a metal detector. Against the possibility of aggressive in-flight air conditioning and unknown Montana terrain, she threw on a chocolate-colored leather jacket over it. That gave her just enough time to look herself over in the mirror and...

Her car was ten minutes early. She could have made it wait, but that felt rude and Pilar was determined not to become one of those people just because she finally had some real money. She settled in the back, exchanged a few pleasantries with the driver, brought out her iPad to review some documents about a new housing development outside Albany they were planning on bidding on building, yawned mightily, tucked her iPad back in her bag, gave in to the inevitable, and went back to sleep.

She woke up to the driver clearing his throat and looked around. They were still on the interstate. Before she could ask, he said, “We’re about ten minutes away from the airport, Miss - in case you want to freshen up.”

Pilar thanked him and spent the next nine minutes and fifty seconds straightening her clothes, smoothing her hair, and touching up her makeup. Modeling and a brief attempt at competitive ballroom had taught her the art of quick prep. Then, she popped an ice mint in her mouth.

Since Nick had asked her to join him at the wedding and she’d made clear that a little quality alone time would be appreciated, they’d been dancing around each other both literally and figuratively. The knowledge they would be together this weekend had given Nick a fresh confidence when it came to gripping her while they danced and added a certain shared physicality even between dances, but as if by unspoken consent, neither one had moved to initiate the relationship even as they came into repeated physical proximity. Of course, Pilar had never been sure when Kiki would be around or Jazz once she entered the picture, but Nick presumably had and he hadn’t so much as kissed her.

Pilar wondered if that meant Nick planned on this relationship only existing for the long weekend they were in Montana. And she wondered if she wanted that to be the plan or not. She’d spent a lot of time wondering since propositioning Nick. The intervening time gave her a chance to second-guess everything.

She hadn’t changed her mind on any of it, but she had thought about it. Nick’s youth had made him particularly appealing for a fling as had his relationship with Kiki. There was no danger of starting to think of him as a potential husband. But he was so young it made Pilar feel like a bit of a cougar at twenty-five.

Fortunately, there was another radio car already waiting on the tarmac next to the sleek white Gulfstream when they pulled up. Pilar crunched and swallowed the last of her mint. There was no turning back now.

Except that it was Inez who stepped out of the car and gave her a hug. Pilar let her shoulders fall. “I thought you were Nick.”

“Glad you spotted it before you tried any mushy stuff,” said Inez. “Do you think there’s any chance we could get a cup of coffee around here?”

Pilar looked skeptically at the main building of Stewart Airport. At 6:30 in the morning, it looked mostly dark. “I’d hate to walk all the way over there and find out nothing was open.”

Inez yawned and covered her mouth with a fist. “I could really use a cup this morning.”

Pilar immediately spotted the sparkle coming from her cousin’s new ring and caught Inez’s wrist to draw the bit of jewelry closer. Her mouth fell open. “Roberto proposed to you? I thought you said that was never going to happen.”

Inez’s eyes sparkled just like the diamond. “Roberto didn’t propose to me. John Crane did ... last night.”

“I ... don’t recognize that name. Do I?” Pilar asked.

“He’s a historian at Columbia. He’s been helping me research the family for like a year and a half,” said Inez. “We weren’t even going out. He just proposed out of the blue.”

“And you said yes?” asked Pilar.

“I said we could get engaged if he would agree that we have to wait at least a year and sleep together in the meantime,” said Inez. “And, I told him if he was awful in bed, I’d have to give the ring back.”

Pilar laughed. “I’m sure that won’t cause performance anxiety.”

“It didn’t,” said Inez. “I still have the ring this morning. Don’t I?”

Pilar hugged her cousin. “Congratulations.”

A third black car pulled up. Nick’s driver apparently lacked the foresight Pilar’s had shown because Nick was sound asleep with his head back until the car came to a complete stop. Then he woke abruptly and looked around, disoriented. Pilar gave him a little wave.

When he climbed out of the car, he was looking at the Gulfstream. “Is this our plane for today? It’s bigger than I expected.”

“First time flying on a private plane?” Pilar asked.

“First time flying,” said Nick. “Good morning, Inez.”

“Good morning, Nick.” Inez gave an odd wave that allowed her to show him the ring.

Nick looked at the plane again. “Do we just knock on the door or something?”

Pilar exchanged a look with Inez who just rolled her eyes, then walked over and straight into Nick’s arms, wrapping herself around him. “So, you’re pretty excited about the plane. Huh?”

Nick wrapped his arms around her and looked down into her eyes. “What airplane?”

