Maid To Be

t h i r t e e n

Go getcha bitch right

She all on my dick like

I am the one that gotchu in love

'Cause I never miss, right ?

**

The next morning, I was pulled awake by Julianna's loud voice slicing through the air above me.

"Rise and shine, princess!"

A groan traveled up my throat at her cheeriness, and I didn't hesitate to nuzzle my face deeper into my pillow.

Hold up.

I cracked my eyes open to see that the pillow lying beneath my head was, in fact, real and that the space beside me was now empty.

"Wait, where's . . ." I trailed off, not wanting to clue her in on what happened last night.

"Where's who, sweetie?" Julianna asked while glancing down at me in concern.

I slowly propped myself up on my elbows and did a quick lap around the room with my eyes.

Kassandra was nowhere to be found, while Justin's spot was identical to his brother's:

Empty.

"Everyone else," I went on to say, choosing my words carefully.

Julianna folded her arms across her chest, and I could tell that she was fighting back the urge to roll her eyes. "Well, underneath that mountain of blankets lies my niece and her two idiot brothers left out of here twenty minutes ago to grab something from the office."

A ghost of a frown dotted my face at her words.

"But it's eight o'clock in the morning," I said after catching sight of the time on the lock screen of my phone.

Julianna bent down to pick up the bag of chips that Justin had retrieved from the kitchen in between movies last night. "That's what I said, but apparently, it couldn't wait until Monday."

"Would you all please tone it down? I'm trying to sleep over here."

Our attention briefly shifted over to the pile of blankets that Kassandra was buried under as her muffled request suddenly cut into our conversation.

Julianna ultimately succumbed to the urge as she rolled her eyes at Kass's plea. She then trekked over to where she was lounging and snatched the covers off her body.

"Get up so you can help me figure out what to make," she ordered in her infamous I'm-not-playing-around-with-you tone.

Kass grunted, flinging her arm over her face. "You've got this. I believe in you."

Julianna pulled away from her with a hint of a smirk playing at her lips.

"I guess you don't want the beignets that I just made then," she sighed dramatically.

In a matter of seconds, Kassandra was up on her feet, eyes wide with regret.

"What about cajun shrimp?" she suggested quickly. "Or ratatouille?"

Julianna pursed her lips before she motioned for Kass to follow her to the kitchen. I, too, stood up, so that I could straighten up the family room before the guests arrived.

It took me less than five minutes to get everything back in order since the blankets were the only thing that needed to be put away, along with the empty bottles of water that Kyle and Justin left behind on the couch last night.

I was in the middle of sprucing up the throw pillows when my eyes suddenly came to rest on the stark white pillow that sat, taunting me on the other end of the sofa.

Part of me wants to believe that the tail end of what I remember from last night was a dream and that Kyle didn't actually murmur some French saying in my ear. But another part of me begs to differ.

I threw my head back and let out an exasperated groan before I grabbed the pillow from the edge of the couch and booked it upstairs to my room.

According to Kass, lunch starts at twelve, which means that everything needs to be ready before then.

I would say that this allows us more than enough time to get the food together, but given that Julianna hasn't even decided what she wants to cook yet, I can already tell that we're going to need to make strategic use of the four hours that we have left.

I chucked the pillow onto my bed as soon as I entered my room before I headed over to my closet to grab my uniform. After stripping out of my pajamas and lotioning the span of my body, I slipped the form-fitting material over my head.

"Lilac?" The sound of Kassandra yelling my name led me to poke my head out from inside my closet.

"In here!" I shouted hoarsely.

A few seconds later, Kass appeared in the mirror behind me with a plate of beignets clutched tightly in her hands. She had tied her hair up into a ponytail so that it was no longer clouding around her face, and even at eight-fifteen in the morning, she looked drop-dead gorgeous.

"Auntie J wanted to make sure you got something to eat before we got started on the—" She paused unexpectedly, causing me to turn and look at her.

"Umm, what the hell are you wearing?"

I glanced down at myself. "My uniform?"

Kass promptly placed the plate of beignets down on the empty shelf beside her before she began to sift through the clothes that I had hanging up on my racks.

