CHAPTER EIGHT
Kate
Ah, there’s the devil.
The devil who drowned my Kindle in countless inappropriate titles like alien billionaire romances, which I’d read but not when it’s downloaded in spite.
The devil who thought sticking his face on my most favorite electronic device is a funny prank.
The devil who is smiling at me like he’s fond of me.
And here I am smiling back. No one will ever suspect that we’re—
“Why is your face broken?” Haley says to me, making a face.
“What?”
“You’re smiling weird,” she adds.
I brush her off. Guess I’m not a very good actress. “Nothing, just… this audiobook I’m listening to.” I say, removing my earphones for ‘proof’. That always gets people off my back.
Michael, unfortunately, is not ‘people’. He smirks and asks, “What are you reading?”
“Nothing interesting. Yet,” I say as I take a seat beside him because every other seat is taken.
Haley is busy bombarding Emily online, asking her to watch the Broadway production of Wicked so she can take notes for her audition. Joshua’s already out of the frame. He’s not usually present in these things anyway.
While everyone is gathering snacks, Michael leans over to me and whispers, “You’re welcome for your expanded reading list.”
I whip my head toward him. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“I do, actually, but seeing you self-destruct in real time is starting to get entertaining.”
I roll my eyes at his smug face and stand so quickly the couch creaks under me. If I stay here, I’ll end up saying something unhinged. So, I decide it’s time to get some snacks.
The chatter in the room swells behind me as I make my way to the aisles, mentally cataloging what’s safe to grab when Bon’s voice cuts through the noise like a fire alarm.
“Who smokes?!”
The room goes dead quiet and I freeze. I whirl around to see my cigarettes on the couch beside Michael. My stupid, incriminating cigarettes that must have slipped out of my pocket when I stood up.
No. No, no, no.
“Kate??” Haley’s voice is high-pitched, incredulous. Her expression is this impossible mix of shock and disappointment, like I’ve just admitted to kicking puppies for fun. “Is that yours?”
“W-what?” I ask, already scrambling my brain for an excuse.
I guess I can say that I found it on the ground.
But I know that’s no use. I’m still frantically sorting through increasingly bad explanations—confiscated from a student?
prop for a health talk? fell from the sky?
—when Michael’s voice cuts clean through the tension.
“It’s mine.”
The room falls silent, and every head swivels toward him. Even mine.
He sits there calmly, leaning an elbow on the back of the couch, holding the cigarettes like it’s the most natural thing in the world. His gaze flicks to me briefly—quick, unreadable—before he looks back at the others.
“A guilty little pleasure,” he says, steady and smooth.
“You?!” Richard blurts out.
“You are the face of lifestyle brands, and the cover of Men’s Health!” Haley says incredulously.
Michael shrugs. “What can I say? I’m full of surprises.”
Everyone bombards him with questions, and he answers each one with unmistakable confidence. He tells them that he indulges every once in a while, and that it’s been stressful for him lately. He tells them that he started in college.
And I just stand there. Grateful, but also furious.
Because he’s never going to let me live this down.
Just then, Manang Linda enters the store, unsurprised that we’re all here.
“Good, full attendance,” she begins. Everyone looks at her, and she doesn’t waste a second. “I need you to help out Kate for the year-end event.”
Bon springs up from her seat. “I’d love to, Manang Linda, really I do,” she says with a pout.
I’m one hundred percent sure she means it.
Bon loves parties. “But I have this big production at work to get ready for the holidays.” She works as a film producer at this big firm, and she’s apparently tasked to create short holiday films for social media engagement.
“Okay, and I assume Ryan would just make up an excuse not to join since you’re not there.” She chuckles. Ryan just shrugs like he agrees. “Very well, then Haley, Richard, and…” She scans the room with her index finger, and lands on Michael. “You.”
“Sorry? What am I supposed to do?” he asks, bewildered.
“Ask Katherine.” I almost groan, but I hold back. As if spending my work days with him wasn’t enough, I had to spend free time with him too.
