Mila
XOXO
“Lunch is ready.” Cody walked into the yard and stared at me with Troy for a few seconds and continued without blinking. “Will you go and get Sally, please, Mila?”
“No, why don’t you go?” I said with a frown. Wasn’t Cody going to even ask me who the guy with his arms around me was?
“Fine,” he said gruffly, then he looked at me and frowned. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Mila’s boyfriend, Troy,” TJ said, responding for me. “He arrived in his Mercedes first thing this morning.”
“Yeah, it’s a cool car,” Troy said and grinned at him. “Much cooler than my Nissan.”
“I guess that’s why you traded it in, huh?” TJ asked with his eyebrow raised.
“Traded it…?” Troy paused and then grinned. “Yeah, yeah, that’s why.” He looked at me and took my hand. “Wanna go catch up in the bedroom for a few seconds?”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” TJ said with a small frown. “So, you like sports cars, Troy?”
“Yeah. I used to drag race in high school. My buddy Pete souped up an old Honda CR-V and we used to take it to the track every Friday.”
“I like car racing as well.” TJ nodded. “I like to take out my dad’s Ferrari and race it.”
“Wow, a Ferrari.” Troy’s jaw dropped. “That’s dope.”
“Yeah. I drove a Spyder a couple of months ago.” He grinned.
“That’s cool,” Troy said. “I think I’m going to get a Honda CBR and get into some street-bike racing.”
“Yeah, I do that too,” TJ said. “Though my bike’s in the shop. I had a little accident a couple of months ago.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said sharply. “You were in a motorcycle accident?”
“Yeah, no biggie.” TJ shrugged. “Just fractured my wrist.”
“You fractured your wrist?” I frowned and looked at his arm. “How did that happen?”
“A truck pulled into my lane and he didn’t check his blind spot,” TJ said nonchalantly. “It happens. It’s the risk you take every time you drive.”
“Yeah, but you don’t almost die in a car every day, like you do on a bike.”
“Bikes are safe,” TJ said, his lips thinning.
“No, they aren’t,” I said stiffly, my heart thudding as my face heated up. I couldn’t believe that TJ had been in an accident and I didn’t even know. No one had told me—not him, and not even Cody. Did I matter that little? But why would they tell you, Mila? a voice inside of me whispered. What possible reason would you have to know about what’s going on in TJ’s life? It’s not like you’re his wife or girlfriend. And, sadly, that was true. I was barely his friend.
“Mila, darling, did you miss me?” Troy asked me, looking at me adoringly. I wanted to ask him what the fuck was going on, but I figured he was some really good actor that Sally had hired to help me make TJ jealous. I kinda wished I’d made up the fake boyfriend for her now. She could have hired someone to try and make Cody jealous. In fact, I was going to tell her that very fact as soon as I got her in a private room. How could she do this to me and not tell me? Ugh! I was so annoyed.
“Of course, my dear,” I said to Troy, looking into his sky-blue eyes and trying to smile. I could see both Cody and TJ looking at me and I knew they were trying to figure out what was going on.
“I’ve been thinking about you all day and night, hoping that I could see you and kiss you all over,” Troy said, and I could see Cody’s eyes narrowing as he looked over at me. Oh boy, Troy was really laying it on strong and I knew that it was way too strong when I saw Cody at our side.
“So tell me again—who are you, exactly?” he said, looking at Troy properly for the first time.
“I’m Troy, Mila’s boyfriend,” Troy said confidently, his perfect white teeth looking up at Cody as if he expected that answer to be the solution to any problems that might come up. “Who are you?” Troy’s smile faltered as he realized that Cody was now glaring at him.
“I’m Mila’s big brother,” he said and squared his shoulders. “Her very protective, older, big brother.”
“Oh, hi,” Troy said, looking at me for help. I nearly started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Troy, who I’d never seen until ten minutes ago, was looking for me to help him with my brother.
“How long have you been dating Mila?”