Pilar kissed him slowly and purposefully, just in case he’d forgotten their previous conversation. “Good man.” Inez had tactfully turned away to give them a modicum of privacy, so she whispered in Nick’s ear. “Did you notice what Inez has on her left hand?”

Nick glanced over and his eyes widened. “Oh. Did she have that on the Fourth?”

Pilar shook her head. “She got it last night.”

Nick smiled. “I’ll be sure to notice it the next chance I get. Thanks.”

Just then, the door on the Gulfstream opened, swung down, and became a staircase. A young woman in a smart, blue uniform stuck her head out at the top. “Good morning. If you’re ready to board, we’re ready to receive you.”

“Do you have coffee?” Inez asked.

“We do. I’ll check with the pilot and see if we have time to brew some up before we take off. Otherwise, I’ll be happy to make you some once we reach cruising altitude.”

As Inez mounted the stairs, Nick trotted to catch up with her. “Inez, did you have that ring on the Fourth?”

Pilar chuckled and followed. With the right guidance, Nick had the self-effacing charm and charisma to be a leader in the Stone family if he wanted to be one. He was suspicious of the family now - a healthy attitude to take towards the Stones as a whole, but he certainly wasn’t isolating himself from them. Pilar herself was Exhibit A or, she admitted wryly, Exhibit B since Jazz had managed to line-jump earlier in the week.

Pilar had been a little surprised to retrieve Jazz’s text that night. It wasn’t the first such text she’d received. You couldn’t really date among the Stones in New York City and not occasionally get a politely-worded text that amounted to “are we going to have a problem?”

You also cut yourself out of a big part of the social scene if you had too many problems with too many people. None of Pilar’s friends her own age were talking about marriage except as some aspirational future event. Inez could tell her the exact numbers, but the common wisdom was that Stone women started getting serious about marriage around the age of twenty-eight and men around thirty-five. Until then, there was a lot of bed-hopping and experimentation going on.

As Pilar boarded, Inez was speaking animatedly to Nick, who might need help extricating himself from the conversation. Pilar loved her first cousin to death, but it often took a concentrated effort to get her to stop talking once she started.

But she heard Inez say “plenipotentiary” and listened more closely. Nick had apparently directed Inez away from the topic of her own engagement and on to their cousin Threnody. Pilar settled in next to Nick. She didn’t know much about executive jets, but this was a nicer one than the two she’d been on before with wide open aisles, seats clustered into different configurations for different groups and white upholstery everywhere. In the cluster of chairs they’d chosen, Nick had ceded the single, large “boss chair” to Inez in favor of sitting next to Pilar. Probably, neither of them had noticed or cared about the implied power dynamic.

Nick broke into Inez’s word-stream with a question. “So, if I really pissed her off, what could she do to me?”

“Directly - not much,” said Inez. “She has allies, mostly in Europe, mostly with strong connections to the Ferrari-Stones. If she turns them against you, it might mean you get invited to fewer orgies and dungeon sex parties, but they’re mostly old money. Personally...”

“Back up,” said Nick. “To the ... part I obviously want you to back up to.”

Inez gave a broad smile. “The Ferrari-Stones probably don’t do that sort of thing anymore, but Threnody’s grandfather almost certainly hosted a number of orgies at the Palazzo di Ferrari in the sixties and early seventies. Mick Jagger and David Bowie both mention having attended them and a number of Italian ministers resigned over them when Eleanor Breton-Stone’s book came out...”

“And the sex dungeons?” Nick asked.

“Eighties and nineties - Threnody’s father Juno Tiberius either had them installed or renovated from more conventional dungeons. The Ferrari-Stones were into S&M before it was cool,” said Inez. “A lot of celebrities from that time knew JT and a few have admitted to spending time in his dungeon. But, it’s not there anymore. The trustees...”

“What about Jesse?” Nick asked.

“Jesse wasn’t even born until 1995. He probably never saw the dungeons,” said Inez.

“No, you were talking about Threnody’s allies and said they were mostly in Europe,” said Nick. “Isn’t Jesse one of her allies?”

“Nobody’s quite sure what Jesse and Threnody are to each other ... including Jesse, last I checked.” Inez accepted a mug of coffee from the attendant who also handed Nick a bottle of water. “They met when Jesse first started competitive fencing in Europe in 2010. He would stay in Ferrari and she was the newly orphaned head of the Ferrari-Stone family. At some point, they became lovers and Nick sometimes represents her interests in North America. But sometimes he opposes her too. A lot of people think they’ll be married eventually.”

“She’s way too old for him. Isn’t she?” Pilar asked.

