Chapter 16
THEO
It wasn’t my intention to avoid Sienna all day, but the thought of her getting a job by other means left me more irritated than I’d like to admit. She doesn’t seem like the type of woman who would go back on a deal she made. Then again, we don’t know each other that well.
I was looking forward to getting to know her better over the course of this trip more than I care to admit. If she got a job offer only two days into this vacation, she’d have every excuse to leave.
If she left now, not only would it ruin my chances of Roman hiring me but I’d also have no excuse to see her again. For some reason, not seeing Sienna again scares me more than losing out on a job.
Pushing those feelings aside, I decide it’s an issue to be dealt with later and stare at the pile of shirts in front of me.
The shirt she designed is pretty bad, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit it to her face.
The pout that overtook her when she unraveled her shirt was so cute, I had to repress a smile at her failure.
That’s when I first noticed the carnal piece of me that would do anything to see her smile, even if it meant relinquishing my chances at beating my brothers in the games this year.
There was nothing in her rules about not making her smile.
I see no harm in indulging in that impulse.
As long as I don’t indulge in my urge to kiss her every time her eyes dart toward my lips.
I may have a history of partying, but I've never crossed the line of violating a woman’s boundaries. I don’t plan on starting now.
“I give it until day five.” I jump at the sound of Alex’s voice beside me. I had forgotten he stood next to me as I stared at the pile of shirts on the table.
“Day five until what?” I turn to him, taking the shirts from the table and putting them into a basket for the wash. I move away from him toward Roman’s table, not sure if I want to hear his answer.
“Until you two are dating for real.” Startled, I knock over a few bottles of dye at his statement. They roll off the table and tumble to the ground.
“Wha- What are you talking about?” I busy myself by picking up the bottles from the ground, not looking at him out of fear of giving anything away.
We’ve been here two days, and my brothers are already suspicious of us.
If Alex thinks we’re lying, then Roman probably does too.
If Roman thinks we’re lying, there’s no way either one of us will end up with a job by the end of this trip.
That is, if Sienna doesn’t get this other job offer first.
Alex chuckles. “Theo, come on, man, you two aren’t fooling any of us. What I don’t understand is why you told Roman you had a girlfriend in the first place.” He gathers a few of the supplies from the tables, putting them in the bin we dragged out from the storage closet.
“Is it really that obvious?”
He answers my question with one look thrown my way. Sienna and I are screwed.
Having put all the supplies into the bin, I hear four distinctive clicks as Alex secures the lid. With only the tables left to fold up, we’ve cleaned up in half the time it would’ve taken me by myself, so I’m thankful for my brother’s help.
“Look, it’s obvious you two are faking to me because I don’t buy for a second that you’d settle down so easily.”
“Hey now.” I point my finger at him as a warning. He laughs as we place one of the tables on its side and begin folding in the legs.
“Oh relax, I’m not calling you a slut. I’m just…Well, yeah, actually, you are a little bit of a man-whore.” He says it as we fold the table in half. Now in closer proximity, I punch him in the shoulder at his insult, though it’s not completely inaccurate.
Alex rubs his shoulder, feigning injury for my entertainment. I know for a fact it didn’t hurt him because if any one of us knows how to fight and take a punch, it’s him.
“I’m just saying, I know the two of you aren’t dating, because I know you. But I think we can still convince Roman and Leo that the two of you are together.”
After folding up the last of the three tables, we begin moving them toward the small storage room attached to the side of the house. The silence stretches between us as we finish cleaning. My brain is stuck on whether I should admit to Sienna’s and my scheme.
“What gave us away?” I ask Alex, finally deciding there’s no fooling him.
When we place the last table in the storage room, Alex is sure to lock the door before shutting it.
We’re miles away from any other houses or public roads.
Locking the doors always seemed pointless to me, but Alex says we can never be too careful.
“The two of you don’t even look comfortable around one another, let alone the hesitation in the story of how you two met that you told at dinner last night.
” I wince at his words. Of all the things Sienna and I discussed on our drive here, the fake details of how we met one another really should’ve been one of them.
“We need jobs,” I tell him, “Sienna and I. You know Roman’s been an asshole about me working at Dad’s company, and Sienna's been struggling to find a job in architecture. I thought we could help each other out.”
“So you thought a fake-dating scheme was the way to do that?” He looks at me, confused.
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, it was my best idea at the time, alright? Roman put me on the spot, and I figured that if I could show him I’m responsible enough, he’d offer me a job. We were hoping Roman would use his connections to help Sienna schedule some interviews.”
Alex chuckles, shaking his head. “There are better ways you could’ve gone about this. You’re in deep shit now, considering you asked a woman like her to help you with your plan.”
“What do you mean?”
He levels me with a look. “You should’ve picked someone who was less your type. This is going to get messy and fast.” He turns, rounding the corner toward the steps of the back deck to join the others inside.
Catching up to him, I speak in hushed tones, worried the others might hear us.
“It’s not like that. We didn’t even know each other before this, and now we’re just friends. C’mon, man, just help us out with Roman.”
“Alright. But I’m giving it a week until the two of you start dating for real.” He opens the back door, and with others in earshot, the conversation is over.
Pushing him through the doorway, I laugh off his comment.
Whatever he sees, he’s seeing it incorrectly.
Sienna and I might have a mutual attraction, but that’s it.
She and I are just two friends helping each other out.
Besides, if she wanted something more with me, she wouldn’t have applied for another job right under my nose.
She’d be looking for an excuse to stay here.
Then again, if she had any interest in me, she wouldn’t have set so many rules.
Rules I promised her I wouldn’t break, no matter how badly I might want to.