“Um, it feels like I’ve known her all my life,” Troy said with a beguiling smile that turned to despair as Cody didn’t smile back. “It’s been a while,” he said weakly and he reached for my hand. I sidestepped to the side of him and stuffed my hand in my pocket. I looked over at TJ and I could see that he was watching everything with an eagle eye and a small smirk on his lips. Jackass!
“Hey hey.” Barbie sauntered outside. “What are you two up to?” Barbie looked at Cody and then TJ, and gave what I’m sure she considered was a sweet, sexy smile. “I thought we were going to eat?” She touched Cody on the shoulder and batted her eyelashes. “I was waiting.”
“Yeah, we are,” Cody said, his eyes lightening as he looked at her. My heart started pounding as I wondered what was going on, but then Barbie walked over to TJ and slapped him on the ass.
“And you, big boy, you need to eat,” she said and licked her lips, like some sort of hungry cat that had just seen a bowl of milk and hadn’t had anything to drink in days.
“We’re coming,” TJ said and I couldn’t tell if he sounded apathetic or angry. I’m sure he couldn’t be happy at the fact that Barbie was now flirting with Cody as well. Unless they shared her. Ugh, I felt sick even thinking about that. Was Sally right? Did Cody and TJ really share women? That was just gross!
“Cody, go and get Sally,” TJ said and I saw my brother look over at him, sigh slightly and then head out to the lake to get Sally. I frowned slightly as I watched my brother just walking away. I heard Troy let out a deep sigh of relief as Cody walked away and he turned to me and whispered, “What’s the plan for tonight?”
“What?” I asked, my voice louder than I would have hoped.
“Who are you?” Barbie turned to Troy, looking pleasantly surprised to see another good-looking man in the mix. Maybe she was hoping for a foursome? Ho! I immediately felt guilty about my thoughts and tried to tell myself that she was a perfectly nice girl and that I was just jealous because she had arrived with TJ. Though I knew that what I was feeling stemmed from more than just jealousy. And while I didn’t like women to call other women hoes because I felt the term was offensive, I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking that about her.
“Hi, I’m Troy. Who are you?” Troy said, his eyes widening in that way that guy’s eyes always did when they saw a completely hot chick and got super excited as if they thought they had a chance with her. I glared at him for being so eager and I knew it was irrational to feel so pissed because I didn’t know him or really care to.
“Barbie.”
“Perfect name for someone like you.”
“Oh?” she asked, looking up at him with a questioning look. I started grinning as I thought that perhaps Troy was on my side. Maybe he could see Barbie for what she really was, even if TJ and Cody were both blinded to her true self.
“You’re as gorgeous as a doll,” he said, practically salivating as he spoke. “And what doll is prettier than Barbie?”
“True.” She giggled and pushed her breasts out. “I think I’m going to like you, Troy.” She grabbed his arm. “Come inside with me and let me get you a drink.”
“Okay,” he said eagerly and then paused and looked at me. “Is that okay? We can talk about tonight later.”
“Uh huh,” I said, feeling pissed. Even my fake boyfriend was leaving me for Barbie. I looked over at TJ to see if he was laughing at me, but his eyes were focused on Barbie, and he looked annoyed. And that hurt me even more. At least he could have given me a look of compassion. Here I was, standing like some loser, while my ‘boyfriend’ left me alone.
“See you in a second, my love,” Troy cried back at me as he walked into the house, his mind obviously off of me.
“So, I guess Troy is real.” TJ walked closer to me and his eyes searched mine. “I owe you an apology.”
“Yeah, you do,” I said and I felt proud of myself for not technically lying. I didn’t confirm that Troy was real, and TJ owed me an apology for many different things, so me saying he owed me an apology wasn’t really lying.
“So you find him attractive?” TJ’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you think?” I shook my head at him. “That’s a stupid question.”
“Why is it stupid?” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Why would I date someone I wasn’t attracted to?” I bit down on my lower lip. Okay, I was definitely furthering the lie now. There was no technical glitch getting me out of this lie. I was basically confirming that Troy and I were dating. Ugh, I was going to kill Sally.