Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cam
“ C amaya Cruz.”
My head swiveled to the left, the horror of hearing my full name overruled by the shock of seeing who had shouted it.
Then again, only one person would have the guts to say it out loud.
I glared at Alonzo, who leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed, the picture of a cool guy. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What does it look like? I’m giving you a ride,” he said, sauntering over to me.
“No.” Did I say he looked cool? Scratch that. He was even hotter than I remembered. Focus, Cam , I chided myself. “Can you scrub any memory of my name from your brain? Anything related to me. Just delete it.”
He smirked. “That’s impossible. You’ve left an impression on me, Camaya.”
“Say that again, and I will literally take my knee to your balls. Don’t test me.” It would have been more effective if I didn’t have to crane my neck to look him in the eye, but I had to work with what I had.
“Fine. How about Maya?”
“No.”
“But it suits you.” He tipped his head to the side. “It also matches your tattoo. Actually, is that why you got it?”
“Can you stop talking?”
“Sure. When I get my way. Come on.”
“No. How did you even know I was coming here?”
He raised his eyebrows, and the answer slammed into me.
I groaned. “Nikki.” Of course. When I got her on the phone, I was going to give her a piece of my mind.
Or maybe…since she felt so comfortable pushing me toward Alonzo, it was about time I set her up with Eric.
The seeds of a plan took shape in my brain.
“You’re giving evil mastermind energy right now.”
“Good.” I’d held out from meddling, but Nikki had given me the perfect excuse to do the same. It was for her and Eric’s benefit, anyway.
“You can tell me the plan in the car.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Didn’t you say you weren’t a rich boy?”
“It’s the family car, and it’s nothing fancy. I borrowed it so I could get you to your office easier,” he answered.
Did he believe I didn’t know about his superstar connection? How long would he keep up the act? “I’m not riding with you,” I said as I turned and walked away.
Like he had before, he kept pace with me. “If this is about you not wanting to owe me, you can just give me a tatt and we’ll call it even.”
“You’re not helping your case.”
“Think of it this way—you’ll be doing me a favor because I wouldn’t have woken up early and driven here for nothing. In exchange, you get a free private ride.” At my silence, he added, “You can either take what life is offering you, i.e. me, or brave the commute along with dozens of other people.”
I could have continued to protest, but why waste my breath? The pros pointed to riding with him, and really, I didn’t want to show up to boot camp all sweaty and rumpled.
“You should know that I’m sharing my location with Nikki and Eric,” I told him. “In case you have any ideas.”
“Good. Come on.” He held out his hand.
I looked at it, then back to his face. “Seriously?”
He rolled his eyes. “Your bag,” he said, wiggling his fingers.
“Nope. Lead the way.”
Hesitating, he moved to my right side, which faced the street. “The parking’s straight ahead.”
He stuck by me as we walked, shielding me from the other commuters. “Your girlfriend trained you well.”
His gait slowed for a beat before picking up again. “Ex-girlfriend. And I have two older sisters—they were the ones who trained me.”
I’d already known about his family because I’d given in to my curiosity and googled him. I blamed it on his second note and my momentary lapse in self-control. “So you actually broke up?”
He stared straight ahead and said, “The trust was gone.”
“Did you tell her what happened in Juana?”
“Yeah.”
Seriously? I’d expected him to say that it was a mistake and that she didn’t need to know. I might have thought he was lying, but the tension in his jaw and the way he said it like he was ashamed told me he was being truthful.
He stopped at a black compact SUV that looked like it had seen a couple of seasons and unlocked it.
I eyed it in disbelief. “This is your car?”
“My family’s. What did you expect?”
“One of those fancy brands.” I lifted my chin and stared at him, letting him read what he wanted into my words.
“We’ve never had those kinds of cars” was all he said before opening the front passenger door for me.
Not even when your sister’s marrying a former NBA star? I wanted to ask, but that would give away that I knew about his family connection. If he wasn’t bringing it up, then I had to assume he didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t press when I hated being asked personal questions.
