Chapter 2 #2
"I'm fine!” I shot back. “Are you?"
Natalia's drawl of disdain echoed over the receiver. "Don't scare me like that. Don't ever answer the phone and tell me you love me again or I'll assume you're seconds from death. Plane going down over the Atlantic."
"It honestly felt like it. I have a guy at work who won't take no for an answer. Your call saved me from faking a medical emergency because it's the only card I have left."
She laughed curtly. "Well you might have a real one once I tell you why I'm calling."
I smashed the power start and let out an insolent groan. My forehead rested against the steering wheel and the air conditioning shot on, blowing lukewarm air into my face. “Proceed with caution.”
“I need a favor from my award-winning real estate agent sister.”
“Are you finally selling that outdated pit Mateo bought as a bro shack with his roommate? Actually, are we sure they were only roommates?”
“Well, considering I’m pregnant with Mateo’s child, and Frankie and Ophelia are engaged, I’d say, yes, roommates. But they are strangely co-dependent.”
Natalia’s now-husband used to live with his best friend from the military, Frankie.
He was a nice guy—I had only met him briefly and he was clearly heterosexual—but I would take any opportunity to pass a joke about my brother-in-law.
Natalia had by proxy inherited Mateo and Frankie’s house when the latter moved to Colorado with his girlfriend, and she had done decently well at turning it into a boho chic vignette.
“Okay, so new house?” I said cheerily. “We can get you something closer to me, Bella, and Cami, with an extra room for your…extracurriculars.”
Perhaps the most interesting anecdote about my younger sister wasn’t the living arrangement, or the fact that at twenty-six she was basically a child-bride battling teen pregnancy—but the fact that she was, to put it plainly, a pornstar.
I wasn’t supposed to talk about that.
“I do not need a new house,” she grumbled. “And I’m on sabbatical.”
“Smart,” I hummed. “The belly might be a turn-off.”
“It’s the exact opposite.”
“Men are disgusting.”
“Mia, for fuck’s sake,” she pressed. “I need you to help someone find a place to live.”
“Okayyyy,” I sighed out. “I’m listening. But I will say, I didn’t know you had any friends.”
There was a pause that made me think she’d hung up. “Well, it’s not exactly a friend. Technically it’s also not a favor for me, it’s for Mateo. But you can’t say no.”
“Why’s that?” One of my eyebrows shot up.
“It’s Angelo.”
Angelo. His name did something unpleasant to my chest. It was tight and hot, an instant heartburn and unforgiving agita.
I had all but erased that man’s image from my brain in the last three months, hardly even remembering he existed except for the vague mention from Natalia.
I knew the Durans had recently moved from New York down to Florida, and their mooching, lazy, crass youngest son was following them like a lost puppy—but beyond that I wouldn’t let myself waste a second of mindspace on Angelo Duran.
We had the unfortunate privilege of being in the same bridal party for our siblings’ wedding.
Which included spending a long weekend together smooshed into the same villa in Las Vegas and competing against one another in a groomsmen versus bridesmaids scavenger hunt.
A scavenger hunt that ended with that barbarian stealing a kiss from me for points on a piece of paper, and me rightfully slapping him across the face.
We avoided one another at the wedding, stealing equally venomous looks of disgust across the aisle, and that was where it should have ended. That was where it was going to end.
“Absolutely not,” I practically growled.
Natalia sighed hard. “Remember what I said about not saying no?”
“There are caveats. There are always caveats,” I argued. “You can’t honestly expect me and that man to share the same space for an hour, let alone several hours, unsupervised. One of us would end up as crocodile food, and it wouldn’t be me.”
“I know you’ve had your differences,” she said. That’s putting it lightly. “But Angelo isn’t that bad, Mia. He has a big heart, and he’s a hard worker. Yes he can be a…smidge immature—”
I scoffed.
“But he’s family.”
“He’s your family. There is no relation on this side. What would that even make us? Sibling-in-laws?”
“Sibling-in-laws!”
“I just threw up in my mouth.”