"I guess my question should've been, why are you wearing that," she said, correcting her mistake. "And would you please remind me to pimp-slap Kyle for allowing that hideous ensemble to see the light of day?"

"I've seriously got to start making designs for him," she added, muttering this bit to herself.

"Sure," I retorted while walking over to grab a beignet.

There's nothing that I'd love to see more than Kyle getting clocked in the face by his sister.

Kassandra seemed satisfied enough with my answer as she began pulling out random articles of clothing. Before long, my floor was covered with clothes that she deemed to be 'unacceptable for the occasion.'

"You've got to look the part to play the part," she explained after I asked her why this was such a big deal. "Otherwise you'll get eaten alive."

To me, her advice seemed to be a bit dramatic since this was merely a small get-together between a few family members and friends.

I decided to blame her over-the-top behavior on her exceptionally successful modeling career.

You will never catch Kassandra Rodriguez looking crazy.

Ever.

"I've got it!" Kass finally exclaimed after another ten or so minutes had passed.

I glanced up from the beignet in my hand to see her holding a pair of pastel yellow shorts and a matching buttonless blazer.

She quickly rummaged through my underwear drawer before she picked out a plain white tank top and held it up underneath the blazer so that I could see the outfit in its entirety.

"Kass, I'm not too sure about this—"

"Go try it on." She didn't even bother to let me finish as she thrust the clothes in my direction.

In my two days of knowing her, I've quickly come to realize that Kassandra doesn't take well to the word 'no.

' It is for this very reason that I took the clothes from her without putting up a fight.

After swapping out my uniform for the outfit that she selected, I hesitantly stepped out of the bathroom and re-entered the closet.

"You don't think that this is a little too much?" I asked while yanking my tank top up so that I wasn't flashing her my boobs.

Kass tilted her head at my question. "Darling, does such a thing even exist?"

I pursed my lips as she shifted forward to place a pair of white cat-eye sunglasses on top of my head.

She then took a step back to admire her work.

"Perfect," she grinned while clapping her hands together excitedly. "Now, why don't you find a pair of sandals to wear while I go start the curling iron, mkay?"

She hightailed it out of my room before I could respond.

Typical.

Since I did a watered-down version of my morning routine after changing in the bathroom, the only thing left for me to do was throw on some shoes and fix my hair. Deciding to stay on theme with the color palette, I slipped on a pair of white lace-up sandals.

It was almost eight fifty-five when Kass finally shouted for me to come on so that she could do my hair.

I followed the sound of her voice since I didn't know which room she had claimed, and I eventually came to find out that she was staying in one of the guest rooms down the hall.

"Welcome to 'Salon Rodriguez!'" she enthused once I crossed over the threshold of the door. "Please have a seat in my chair."

A grin slipped onto my face as I sat down on the plush chair that went along with the all-white vanity.

The minute my ass hit the cushion, Kass instantly got to work sectioning off my hair.

She ran a comb across the middle of my scalp before she repeated the action several times over, working her way down the back of my head as she separated each row into smaller, more manageable sections.

"Did Julianna decide what she wants to make yet?" I asked after she sprayed some heat protectant onto the section near the nape of my neck.

Kass picked up the curling wand and waved it around while she spoke. "No, but she said that the next time she sees us, we better have come up with something, or else there will be hell to pay."

I stifled a laugh at this. "You just focus on making me look pretty. I'll think of something and say that we came up with it together."

Kass winked at me in the mirror before she spent the next fifteen minutes telling me some of her high school horror stories. When she was finally finished with my hair, she sprayed a cough-inducing amount of hairspray on it to make sure that the curls stayed locked in place all day.

"Now, all you need is a shit ton of lip gloss and some jewelry, and you're good to go."

I admired my hair in the mirror, turning my head from side to side while she went to grab the items that she just listed off to me.

She returned a few moments later with a tube of lip gloss and a jewelry box in her hand.

She passed me the tube of MAC lip gloss before she began to scour through her jewelry box for a layered necklace and a dangly set of earrings. I squeezed a thick blob of the crystal clear gloss onto my finger and swiped it across my upper and lower lip before smoothing it all together.

