Chapter 17 Kaia
Kaia
I’m busy tonight.
I glance at my cellphone again, wondering what that text from Calum means. What is he doing?
Shopping for yachts? Visiting his tailor to buy another dozen custom made suits? Eating sushi with models? The last idea tugs the corners of my mouth downward.
“Hey!” Ella says, reaching out and jerking me to the right.
I look up and realize that I almost walked into a huge potted plant placed in the middle of the walkway down to the bowling alley. Screwing my face up, I sigh and put my phone in the back pocket of my jeans. “Thanks.”
Ella shakes her head at me, running a hand over her short baby blue dress. “You have been glued to your phone ever since I picked you up. What’s so important?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Nothing.”
She holds my arm as she tows me inside the bowling alley.
Just beyond the doors there is the desk with an irritated person mousing through a computer.
Just beyond that is a towering stack of cubbies, each jammed full of shoes.
Even if I was blind, I could tell where we are; the pungent smell of disinfectant rises to my nose and the immediate blast of air conditioning on my skin see to that.
The clerk looks up at us, squinting a little. “You wanna bowl or what?”
Ella steps forward, pursing her lips. “Yeah. We are joining someone…”
Looking out across the brightly colored lanes, I spot Eric. I nudge Ella and she clears her throat. “Lane four. We need…” She looks at me, lifting her brows. “What, an hour?”
The guy sighs. “Two people, two pairs of shoes, one hour. That’s fifteen bucks.”
Before Ella can get her wallet out of her purse, I fish a twenty dollar bill out of my pocket. “Here.”
The clerk doesn’t even look at me. He just hands me change and hurries to get us each a pair of shoes. Then we walk over to where Eric is lounging, his feet up on the small screen where you input names.
“Hey,” Ella says.
He salutes both of us lazily. “You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”
“Sorry,” I instantly apologize. “Ella was on time. I was running behind as usual.”
He smirks a little at me, his gaze traveling down my body. “It’s nice to see that you have a t-shirt and jeans. I was starting to think that all you owned were leotards and leg warmers.”
I flush at his teasing. Ella plops herself down in a nearby seat, changing her shoes. I do the same, my eyes traveling up to where Eric has already filled in nicknames for each of us.
“I know I’m Kaia Papaya,” I say, putting my other shoes under a seat. “But who are the other two names?”
He stands up, stretching. “I’m E-Male. Get it, cause I’m the only guy?”
“Does that make me Old Yella?” Ella asks. “I do not get your sense of humor, my dude.”
Eric rolls his eyes. “Can we just bowl?”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Let me pick out a ball really quickly.”
His lips twitch. “I already put a couple of twelve pound balls in the ball return thing.”
I arch my eyebrows. “For me?”
He squints at me. “For both of you. The last time we did this, you both used twelve pound balls. Since I had nothing but time while I was waiting on you, I went ahead and grabbed four balls that size. Plus a sixteen pounder for myself.”
I blink. “Oh. Well… thanks. That was really nice of you.”
Ella points up at the scoreboard. “According to that, you’re up first, Eric.”
He stands up, brushing imaginary dust off of his dark t-shirt. “Watch and learn, ladies.”
I smile, rolling my eyes. Ella wrinkles her nose.
“In your dreams, white boy,” she calls after him. “I’m going to whoop you.”
As I watch him select his ball, I reach into my back pocket for my phone. I check the screen but there are no notifications.
Heaving a silent sigh, I return the phone to my jeans. Ella arches a questioning eyebrow at me. “Who is keeping you from being present right now?”
I flush. “No one. I’m just… checking my Insta.”
The lie sounds phony coming out of my mouth. “You are a terrible liar.” Crossing her arms, she turns to watch Eric bowl.
I bite my lip and do the same. Eric knocks some pins down, trotting back towards us.
“Just getting warmed up,” he says, bridging his hands and turning them inside out. “I’m telling you guys, I’m a great bowler.”
I giggle. “We have bowled with you before. There is no reason to lie.”
“Yeah, E-Male,” Ella says, laughing.
Eric’s face flushes. “You can both go to hell.”
“Hmm.” Ella shakes her head and looks at the scoreboard. “Hey, I’m going to grab one of every kind of junk food from the commissary. Any special requests?”
I turn and look at the restaurant, if you can call a popcorn machine and one of those hot dog rollers that. Wrinkling my nose, I pull out some cash. “Get me whatever is the best bang for my buck.”
She eyes me. “Look at you, Miss Got Money To Burn All The Sudden. Keep your dough. This is my treat. Just be prepared to eat your own weight in salty, sticky, sweet goodness.”
She wiggles her eyebrows and dashes off toward the food counter. Her dress barely covers her ass as she goes but I figure she already knows all about that.
“Your turn,” Eric says quietly. He’s close behind me and that gives me a start.
I whirl around, my eyes wide. “What?”
He points up at the scoreboard, where Kaia Papaya is flashing insistently. “It’s your turn to bowl.”
I give him a wobbly smile. “Right. Duh.”
I walk past him. He leans into my path, bumping my shoulder with his. I scrunch my nose up and shoot him a joking glare.
“Watch it!” I protest.