Michael turns to look at me with his eyebrows raised. “I’ll tell you on Monday,” I whisper beside him.
“Why not now? Or tomorrow?” he asks.
“Not now because I still have to think about where you’ll fit in all this.” I scowl. “And not tomorrow,” I continue, ignoring him as he smirks, “because I don’t want to see you every day.”
“You’re the only person who ever told me that. Most people fall in line to get a glimpse of me.”
I turn to face him fully, my voice flat. “If I had a peso for every time you overestimated your appeal, I’d be retired by now. On a beach. Far away from this conversation.”
He just grins, undeterred. “You’re fun when you’re mean.”
“And you’re tolerable when you’re quiet.”
Michael
Something about Kate is so annoying, I can’t place my finger on it. She looks like she should be soft and kind, but somehow every time she opens her mouth, it’s the opposite. On one hand, it’s jarring. On the other, it’s also a bit of fun.
I may be enjoying this because I’ve never met anyone I can just tease like this. Most people either hate me quietly or fawn. With the women in my circle, they’re all too glamorous–which isn’t a bad thing, but all of it feels very showy.
I cross my arms and lean back in my chair, watching the others talk.
Haley’s threatening to make Richard eat the spaghetti she cooked.
She’s apparently a very bad cook. Bon is texting furiously for some reason.
Ryan is somehow taking a nap in the midst of all this noise.
All of it is very… cozy. This town is still weirding me out, because how can everyone just like each other?
I glance sideways. Kate’s pretending not to look at me while absolutely looking at me in her peripheral vision. I don’t know why I notice things like that, but I do.
I smirk.
She notices. Narrows her eyes. “What now?”
“Nothing,” I say, stretching my arms behind my head. “Just… you owe me.”
She’s fiddling with the straw in her drink, pretending she doesn’t care too much. Her cheeks are still slightly pink. Probably from the effort of not screaming at me in public.
She sighs and looks at me. “You’re not gonna shut up about that, are you?”
“Not a chance,” I whisper. “Leverage this good? I’m milking it forever.”
She glares at me, but looks around her to confirm that no one is paying attention. “Name your price.”
I grin. “Oh, I’m saving this one. I don’t know when, but one day, you’ll hear me say ‘remember that time I saved you’ and you’ll just… owe me.”
Kate’s response to that is very mature. She sticks her tongue out.
I bark out a laugh—quick, sharp, surprised at myself. She’s so damn easy to rile up.
She goes back to her drink like nothing happened, and the noise around us rushes back in. I shake my head, still grinning, and change the subject.
“So. What’s this event about, anyway?”
She blinks. “Why do you care?”
I shrug. “If I’m being roped into it, might as well know what I’m suffering for.”
She sighs. “You heard Manang Linda, it’s a year-end event. Usually just a themed party with games and dancing.”
“You lost me at dancing,” I say.
That gets her attention. Her eyes light up with something that looks a little too close to mischief.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she says, grinning like she’s just found her next victim.
“I’ll find something extra wholesome for you.
Maybe you can dress up as Santa’s grumpy cousin.
Or the Christmas tree. You’ve got the height. ”
I smirk. “Funny. Maybe you can go as one of Santa’s elves. You don’t even need a costume—you've got the height.” I wink.
She shoots me a flat look. “I’m not that short.”
I nod toward her legs. “Your feet are swinging.”
She frowns and glances down, realizing the truth: the couch is too deep, and since she’s lounging like she’s melting into it, her legs really are dangling an inch off the floor.
With a huff, she straightens up and crosses her arms. “Not all of us have egos large enough to fill the rest of our bodies.”
“What you mean is… not everyone can be six-foot-four and attractive.”
Kate laughs sarcastically, but she doesn’t say anything. She just shakes her head and sips her drink, like I’m not worth the oxygen. But the corners of her mouth twitch.
I smile back. I don’t even like her, but messing with her is the most alive I’ve felt since I got here.
It’s probably the challenge.
Or boredom.
Or both.