"Here." She passed me a three-layer gold necklace and a pair of dangly earrings that formed the shape of a circle.

We exchanged items, and while I got to work putting my earrings in, Kass became immersed in swiping the MAC gloss across her lips an infinite number of times. She eventually smacked her lips together a few moments later, having reached her limit.

"You look fabulous, babe," she commented after I fastened the necklace around my neck.

I stood up so that she could sit down and curl her own hair.

"If I'm fabulous, then what the hell does that make you?" I gushed while gesturing towards her outfit.

She had thrown on a dusty pink dress, pairing it with a matching kimono and a pair of faux fur heels.

"Mediocre," she stated simply.

"And my name is Beyoncé Knowles," I retorted, rolling my eyes at her. "Kass, you're literally stunning."

She let out a scoff, holding the curling iron steady against her hair. "Do you not see this giant-ass pimple that's living its best life on the side of my face?"

I stooped down so I could get a better look at her cheek. "That's a baby compared to the acne that shows up on my skin."

Kass waved me off as she wrapped up the finishing touches on her hair.

After reaching down to unplug the iron, she wandered over to her closet to grab some sunglasses.

A second later, she spoke up from behind me.

"Want some?"

I twisted my head around to see a bottle of CHANEL perfume dangling from her fingertips. She sprayed a few spritzes onto her wrists and collarbone before handing the bottle off to me.

I duplicated her actions, and after a total of one hour and five minutes, we were finally ready.

"Come take a snap with me," she insisted while turning to face the window.

The bedroom that we were in had fantastic lighting and Kassandra being Kassandra wanted to take advantage of this. I watched as she held her phone up to her face and pressed the screen with her index finger so that the filter menu popped up.

I came to stand beside her while reaching up to adjust the sunglasses that I had re-perched on top of my head.

"All of these filters suck," she complained before she finally settled on the filter that placed a tropical white flower behind your ear.

She then pressed the circular button at the bottom of the screen and held onto it with her thumb as she turned the camera to get us both in the frame.

Kass pursed her lips together, shooting the camera an effortlessly seductive pout while I laid my head down on her shoulder and smiled innocently into the lens.

"My brother hasn't told anybody about you yet, has he?" she asked after we finished taking our video.

I shook my head. "No, nobody knows that I work for him except for my family and Veronica."

A cunning smirk took form on her face, and I watched as she tapped the 'draw' button before she wrote the words 'Meet Lilac' across the screen in perfect cursive.

"It's a good thing that I don't use social media," I said after she sent the post to her story.

"Neither do I, unless it's for promotional purposes," she admitted before tugging me in the direction of the door. "Now, let's go before Auntie J curses us out for taking so long."

??————-　?　————-??

two and a half hours later

My heart pounded in my chest as the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of our very first guest.

Kassandra volunteered to get it since Julianna and I were in the middle of fixing dessert. We were making mini cherry clafoutis to go along with Julianna's brunch-themed meal, and the timer on the oven indicated that they had around five minutes left to go.

"Kass!" Damien's obnoxiously loud greeting could be heard from our spot in the kitchen.

The two exchanged pleasantries on their journey down the hall before they soon found themselves standing underneath the archway that leads into the kitchen.

I twirled around on my heel to wish Damien a good afternoon, only to choke on the words after he swooped me up into a hug.

"Buttercup!" he exclaimed, squeezing me tightly. "I missed you!"

My would-be reply came out in the form of a wheeze, prompting Damien to release me from his hold.

"What was that?"

I placed a hand on my hip, taking in a deep, lung-filling breath. "I said," I huffed after the air returned to my lungs, "you just saw me two days ago."

"A lot can happen in two days, sugarplum," he informed me. "You of all people should know that."

We girls rolled our eyes at his dramatics before Julianna began to reprimand him for not greeting her with the same enthusiasm he'd shown me.

While the two of them caught up, I went outside to double-check the table. Per my suggestion, Julianna elected to switch things up this month. Instead of serving her traditional French cuisine, she decided to serve a variety of brunch foods.