Besides, all I should care about was getting to the venue and surviving the next five days.
Alonzo
I stole a glance at Cam under the guise of checking the side mirror for incoming traffic.
To say it was strange seeing her here, in Manila, in my passenger seat, was an understatement.
When she got off the bus, I did a double-take at seeing her in white button-down top and khaki pants.
She looked…like a city girl. If it weren’t for her ash-streaked hair and the familiar tattoos peeking out from beneath her shirt sleeves as she hauled her duffel bag, I would have convinced myself it was her doppelganger.
She’d plucked the shades from where they hung on her shirt and perched them over her eyes so I couldn’t tell if she was asleep or simply tuning me out. Either scenario panned out when it came to her.
“Do you always spend more time staring at your passenger instead of looking at the road?” she asked in a voice deeper than usual, like she’d barely gotten any sleep.
“I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Trust me, neither can I.”
“Is this job that important to you?”
She turned her head, and I felt her stare burning into my skin despite her shades. “Yes. But I guess you wouldn’t understand that.”
The condescension in her tone grated, but I kept my voice even.
“When I was six, my lola was diagnosed with cancer and my parents found out their business partner stole our money and left us in a shit ton of debt. My dad had to work abroad, and my mom took night and weekend shifts so we could afford Lola’s treatment and our education.
My oldest sister applied for a scholarship to the US and sent money to help support us.
Since college, I’ve been on scholarship and working part-time to make extra money.
So, yes. I get the importance of a job.”
“But your sister’s marrying a multimillionaire, right? Lucky you.”
Unintentionally, my foot pressed on the gas pedal, lurching the car forward.
I couldn’t believe I’d spilled my life story to her only for her to throw Tala’s engagement in my face.
I’d gotten plenty of flack about it over the past month, but I could let other people’s comments slide because they knew nothing about me.
Cam braced herself by placing her hands on the dashboard. “Shit. Are you trying to get us both killed?”
“Sorry,” I muttered as I eased back to a normal speed. “You’re something else. You know that, right?”
“Well—”
“Let’s get this straight. Yes, my sister is marrying a rich guy.
But she’s not in it for the money. She’s been in love with Jason since they were in college, before he became a superstar.
Jason would be the first to say how lucky he is that she sees him for more than his name and bank account.
Honestly, those were the reasons why she almost turned him down. ”
I glanced at her, anticipating a snarky remark. She only flattened her lips.
So I went on, needing her to understand where I was coming from. “Whatever money he has, that’s his. Not ours. Well, it will be partially Tala’s when they get married, unless they sign a prenup. I need to ask if they’re getting one,” I murmured to myself.
“You’re saying you don’t get money from this Jason Meyer?” Skepticism filled her tone.
I so badly wanted to deny it, but I couldn’t.
Not honestly. “No, I’m not saying that. Jason’s a very generous guy, and he likes to pay for things even when we tell him not to.
But I would never rely on him to fund my life.
I’m studying to become a lawyer because, first, I want to be self-sufficient and, second, because I find purpose in that work.
I would love for people not to assume that I’m dropping out of school and becoming a bum just because my sister is marrying Jason.
Just like I don’t want them to assume she’s marrying him because he’s rich. ”
Cam remained silent, and this time I let it stretch out. I’d told her the truth—more than I planned to divulge this early on a random Monday morning. Whether she believed me was her choice.
“Damn it,” she finally said. “I’m a bitch, aren’t I?”
My jaw relaxed, and I realized how hard I’d been gritting my teeth. “I object to that term. Look, I know you have these ideas about me, but you went too far, talking about my sister like that.”
“You’re right.” Sighing, she said, “I’m sorry for assuming the worst and using it against you. Especially when you trusted me with your story. That was a dick move, and I—I’m sorry.”
I looked at her, needing to confirm whether I’d imagined the contrition in her voice.
“I can admit when I’m wrong.”
