Page 14 of The Amazing Alpha Tau Fratmas Experience
It would be better than eating anything on the menu, probably, but when I opened my mouth to point that out, Trey cut me off.
“Biscuits and gravy, Scout. Biscuits and gravy.”
I let him tease me by thinking I’d never had biscuits and gravy before and wondered if this meant that last night’s fight was done with.
Unless he invited you here to break up with you because he knows you’d never cause a scene in a crowd.
I ignored the sudden cold rush of panic that flooded my chest. No, of course he hadn’t. If he had, he wouldn’t be threatening me with Waffle House food in the future. And also, this wasTrey. He’d been putting up with my shit for literal years. What were the chances that last night had been his breaking point?
Shit, though.
What if ithadbeen?
I hated being in love with Trey as much as I loved it, because it terrified me. What if he walked away one day? What if that day was today? I’d spent my whole life pretending I didn’t care about anyone or anything, but I didn’t think I could pull it off if I lost Trey. And who would I be if the illusion of Scout Talbot-Smith cracked and everyone could see inside?
“Hey,” he said, a smile crinkling the skin at the corners of his eyes. “Earth to Scout.”
I rearranged the salt and pepper shakers. “What?”
“Coffee or juice?” Trey asked.
“Sorry,” I said, noticing the server hovering for the first time. I forced a smile for her. “Coffee, thanks. Latte.”
I put the salt and pepper shakers back the way they had been.
“So, DC, huh?” Trey asked, like he was asking about the weather and not stepping straight back into last night’s argument.
I gave him a wary nod, wondering how he was going to play this.
“It’s a great opportunity,” he said. “Are you looking forward to it?”
Oh, so that was it. We were excising Christmas from the entire conversation, and I couldn’t be more glad.
“Yes, I’m sure picking up Justice McDaniel’s dry cleaning will be the high point of my existence.” But I smiled a little to show I was kidding. Mostly. “It’ll be three weeks of mind-numbing drudgery, but yeah, it’s still a big deal, I know.”
“Hey, it’s making you friends in high places, which I’m all for. It means I’ll be able to come to you when I’m a lowly DA and need a favor.”
One of us was going to end up in a position to do favors and it wasn’t me, but I didn’t say that. We both knew Trey was the ambitious one, and however much I fell upward because of who my father was, he’d still beat me up the career ladder by sheer grit and determination. I’d make sure of it. Instead I hummed and said, “I don’t know. If you can’t even convince me to go to Waffle House, how are you going to convince me to go easy on a lovable but misguided petty thief who was only trying to provide for his seventeen children?”
“That’s oddly specific,” Trey said. “And very Dickensian. Will you be wearing a top hat in this scenario?”
“You know I’ll look good in it.”
“Mmm-hmm.” His eyes sparkled.
The tension in me eased. Okay, yeah. I had a good read on this now. We were teasing, because that was what we did, and we were okay. The argument over Christmas had been a bump in the road, that was all, and we were already past it. And when Trey left to drive home later today, it would be fine, because I’d know we were still solid. I’d still miss him, obviously. I thought about telling him that, but I didn’t want to ruin our ceasefirewhen that would inevitably lead him to pointing out that I didn’t have to miss him and why not come to Christmas with the Montgomerys?
So instead I said, “You should come up and visit me in DC after Christmas.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess, you’re staying somewhere fancy as hell?”
“I’ll be the envy of all the other interns,” I said dryly. “But, yes, I’m staying somewhere that my father felt was adequate.”
“Fancy as hell,” Trey translated with a laugh. “I might come and check it out. It would be nice to spend a weekend in a fancy hotel without worrying about the brothers.”
“It would be much more relaxing than this place,” I said, thinking of all the chaos currently unfolding downstairs back at Alpha Tau. “I still can’t believe Marty’s doing a photo shoot for Squirrel. He should have done that months ago if he wanted to get the cards professionally printed.”
“Sure.” Trey shrugged. “But sometimes it’s easier to just say yes to Marty than to point out the flaws in his plans.”