Kass was in charge of decorations since she's not much of a cook, and she wasn't afraid to go all out when it came to decorating the patio. Fairy lights illuminated the railings and the ceiling, and she even used a few strands of her satin ribbon to tie back the canopy curtains.

A rustic metal vase filled with precious white flowers had been placed at the center of the table, followed by ten conventional wine glasses that she had filled to the brim with Julianna's fruit parfait.

The only thing left to do was bring out the food and put the pitchers of juice, water, and coffee on the table.

"Lilac, honey, can you get the door?" Julianna's voice drifted through the open patio door, pulling me away from my examination.

I entered the kitchen to find her frosting a batch of cinnamon rolls with Damien.

Kass wasn't in the room with them, and I figured that she had gone off to get some more decorations.

The boys hadn't made it back yet either, so until they re-appeared, I had to play hostess.

Again.

I opened the door to find a ridiculously beautiful brunette standing in front of me with a sultry grin. A beige Ferragamo handbag was dangling from the inner crease of her arm as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

Her movements came to a halt the minute we locked eyes.

"Who are you?" she practically spat at me.

The sun's glare suddenly reflected off the gold brand plate on her purse, and the light that it cast blinded me where I stood.

"I'm Mr. Rodriguez's new maid, Lilac," I told her, my eyes narrowed from squinting.

Her gaze hardened at my words.

"Good for you," she sneered, sizing me up and down with her eyes.

The brown-haired bitch then pushed her way past me before she sauntered off down the hall, giggling to herself as if I was the funniest thing she's seen all day.

I stood, frozen in place by the door, my fingers wrapped tightly around the handle. After taking a few deep breaths to try and calm myself down, I moved forward to close it shut.

"Wait!" a voice shouted from the pathway leading up to the porch.

My actions immediately came to a halt, and I waited patiently for the person to catch up. When they finally made it to the door, I nearly passed out from excitement.

"Thanks," the light of my life breathed as he brushed past me while stepping into the house.

My hands trembled at the thought of him being less than two feet away from me.

"You're Logan Williams!" I whisper-shouted.

Logan flashed me a grin that pushed me to dig my fingernails into the skin of my palm.

I refuse to be that one annoying fan who screams their head off like a manic and loses all sense of decency the second they meet their favorite celebrity.

But if he smiles like that again, there's no telling what I'll do.

"And you're Lilac Reynolds," he grinned, scanning the likes of my face with his electric blue eyes.

I forced myself to swallow down a scream. "You know who I am?"

His response left me feeling somewhat indifferent.

"Of course I do. Kyle's told me so much about you."

"All good things, I hope," I quipped, shooting him a weak smile. "How do you two know each other?"

Logan shoved his hands in his pockets. "We've been best friends since high school, although I'm beginning to question his commitment to this relationship, seeing as he hasn't even told you that we know each other."

My eyes grew wide at this piece of information. I've never once seen the two of them pictured together at any event, ball, or gala, and they've both been to a lot of them.

And then there's the fact that Kyle has never once mentioned him to me. Even after I announced that Logan was my favorite chef neither he, nor his siblings, said anything.

Almost as if he could see the wheels turning in my brain, Logan quickly threw in, "Kyle's a camera hog. He loves to take pictures by himself, and I'm pretty sure it runs in the family too because Kass and Jacques are real particular about it as well."

The sound of someone's heels clicking against the floor drew my attention back to the brunette from earlier.

"Was that your girlfriend?" I asked randomly. "The brunette?"

A look of disgust spread across Logan's face, which confirmed my initial suspicions.

"You mean Rebecca?" The expression on his face made it seem as though uttering her name was enough to make him sick. "I'd rather throw back a bottle of bleach than go out with her. She's Kyle's side piece, or whatever the fuck he's dubbing her as this week."

The laugh that spilled out of my mouth was inappropriately loud.

Something told me that Logan and I were going to be great friends.

"Come on," he said, pulling me away from my overactive imagination. "Let's go join the others."

He offered his arm out for me to take, and together we walked into the kitchen, only to find that it was now empty.

Everyone was already sitting out on the patio.

Logan slid open the sliding glass door, and the action caused everyone's attention to shift over to us.