“I didn’t know you would apologize for it outright.”
“Yeah, well. I was pissed when Nikki told me about your sister because you gave me that talk about you not being rich, and I hate liars,” she said as she stared straight ahead. “But I should have asked you outright instead of being passive aggressive about it.”
“I get why you’d come to that conclusion. It’s not something I advertise cause that’s my sister’s story, not mine. As it is, she has too many people invading her privacy and judging her. I’m not using her or her relationship to earn popularity points.”
“I respect that.”
Three words, and she’d managed to ease the tension from my shoulders—the same tension she’d caused.
“I need this job because my income from freelancing isn’t cutting it,” Cam said.
“I lost one of my regular clients, and then something came up that requires more money. If I had a full-time job, I wouldn’t have to worry as much about making ends meet, and the best part about this opportunity is that I can work from home. So here I am.”
Her admission caught me by surprise. She was usually direct and honest, but she limited the personal details she revealed. This felt like a truce of some sort. “I hope you get the job.”
“Yep, or I would have gone to Manila for nothing.”
“You got to hang with me. Consider yourself lucky.”
She snorted and looked my way for a brief moment. “Sure. Lucky me.”
Maybe I was a fool, but I celebrated that she didn’t deny my words or use that deadpan voice she often did. It was enough to prompt me to ask something I’d been wondering about since we met. “Why did you seem to hate me from the start? Was it just that I was a noisy guy from the city?”
“I overheard you and your friends talking about my ink. Your girlfriend?—”
“Ex.”
“— ex made some comment about me, and you went with it. Then your guy friend kept saying how you wanted a tatt, but one word from your ex and you’re changing your mind. I thought it was fake of you, that you’d pretend to be someone else just to be liked.”
My mouth went dry. It was the first time anyone had ever accused me of that, and I felt called out because I’d thought the same thing about myself. That I had been so desperate for Dani and her family’s approval that I’d been willing to compromise my own wants.
“I know, that was none of my business and I didn’t really know you. It just reminded me of people I used to know when I lived in Manila, and I couldn’t get over it.”
“Ahh. I guess me crashing into you didn’t help, huh?”
She harrumphed. “You were an ass when I was trying to get you to the clinic. But I understand why you acted that way.”
“It wasn’t my best moment,” I murmured.
“What did your ex say?”
My head turned so quickly I got whiplash. “What?”
“When you told her about me. How did she react?”
There came that familiar pain in my chest. It was no longer as sharp, yet it still remained. “She got upset, but she wanted to work through it. I couldn’t see how we could, you know?”
“Trust is important,” she said simply.
“Yeah.” My guilt over what happened between us reared up again. Clearing my throat, I said, “By the way, I’m sorry for taking it too far that night.”
Her brows knitted together. “What do you mean?”
“When we kissed. I practically mauled you against that wall. I’ve never acted that way before, and I’m sorry I did.”
For a long moment, there was only silence. And then she said, “ Wait . Is that why you called it a mistake?”
“Yeah. Why else?”
“I thought it was because I wasn’t your type and you regretted kissing me. That’s why I got pissed.”
I frowned. “I thought you reacted that way because I took advantage of you.”
“Nope. I kissed you, remember? And I liked it.”
My mouth hung open at her admission. I’d gotten the entire thing wrong.
She’d liked the kiss—the same one that played back in my head every once in a while.
Trying not to dwell on that, I asked, “Does that mean we can be friends now?”
“You’re the only person I know here so…”
“Thank you for the ride, Alonzo,” I said, pitching my voice higher. “It was so thoughtful of you.”
“Do you need me to be quiet so you can praise yourself some more?”
“But then you’d deprive me of your verbal ass-kicking.”
Her resulting snort had me grinning. “You volunteered for this,” she reminded me.
“Apparently, I like some pain in the morning.”
She shook her head and turned to the window, but not before I caught her smiling.
I didn’t know why, but that felt like a win—and her admission did too.