9 #3
I started gathering my things and putting them in my backpack.
Meanwhile, Aleixandre pulled out his cell phone, which sounded with a notification.
I didn’t see what it was, but his reaction to the message caught my attention.
There was a subtle shift between the moment he unlocked his phone and the minute he looked at whatever he’d just received.
He froze for a minute, then brushed back his hair even though it was already perfectly combed.
Hmm . . . A nervous twitch. What was the message? Coming up with the craziest possibilities, I suddenly had an idea. It came on so suddenly that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.
Of course!
Aleixandre. The youngest brother. The one who, according to Kiana, was more outgoing.
The one who flitted from one party to the next and only seemed to care about having a good time.
The one with the broad, playful smile who seemed up for chatting, chilling, and laughing no matter the situation.
Everything about him conveyed a clear message: I know how to have a good time.
This was the type of guy you could actually have a conversation with and, more importantly, could get information out of—unlike Aegan.
“I guess I didn’t make the newspaper team in the end, did I?” I said suddenly.
Aleixandre didn’t look up from his cell phone and started writing something.
“Those selected were posted on the newspaper socials,” he answered me, sounding rather indifferent. “Didn’t you see it?”
Yeah.
But I lied: “No.”
“Well, you weren’t selected this time,” he said in a subdued tone, trying to let me down gently. “You might be able to get in next term, so you can try again then.”
I appreciated that he wasn’t cruel about it. And it made me realize that despite how hard he tried to be like Aegan, his words had given me a peek into his own personality, hidden behind his brothers’ features.
“I thought so,” I said in a distraught tone. Aegan didn’t want me on the newspaper, that much was obvious on the day of the tryout, and I knew he made all the decisions.
“Aegan’s the best at making decisions, which is why we trust him,” he assured.
He sounded chill, but he’d basically just confirmed that Aegan was calling all the shots.
“What I like about Aegan is how mature he is,” I pretended to agree. “What I don’t like is . . .” I deliberately stopped myself.
“What?” he wanted to know, still looking at his phone.
“It’s nothing, really,” I said, trying to play it down.
He shrugged. “I’m in no rush.”
“He doesn’t want to spend time with me,” I said, acting upset. “And we’re supposed to be going out, right?”
“That’s what it looks like.” Aleixandre nodded.
Although he wasn’t looking at me, I tried to look doubtful, trying to make the character I was playing seem more passionate.
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to think that . . .”
After that, Aleixandre looked up from his phone. He saw the girl I was pretending to be, anxious and worried about her relationship.
“What?” he urged me to tell him.
All right, my time had come. If my hunch was right, what I was going to say should alarm Aleixandre. If their reputations mattered to him, he’d act to stop rumors going around.
“He’s not like they say, you know. He’s sincere, gentlemanly . . .” I was going a little overboard. “But he’s always at the club, and I don’t know what he’s doing there or who he’s with, or if he’s just trying to avoid me. Is that what he’s doing?”
Aleixandre barely gave it a second thought.
“No, I think you’re making a big deal out of nothing,” he replied bluntly. “Don’t worry about him being in the club.”
That sentence left me with some doubts. It sounded ambiguous. I’d have to try something else.
“Well, maybe that’s just his personality,” I agreed, trying to sound thoughtful. Then I pretended I’d thought of a new idea. “Maybe I should ask one of his ex-girlfriends if he avoided going to certain places with her too. I think Artie knows who his ex is . . .”
Aleixandre cut me off as if to say, Wait, wait, not so fast. He even let out a somewhat forced laugh.
“Look, if you think he’s cheating on you, you’re wrong,” he tried to convince me. “That’s not our style.”
Wasn’t it? What about the girl at the hotel that Aegan was spotted with while he was dating Eli? And the girl Aleixandre himself was waiting for right now when he was supposed to have a girlfriend? Oh, Aleixandre, you must’ve been a great bullshitter even as a kid.
“But the club . . .” I said hesitantly, before he answered me with narrowed eyes.
“I didn’t think you were the ‘I need to see it to believe it’ type.”
I gave him one of those indecipherable smiles. Heh.
“Oh, I am, Aleix, I am,” I admitted.
He looked at me, a hint of bewilderment in his eyes. It felt like he was lost in his own thoughts. A few seconds later he looked down and swallowed.
“Aleix . . .” he said in a lower, more distant tone that awakened my curiosity. “I haven’t been called that for a long time.”
I was about to ask him who’d called him that, but the strange reaction vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by his usual flirtatious smile.
“I can take you to the club,” he told me.
I was lost for words.
“Really?” I said, surprised.
“Yeah, so you can see for yourself that there’s nothing to worry about.” He nodded simply. “You can get all that stuff out of your mind.”
“Wow, Aleix, thank you, truly.”
“But . . .” he said, as if he’d just remembered. “You’ll owe me a favor, okay?”
I raised an eyebrow, completely unfazed. “Ah, so you’re not that selfless . . .”
Aleixandre gave me a What can I say? shrug.
“No action is completely selfless, even if it looks that way,” he said cleverly. “What do you say then?”
“What kind of favor?” I wanted to know first.
His mysterious tight-lipped smile made me suspect an ulterior motive.
“Nothing I shouldn’t ask my brother’s girl to do,” he said, as if that should reassure me it was nothing sketchy.
It probably was though. Agreeing to this was probably risky, but I had to get into that club. I would deal with Aleixandre later.
“Okay, it’s a deal.”
He nodded. “Tomorrow. At two o’clock. I’ll come pick you up.”
After sealing the deal, I put on my backpack and headed toward the exit, leaving him to do whatever he had to do with his mystery girl.
Just before leaving he said, “By the way, don’t tell anybody about the favor thing.”
Why? Did he not want Aegan to know? Maybe Aleix was the stupid Cash brother. Maybe I’d find that out when he told me what favor I owed him.
“Okay, thanks again,” I said.
He gestured as if to say it was no big deal before throwing me a smile that hinted at something more. “I like you, Jude.” And then he added, “Quite a lot.”
After that, I left.
Take a note: never owe a Cash brother a favor.