“She’s twenty-five,” said Inez. “So, it would be an unusual inversion. Stone scions - men who control more than a quarter of a billion dollars - tend to marry ten to fifteen years younger the first time, not eight years older. But, they control two of the four biggest fortunes in the family. So, it makes some sense, particularly with Opal...”

“Jesse broke into the loft this morning,” said Nick.

Inez stared at him, too surprised to speak. Pilar asked, “Seriously?”

“Came up the fire escape, made himself coffee, and waited for me to get up so he could tell me Threnody really wanted me to do her a favor ... and that I needed better security. Scared the shit out of me, actually,” said Nick. “Threnody...”

“Nick, you probably shouldn’t tell me this...” said Inez.

Nick frowned, “Why? I thought you wanted to know everything about the Stone family.”

“I do,” said Inez. “But, I don’t keep secrets.”

“Everybody keeps some secrets,” Nick pointed out.

“Okay. I keep some secrets, but I have a big graph of the Stone family in my head and the way my brain works, when I’m traversing that graph, I don’t remember what’s supposed to be secret and what isn’t. I just follow it until I reach a terminus or I figure out people aren’t listening anymore,” said Inez. “When I realize I gave away something I was told in confidence, I usually feel terrible about it. So, I ask people not to tell me anything in confidence. Anything you tell me about the family, it’s going to get out eventually.”

Pilar could almost see Nick’s mind working in the set of his jaw and the movements of his brow. He was tempted to tell Inez everything and let the chips fall where they may. But, he finally nodded, “All right. Thank you for warning me.”

Inez gestured with her head. “There’s a couch back there I’m going to crash out on once we’re at cruising altitude. Even if I’m awake, I won’t be able to hear you two talking over the engines.”

Nick nodded. “Okay. So, tell me more about this fiance of yours. How do you know him?”

And Inez was off. Pilar allowed herself to drowse and listen with half an ear. She would undoubtedly hear all the details again. At her side, Nick’s baritone questions punctuated Inez’s flow of words, redirecting them when they meandered into arcana. Conversing well with Inez was a skill and Nick a natural at it. Having spent time with Arwen this week, Pilar could guess where he’d honed that skill.

When they’re reached cruising altitude and Inez had gone off to claim her couch, Pilar said, “The Rodriguez-Stone girls aren’t exactly the all-night party people are we? I’m dead on my feet today.”

Nick chuckled and put an arm around her. “Neither am I. I’d like to try to sleep a few hours on the way over myself.”

Pilar cuddled up against his chest. “So, did Jazz keep you up all night ... or was it Kiki?” When she felt Nick wince, she laughed. “Somebody new maybe ... Emily?”

“Not Emily. Emily’s with Dennis,” Nick said quickly. Then, after a deep breath, he added, “It was Jazz ... and Kiki.”

“Together? That was probably ... inevitable,” said Pilar. “Your idea or one of theirs?”

“Kiki’s I think,” said Nick. “Does it bother you?”

“Honestly, a little.” Pilar laid her head on Nick’s shoulder. “I didn’t really know any of my cousins until I turned fifteen and it was kind of a rude surprise to find out that they thought the ideas I grew up with about romance and dating and marriage were ‘quaint’ and ‘archaic.’ But, I’ve adapted. I already knew about Kiki when I approached you. And I never thought she’d be the only other woman in your life.”

Nick chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “The Stones are a very odd bunch.”

“Don’t judge all Stones by New York ... or even all of New York by the Stones who approach you, Nick Coyle, hot young billionaire,” said Pilar sleepily. “A lot of the people in our age groups you meet either went to Riverwalk or were heavily influenced by it.”

“I should keep Inez on speed dial,” muttered Nick. “What’s Riverwalk? I think Jazz mentioned it.”

“It’s a school on Roosevelt Island,” said Pilar. “A big high school with a smaller college attached to it. Run by Stones, financed by Stones, crawling with Stones. Jazz is a pretty typical graduate.”

Nick chuckled. “A school where our cousin Jazz is considered ‘typical’ sounds pretty terrifying.”

“From what I can tell, it’s definitely a bit of an echo chamber,” said Pilar. Having trouble keeping her eyes open, she decided not to bother. “So, what’s the deal with you and Threnody and Jesse breaking into your clubhouse?”

Nick’s laugh reverberated in his chest against Pilar’s ear. “Threnody asked me a favor. I told her no. She sent Jesse to ask me again. I said no again. Jesse told me I was right not to start giving in to Threnody because once I caved in, she’d never stop pushing.”

Pilar yawned into Nick’s chest. “Jesse’s probably right.”

