Page 200 of Hide and Keep

“Can’t you tell? It’s your drink. The one you actually like.”

“But it…doesn’t…look…” I take another pull, this one longer. It doesn’t look like it, but it is it.

“I dyed it green.”

I blink up at Crue, then his own green drink, some of it gone already.

“Did you do the same thing to yours?”

“No, mine’s a matcha lemonade. I had to order at least one, you know, for appearance’s sake. Aesthetic first—”

“Pleasure last,” I finish.

“Not for you. Not anymore.”

He ordered something he hates and is drinking it just so I don’t have to. He chose my pleasure over his.

The smile that overtakes my face feels foreign it’s so big, so genuine.

“Thank you.”

After studying me for a minute, he asks, “Are you fucking with me right now?”

I try not to let his suspicion dim my mood. It is warranted after all. I haven’t been very grateful to him. Or nice.

“No. I appreciate this. For real.”

Despite his frown, I sip more tea.

Neither of us speaks as we regard one another, so I turn and resume walking. Crue keeps pace next to me every step of the way…until I’m suddenly yanked sideways through a doorway, the green liquid splashing up onto my face.

“What—”

“Everybody out,” Crue tells whoever’s inside, his voice bouncing off the walls because it’s a bathroom. The girls’ bathroom to be exact. “Security…purposes.”

Keeping my focus on the floor as the three girls pass me, I slowly dab the drops from my lips and nose.

The second we’re alone, I inform him, “That wasn’t the least bit believable.”

“I don’t care.” Unapologetic, my bodyguard sets his drink on the countertop before doubling back to lock the door.

Our closeness becomes palpable.

I lift the dyed drink between us. “I thought the point of this was to be able to enjoy it in public.”

“The public’s gotten enough of you today. It’s my turn.”

“You couldn’t wait until we got home?”

“You’re lucky I waited this long.”

Stepping up close to me, he cups the back of my head and pulls.

When I start turning away, his other hand grabs my chin, stopping me. Hysteria fills me just before he pushes his thumb up to cover my lips again, kissing it instead.

His nose pressed to mine, he rasps, “Why didn’t you come to my room last night?”

I did, you just didn’t know it.

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