"There he is!" Julianna exclaimed at the same time that Kass said, "Meet your surprise, Lilac!"

I opened my mouth to scold her for not telling me that he was coming, but the feel of a certain someone burning holes into the side of my face with their stare caused me to seal my lips shut.

When did they even get back?

Julianna gestured for us to sit down, and I muttered a polite, 'thank you,' after Logan went out of his way to pull out my chair for me. He took a seat beside me, leaving the two chairs on each end of the table for Kyle's parents.

Damien, Rebecca, Kyle, and Justin were seated across from us, and I was quick to narrow my eyes at Justin after he started making kissy faces in mine and Logan's direction. Logan was too busy talking to Kass to notice what he was doing, and I thanked the Lord for his temporary distraction.

Although Justin's actions went unnoticed by Logan, they damn sure didn't go unnoticed by Kyle.

"Would you stop that?" I hissed after Justin's mwah's started to become a bit too loud.

He covered his mouth with his hand, snickering evilly to himself.

Before I could say anything else, Julianna called for everyone's attention, and the sternness of her voice was fierce enough to silence the birds that had been chirping nonstop in the trees nearby.

"Alright, listen up," she ordered while looking between everyone currently seated at the table.

"Each person gets one stack of pancakes since there aren't enough for everyone to have multiple.

" When her gaze landed on Justin, she hesitated before adding, "There are a crap ton of other foods here for you to eat, so don't even try it. "

Justin let out a small gasp as he placed a defensive hand over his heart. "Auntie, I'm appalled that you think I would even do such a thi—"

"Can it, Justin," Kyle cut into his brother's speech rudely.

At the sound of his tone, Kassandra kicked Kyle's leg under the table, causing his eyes to shoot over to her.

And that's when the bickering started.

Julianna shook her head as she took a stack of pancakes for herself before passing the plate off to Damien, who has been unusually quiet throughout this whole ordeal.

Once the food started to make its way around the table, the siblings' argument came to a halt.

Food truly does fix everything.

We had just finished passing the last plate around when the two people that I've been dreading to meet finally made their grand appearance.

"I hope you all saved some for us," a male voice suddenly piped up from behind me.

Everyone's head turned to face the door as Jacques stood in the doorway with his wife, who, to my surprise, didn't look to be a day over thirty-five. Within my presence, the siblings have only mentioned their mom once, and that was yesterday evening when Kyle was throwing his little tantrum.

Other than that, nobody has said anything about this woman.

Julianna jumped up from her chair to greet her brother, and the smile that consumed the likes of her face was the most precious thing I've seen all day. Jacques opened his arms to wrap his baby sister up into a hug, and the action caused his wife's arm to fall away from him.

Something about her expression told me that she wasn't too pleased with Julianna's charade, but in my eyes, I saw nothing wrong with it.

Jacques and his children are the only people that Julianna has left to hold on to, and that's assuming that she's not close with any of her other family members. The two siblings shared a hug before Julianna turned to address Jacques's wife.

"Sarah," she drawled, dragging out the last letter of her name in a way that screamed, 'I don't like you.'

"Julianna, darling," Mrs. Rodriguez greeted her sister-in-law in the same manner before she and Julianna exchanged a cheek kiss.

"How are you?" Sarah went on to ask as the three of them made their way over to the table.

I began to tune out the rest of their conversation after Logan gently tapped my arm.

"Did you make any of this?" he asked.

I dabbed at my mouth with a napkin, clearing my throat quietly. "The mini pancakes were my idea, so Julianna insisted that I make them."

Logan held up his fork, which had a piece of pancake hanging off the end of it.

"No wonder they taste so good," he praised. "You should come on my at-home show sometime. I'd love to cook with you."

My mouth fell open at his offer.

Logan has several cooking shows that he's developed over the years, and one of them is a thirty-minute segment that he films at his house. The show airs every Wednesday on the Food Network, and I've never missed a single episode.

"I'd love to! It's always been a dream of mine to work with you and your team—"

"Logan, can you tell your friend that my wine glass has a smudge on it?" Rebecca's whiny voice overpowered my own, leading me to pause in the middle of my sentence.