Arwen was impressed to see that Max was matching her timed run on the treadmills. Only a few days earlier, he’d been bailing at the fifteen minute mark, but he’d steadily improved and, for the last two days, made it the full twenty alongside her. He even seemed to be panting less today than yesterday. She complimented him. “Really looks like you’re building your stamina, Max.”

Max dabbed his forehead and his cheeks with the towel hanging around his neck. “Thanks. Connie’s got me metering how many steps I take during the day. I was afraid I might slack off today without her riding me, but I could still hear her voice even without her here.”

Arwen blotted her own face dry. “You really shouldn’t let her talk to you like that, you know.”

Max shook his head. “She doesn’t say anything worse to me than I’ve said to myself and now one of the voices in my head is a glamorous movie star.”

“Whatever motivates you,” Arwen headed for the elevator. “I told her not to talk to me like that and she hasn’t.”

Max followed. “Is that what happened? I just assumed you had a better body than I do.”

Arwen summoned the elevator. “I have a different body than you, Max. It’s not better or worse.”

Max smirked. “This is what I like about Connie. She’s cruel, but honest. She balances the kind lies my friends tell me. To listen to you guys tell it, there’s nothing I can improve.”

“I know I have things I can improve. I also know I’m never going to be a lingerie model no matter how much I optimize.” She held out both hands gesturing at her chest. “Unless I upgrade.”

“I don’t think you’re any smaller than Kiki. Do you?” Max stepped into the elevator.

Arwen joined him. “You’ve been thinking a lot about my body lately. Haven’t you?”

Max blushed a little, but said, “It’s been in front of me in yoga pants and a sports bra all week. Did you expect me to think about it less?”

“Considering Emily’s in the room, maybe.” Arwen didn’t want to admit she was flattered by Max’s compliments, but she was happy to fish for more.

“It turns out there’s room for multiple beautiful, unavailable women in my head,” said Max.

Arwen twisted around and said in a singsong voice, “Max thinks I’m beautiful.”

“Yeah, okay. Don’t tell Lev I said that,” grumbled Max. “I like my head not being twisted off my body.”

“Even at our worst, Lev would never have murdered you for saying I was beautiful,” said Arwen. “But, I won’t tell your girlfriend.”

“I’m not sure I have a girlfriend.” Max stepped out of the elevator.

Arwen headed for the coffee maker. It looked like Nick had made a pot before he left and it was still hot. “Trouble with Paige?”

“No sign of it,” Max retrieved a couple of mugs from the cabinet. “Not when she’s here anyway. But, I was walking around Washington Square Park yesterday and I saw her with another guy. They seemed ... close.”

“Maybe he was her brother,” Arwen suggested.

“That might be taking the whole Targaryen thing a bit far,” Max poured coffee for both of them. “I don’t think she’s that method.”

“Oh. Eww. Maybe not her brother, then,” Arwen accepted a mug. “What are you going to do?”

“Talk to her, I guess.” Max set about preparing his coffee. “I probably should have done that before I started calling her my girlfriend. Huh?”

“Do you want her to be your girlfriend?” Arwen asked.

“I feel like an incredibly lucky bastard to have her whether she’s seeing other guys or not,” said Max. “But, yeah. A hot, funny, sexy girlfriend who puts out? What more would a man need from life?”

“A harem of hot, sexy girls who put out maybe?” Arwen suggested. “Nick’s got one.”

“Nick’s Nick.” Max shrugged. “Even before he was Nick, he was Nick.”

A member of the staff Arwen didn’t recognize came over to ask them about breakfast. After they’d ordered, Arwen persisted. “Simon’s got one. Even Hall has one. Why not Max?”

Max looked confused. “Simon and Hall have what?”

“Harems. Follow along, Max?” Arwen sipped her coffee.

“Hall Dunford has a harem?” Max asked, incredulous. “The nicest man in fandom?”

“Niceness apparently has its rewards.” Arwen smirked. “Cat and Hall have had a thing with Casey since before they were married. Didn’t you see Cat and Casey making out on the roof on the Fourth?”

“Yeah. There was a lot going on that night for me,” said Max. “I was kind of in my own little world. So, I saw it, but I didn’t think about it much. Girls make out with each other sometimes. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

As the staffer brought their breakfast over, Arwen asked. “What? You think we just make out with each other sometimes because we’re bored or something?”

“Well, not you obviously,” Max sat down to his breakfast. “But, sometimes girls do it to...”

“What do you mean obviously not me?” Arwen demanded. “I could totally make out with a girl.”

Max looked up from his food. “Bet you twenty bucks you couldn’t.”