“Look, I really need you here. I will never put you in this situation again. This is my big, once-in-a-lifetime favor. Do it for your pregnant sister. Or, better yet, consider it a baby shower gift. Angelo needs to move out, his parents gave him a month to find a place, but he’s slow to start because he’s too comfortable.
Mateo has him working for TechOps now, and he just needs someone like you to light a fire under his ass,” Natalia explained.
“Also, considering how much you two seem to hate each other’s guts, this should be the quickest sale of your life. ”
The sun was burning a hot circle through my closed moonroof and warming the crown of my head.
I let my neck roll back on the seat and stared off into the light blue afternoon sky, contemplating everything I’d done wrong in my life to end up in this situation.
Every stolen shirt from my twin sister’s closet, chewed wad of gum under a seat, blown stop sign, bad Yelp review left on a day spa.
To be fair, the little artisanal soaps resembled mints in a way that begged to be eaten. That was simply a warning to others.
“He can’t afford the houses I sell,” I reasoned. “I have appearances to keep, and Branting is going to be pissed if I’m slumming it and the team portfolio suffers.”
“Money isn’t an issue,” Natalia replied. “I think he might surprise you.”
“Is his dick out on the internet, too?”
She blew out a short laugh. “He’s frugal. He was co-owner of a contracting business for over a decade and has never had to pay rent. Plus, I’m positive Angelo has never spent more than fifteen dollars on a pair of pants.”
“Obviously,” I hummed, drumming my fingertips against the steering wheel. “Nat, I don’t—”
“Please,” she insisted.
Once upon a time, I would have ignored her pleading and gone about my day without thinking about it twice.
Made up another excuse for why I couldn’t help, and lied about being apologetic to get myself out of it.
I was guilty of leaving my baby sister out to dry for a good chunk of our early adulthood.
I was thirty now, and could admit that I was a cold bitch for the vast majority of my twenties.
Something about climbing the ladder, fucking the patriarchy, stomping on the necks of my competition to get ahead and pave a path through the unforgiving jerk-offs in my male-dominated field.
Until they had no choice but to respect me when I walked into a room.
My thirties were reserved for relaxation, zen. Angelo Duran was…zen-less. Not an ounce of that smart-mouthed Italian boy from the Bronx made me feel like I was on a beach in Bora Bora. More like a twelve-hour redeye with a screaming infant staring at me through the crack in the seats.
Even now, three months later, the prospect of having to work for him, see him, collaborate, and champion his wants and needs in the homebuying process made me fidget against the leather seats as if shaking off a chill.
At the same time, I felt like I owed my sister this favor.
Like a goodwill token, righting me on my journey of retribution.
Bringing me back onto karma’s good side.
After all, this may be my hardest challenge yet.
If I proved to myself that I was so good at my job even a mannerless brute like Angelo could find a place under my guidance, I could do anything.
“Angelo asked for my help?”
“Yes…sure,” Natalia hedged.
“Sure?”
“Your name was brought up, definitely.”
“If I do this, it counts for, like, ten years of favors. I’m also off the hook for that time Cami and Bella found your vibrator and tossed it in the washing machine for the housekeeper to find.
” Our parents' housekeeper had mistakenly assumed it was our mother’s and returned what remained of the waterlogged toy to her bedside table.
I had never seen Natalia’s face that specific shade of beet red.
“That was them?”
I sighed deeply. “Yeah, and I am so glad I finally got that off my chest. This cleansing-my-aura thing is great.”
“So you’ll do it?” she asked, pivoting. “You’ll be Angelo’s realtor?”
Was I actually agreeing to this? Basically confirming the next month of my life to be filled with unavoidable stress, awkward meetings, playing nice and friendly with a man I couldn’t stand, and sinking down to his level out of the kindness of my heart?
The old Mia was clawing her way up my throat, hissing and snarling, laughing at even entertaining the idea of it.
For some unknown reason, though, the new Mia, the grown Mia, zen Mia, was pushing headfirst to say yes.
I finally put my car in drive and veered onto the palm-tree-lined boulevard, making a final decision. “Tell him I need a pre-approval letter in my email by eight in the morning or he’s shit out of luck.”