Logan's grip visibly tightened around his fork as he shot Rebecca a no-nonsense glare. "It probably came from your dirty ass fingers."

She rolled her eyes, brushing off his comment. "Well, I want another one."

Logan glanced at me with sympathetic eyes. "Lilac—"

I waved him off while slowly standing up. "No, it's fine. I'll get her another one."

Everyone turned to look my way as I headed inside to get the princess another glass. By the time I came back out, the conversation that had been taking place came to a lull.

I walked up to Rebecca's chair, and after a second or ten of waiting, I began to gnaw at the inside of my cheek. She was purposefully ignoring me.

"Here," I mumbled while reaching down to give her the glass.

At the sound of my voice, Rebecca swung her hand around to take the wine glass from me, and as a result of her reckless actions, she ended up knocking over the glass of water that she had sitting towards the edge of the table.

I jumped back to avoid being splashed by the water that instantly flew out of the cup the second the glass hit the pavement.

Thanks to my quick reflexes, my toes were the only thing that ended up getting wet.

"Oops, my bad!" she exclaimed in the fakest of voices. "I hate to ask, but can you get me another one?"

I carefully set her wine glass down on the table while forcing myself to smile at her. "Sure thing."

Damien stood up so that he could escort me back inside, and I shot him a calculated look as he slid open the patio door for me.

"What are you going to do?" he asked after he shut the door behind us.

I walked over to the far side of the kitchen and stood on my tippy toes, straining to reach the glasses in the cabinet. "Nothing."

It took me a few tries to grab the glass, but once I did, I turned around to find Damien staring at me.

I shrugged, watching as he moved to open the cabinet underneath the sink to search for the small dustpan that Julianna usually kept under there.

"I'm serious," I argued.

"Yeah, okay," he snorted, shaking his head. "You better get back out there before she throws one of her annoying ass bitch fits. She has one every hour on the hour, and it's nearing one o'clock."

I made my way over to the refrigerator to fill her glass with water from the dispenser while mumbling a quick prayer. "Lord, help us."

When I headed back outside, I made sure to avoid the glass that littered the floor.

In my careful attempt, I nearly stepped on a razor-sharp shard, leading me to stagger back and forth.

As a result, my wrist jerked forward a little, causing some water to slosh out of the glass and land right on Rebecca's lap.

A shriek escaped her lips as she flew up from her chair, showing off the front of her skirt that I'd accidentally splashed with water.

I set the glass down on the table while covering my mouth with my free hand to prevent myself from laughing.

"Oops, my bad!" I repeated her words back to her with a frown. "At least it wasn't juice."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Justin, Logan, and Kass averted their gazes in an attempt to suppress their amusement.

Damien returned with the dustpan at that exact moment and he immediately paused in place when he saw me standing next to a wailing Rebecca.

It was evident that he found the situation to be amusing, with the way that his lips twitched at the sight of us.

Although he was pleased with my unexpected revenge plot, he didn't hesitate to call me out on my bullshit when he came to a stop beside me.

"Nothing, my ass," he tutted. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."

We shared a look before I made my way back to my seat, leaving him to sweep up the broken pieces of glass. As soon as I sat down, Logan nudged my leg with his underneath the table, and I bit my lip to hold back the smile that was threatening to consume the likes of my face.

Once Damien finished cleaning up the glass, he disappeared inside the house to dispose of it before returning to his seat.

It was then that Jacques cleared his throat from his spot at the end of the table, and the sound cut into the silence that had suddenly filled the room. "Son, you never did tell us who this young woman was."

Kyle cast his eyes down at the table in front of us.

"Mother, father, this is my new maid, Lilac," he muttered without looking up.

Rebecca huffed, pulling a compact mirror from her purse. She evidently wasn't expecting her outburst to work in my favor.

Sarah's lips curled up into a fabricated grin that she proceeded to shoot in my direction.

"What an unusual name," she remarked sweetly. "How old did you say you were?"

I bit my lip once more, only this time it wasn't to hold back a smile.

"I didn't actually," I told her curtly. "But since you asked, I'm twenty, turning twenty-one in October."

