Page 72 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

“That’s pretty cool,” I say.

Damn, no wonder Daniel was so popular in high school. While I was busy readingInuyashaand whatever other manga I could get my hands on at the local library, he was learning entire skill sets to win over his classmates.

I realize that despite our study date the other day, I never got around to asking him what he actually does for a living. We were too busy memorizing each other’s birthdays and other basic stats like that.

“So, is that what you do now? Something to do with food? You seem so passionate about it.”

“No, actually, I just finished up law school at Berkeley, and I’m alawyer now.”

I give him a look.

“What?” he asks.

“You hated Mock Trial,” I say before I can stop myself.

He wrinkles his brow. “I did?”

“You never took the lead role,” I say. “You did the pretrial case senior year, presumably so you could leave practice after the opening argument.”

I pause, unsure if I should keep going.

“And?” Daniel prompts me. “I know you have at least one more data point, Slayer.”

“And you never beat me at it,” I say. “Which tells me you weren’t really trying.”

“Oh, I was trying,” Daniel says, his mouth quirking. “You were just better in that particular realm of competition.” Daniel meets my gaze, his voice lowering. “But I always gave it my all when you were involved.”

I feel myself blushing at that. From day one, from the moment I met Daniel, he was my rival and my nemesis. I wanted nothing more than to beat him, and that drive kept me going through high school. When I made Cindy quiz me during lunch or studied far too late into the night, it was because I was hell-bent on wiping that smug grin off his face and reveling in his defeat. I relished competing against him—and most of all, I relished winning.

Daniel had always played it cool. I’d assumed our battles hadn’t meant anything to him—that I was just an afterthought. But hearing this, I have to wonder if maybe I was wrong about that. Maybe I’d meant just as much to him as he did to me.

“You’re right, though,” Daniel says. “If I’m being honest, Mock Trial wasn’t my favorite.”

“So what made you go into law?” I ask.

“It just made sense,” Daniel says, shrugging. “Going into law was what my parents wanted for me. Both of my older siblings are lawyers,too. I didn’t want to disappoint my parents, so I took the path of least resistance.”

I nod, understanding the need for parental approval, even though my mom’s desire for me to pursue medicine wasn’t enough for me to do something I didn’t love. At the end of the day, I knew she’d support me choosing my path, so that’s what I did.

“What’s it like, being in a family of lawyers?” I ask.

“You have no idea,” he laments. “Every meal ends up being a cross-examination.” Then he laughs. “Not that it’s a bad thing. Debating is basically our way of showing we respect one another. And competing with one another is basically our love language.”

“So much about you makes so much more sense.” I’m starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Daniel and I have far more in common than I initially thought, when we hear a loud boom.

“What was that?” I ask, jumping to my feet. I look around for the source of the noise, my heart racing.

“Can’t be anything good.” Daniel is already up. “Come on, we should get back.”

Together, we make our way toward the villa. By now, the sun has set, and the light is fading quickly. The storm is starting to pick up again, and the wind whips the trees as we’re pelted by raindrops. The trek through the trees isn’t as easy as it was an hour ago, and my flimsy sandals snag on a root.

“Crap!” I nearly hit the ground, but Daniel catches my arm.

“I’ve got you,” he says. He takes my hand, intertwining our fingers, and doesn’t let go even when we make it back to the packed dirt path leading to the villa.

I’m wondering how I’m going to clean all the mud off my sandals when Daniel stops short, and I realize that we have a much bigger problem on our hands.

The villa is dark. The windows aren’t lit from within, and the pool we’ve been walking beside is an inky black, no longer glowing with the shimmering blue of the pool lights.

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