He smirks at me as he sits down. In his blue jeans and snug t-shirt, with his light blue eyes and sandy blond hair, he looks like the all-American boy. The football player who you hope will ask you to homecoming.
I flush as I grab the closest ball from the ball return. In any other scenario, I would be over the moon that someone as handsome as Eric was flirting with me.
In fact, deep down, I have butterflies rumbling around in my stomach.
But as I walk toward the bowling lane, I can’t be truly happy about it. Because there is one tall, dark, and irresistibly smug problem.
Calum. Add the money he pays me and the fact that I’ve fooled around with him more than anybody else…
And yeah. Eric is dreamy. But Calum is…
Well, he’s a man. With dark three piece suits, a tumbler of whiskey, and stunning ocean blue eyes, I might add.
So what if we don’t really have anything more than a transactional relationship? Maybe it’s better that way.
We have rules. We have boundaries.
No one will get hurt.
“Can you throw the ball already?” Eric asks.
“Don’t rush me!” I say.
I wind up and toss the ball, biting my lip. As it sails neatly down the middle of the lane, I shrug. The ball strikes the pins; all the pins go down, just as I intended.
“Yes!” I cheer. I turn around, doing a little victory dance. Striding back from the lane, I grin at Eric. “That was a strike, in case you missed it.”
Eric rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I just have to get loose and then we’ll see who’s good at this game.”
Just in time for her turn, Ella comes walking down from the restaurant, her arms loaded with all kinds of food. “A little help?”
I trot over to the closest table, helping relieve her burden. She wasn’t wrong about getting one of everything. She sets down chicken fingers, curly fries, two orders of cheese sticks, and several long, sweet smelling churros. She also plunks down a pitcher of soda and cups.
“One more thing…” she says. Then she reaches in her little purse and tosses a pack of Sour Patch Kids on the table.
I look at all the food, my eyes widening. “This is a lot. Do you know how many calories are on this table right now?”
Ella narrows her eyes at me. “I got you diet soda, okay? So let’s all just enjoy the bounty.”
I smile at her. “Thanks.”
“Holy shit,” Eric says, coming up to the table. “I volunteer to be your personal Hoover, vacuuming up anything that’s leftover.”
She grins. “Help yourself. I’m going to go bowl this frame right quick.”
Eric rubs his hands together, snagging a seat. I sit down opposite him, pouring out the diet soda first. He chooses to bite in a churro first, moaning.
“Oh man,” he whispers, almost reverent. “It’s been a while since I had something that was deep fried.”
I smirk, opening my pack of candy. “Yeah?”
Ella returns after a minute, grabbing a cheese stick and enthusiastically dipping it in a little plastic ramekin of marinara. “God, I might have fantasized about this a little bit on the way over here.” She takes a bite and then groans. “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. I’m not even lying.”
Shaking my head, I grab a curly fry and bite into it. It’s a little overcooked but still hot.
“Okay, these fries are amazing and someone will have to take them away from me at some point.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I chew my fry and try to sneak it out of my pocket, checking the screen under the table. Of course it’s nothing, just a stupid email notification. Ella leans over to see and then rolls her eyes.
“Seriously?”
My cheeks turn bright pink. “What? My phone buzzed!”
She shakes her head, turning to Eric. “She has checked her phone no less than twenty times in the last hour. That tells me that she’s waiting to hear from some hot ass booty call—“
“Ella!” I cry, embarrassed. “I’m telling you, I’m just… like, a phone addict or whatever.”
Eric looks at me, his expression cautious. “Who are you expecting to hear from? We are your only friends… and we are here.”
I point at them both. “That’s not true. I have other, non-ballet friends.”
Ella laughs. “You do not. It’s okay, I don’t have friends outside of ballet either. I mean, there are my cousins. I hang out with them a lot when I’m at home, but that’s just because my family has the nicest house.”
She rolls her eyes.
Eric nods at my phone. “Who are you waiting to hear from, Kaia?”
I will do just about anything to avoid that question. So I smile, turning to Ella.
“Hey, remember last year when Eric was dancing, doing all the Russian jumps, and his pants pretty much exploded?”
He glares at me, swiping a chicken finger. “I’m sure everyone has moved on from that.”
Ella snorts. “Uh, noooo. We didn’t forget. That was the day that I found out that you wear a dainty pink dance belt under your leggings.”
He rocks his head back. “I washed the damn belt with a red shirt. It turned pink in the wash. I thought I already explained that!”
Before the argument can continue, my phone starts buzzing in my hand. Alarmed, I look down at the screen.
Calum.
My heart starts to beat wildly. My stomach fills with acid.
“Umm, I should go take this,” I mumble, sliding to my feet.
“I told you there was a boy,” Ella said. “Didn’t I tell you?”
Hurrying away from the table, I put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
There is no greeting, no warm tone. Just his gruff rumble. “I need you dressed in cocktail attire and ready to meet me at Peychaud’s in an hour.”
“Uhhh…” I glance back at my friends. “I’m really in the middle of something. Besides, I’m not dressed right…”
“I’m texting you the address now,” he says. “Don’t make me wait.”
Then he hangs up, leaving me staring at my home screen. I blink several time, then turn toward my friends, trying to decide just what I’m about to tell them to escape.