"Oh. I heard somewhere that you dropped out of school. Is that true?"

The urge to strangle her with the Louis Vuitton belt that she had snaked around her waist hit me hard at that moment.

I seemed to have missed the part where that was any of her business.

"Yes, that is correct," I explained through gritted teeth. "I had to take a break from my studies at UCLA due to some . . . financial difficulties."

"So you're planning to go back?" she questioned, grilling me for more information. "Once you can afford it, of course."

Sarah's rapid-fire questions made me want to pull my hair out, and Rebecca leaning over to whisper something in Kyle's ear made me want to spazz out.

"Yes, I'm planning to go back." The crack in my voice was the sole indicator of my complete and utter exasperation, and Jacques thankfully picked up on it and changed the conversation.

"How has your stay in Paris been?" he asked, shifting the line of fire to Kassandra.

Kass was happy to recount the trips that she took to the Champs-élysées, going into excessive detail about all of the fabulous things she bought while shopping along the strip.

I was silent for the remainder of lunch, choosing to listen while Kass and Justin carried most of the conversation. Logan tried to get me to smile, and on occasions, he did, but I honestly wasn't in the mood to be surrounded by people anymore.

And by people, I mean Sarah and Rebecca.

Jacques reminded me a lot of his sister as he actively engaged with his children. He and the twins looked so much alike that I probably would've mistaken them for triplets if I didn't know them already.

At the end of the meal, we all stood up to converse with one another separately, and I found myself staring up at Logan, who was holding his phone out for me to take.

I tilted my head at him quizzically.

"Your number," he clarified cheekily. "So that I can let you know when we're filming next."

I mentally facepalmed myself.

"Duh," I laughed at my own stupidity while reaching out to take his phone.

As I was typing in my number, Rebecca's obnoxiously loud laugh suddenly penetrated my right eardrum, and I glanced over to see her sprawled across Kyle's lap, her perfectly manicured fingers mindlessly stroking his bicep.

The urge to vomit hit me like a ton of bricks, and I momentarily struggled to keep down the food that I'd just demolished.

"Here you go." I finished typing in my number before I carefully handed Logan his phone back. His fingers accidentally brushed against mine during the exchange, and I found myself smiling at the sensation.

If there was any chance of us prolonging this heartfelt moment, it was vastly overpowered by the cackling cow unleashing another giggle from her spot on top of Kyle.

Logan's eyes rolled back into his skull at her volume. "Let me leave now before the clothes start to come off."

Never once have I wished to be somewhere other than this million-dollar mansion right now.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear with a sigh.

"It's a shame that I live here," I confessed, shuddering at the thought of Kyle and Rebecca getting it on with me in the house. "It was nice meeting you though."

Logan took my hand and flipped it around so that the backside of my palm was facing the sky. He then brought my hand up to his face and pressed a chaste kiss to my skin.

"Likewise," he smirked.

He slowly let go of my hand, signaling that he was about to head out. "I'll catch you later, yeah?"

Not trusting myself to speak, I simply nodded my head in response.

He made a quick trip around the room, saying goodbye to his elders before he dapped up Justin and Damien.

He and Kass shared a hug, and before they broke apart, he sent a curt nod to Kyle over her shoulder. He slipped through the patio door after that, and his departure prompted Kassandra to flounce her way over to me.

"Well, he certainly likes you," she remarked smugly. "Of course, Kyle isn't too happy about this, but fuck him, right?"

She paused, mulling over the phrase she just used.

"I don't mean literally, although you could very well do that if you wanted to . . ." she rambled, poking fun at the doubled entendre that arose from her poor choice of words.

I swiftly whisked her off to the side with me after Jacques shot us a curious glance. He and Sarah were standing a bit too close for comfort, and the last thing that I wanted was for them to hear this impromptu conversation about me fucking their son.

"Kass, I need you to listen to me very carefully," I began while placing my hand on her shoulder for dramatic effect.

She bit down on her lip excitedly before she bobbed her head to show me that she understood.

My next message came as a shock to her, given that she was without a doubt expecting me to say something along the lines of, 'I'd love to fuck Kyle!'

"I'm going to kill you."