“I managed to take a quick peek around,” said Trevor. “I’d asked to use the bathroom and then ‘got lost.’”
“And?”
Trevor shook his head. “Besides the living room and dining room where we were, the rest of the place looks barely lived in. They’ve got stacks of boxes and crates and—”
“Wait for it,” Christian butted in.
“—camera and recording equipment.” Trevor fluttered his brow. “And lots of it.”
Bonita hopped off the bed. She clutched her video camera against her chest with both hands and headed for the door. “And we know how devious people with lots of cameras and recording equipment can be.”
I followed her but a few paces away. All I needed was two minutes to talk to her alone.
“I’ve got to tell Sasha.” She stopped abruptly.
Trevor was the closest behind her, and he also stopped on a dime. Christian, Ken, and I weren’t as quick to stop. We all smacked into Trevor.
“New plan,” she said. “The film is not going to be about Sasha, exactly, but about Fay Energy and how they are conspiring to bring Sasha down.”
Apparently, this was a conversation Bonita wanted to have with Sasha alone. And the conversation I needed to have with Bonita alone? Well, I was just going to have to bide my time.
We were already a bit buzzed from the alcohol we’d had over dinner. But, hell, none of us was driving, and none of us had to be at work the next day. Plus, There were three full bars in the Polar Trinity. Landon was behind one of them when we arrived. “What’ll you have?” he asked us.
“I’ll have a sex on a volcano,” said Christian.
“What’s that?” Landon asked.
“It’s like a sex on the beach but more Icelandic.”
“I’ll have the same,” said Ken.
“Me too,” said Trevor.
“Make mine a double,” I said.
I tried to take part in the fun the others were having. I tried to put up a façade. But it was useless. They saw right through it.
“What’s gotten into you?” asked Will.
I shrugged and sipped at my drink.
“It’s Bonita, isn’t it?” he continued. “You’ve got your panties all in a bunch over some girl.”
“It’s not ‘some girl,’” I protested.
He threw his hands into the air, open palms out. “Okay. My bad.”
“Sorry, I snapped,” I said.
Will shook his head. “No worries. Bonita’s hot. I get it.”
I took in a deep breath. I didn’t like hearing Will say Bonita was hot, but not as much as I didn’t like how upset that made me. Bonita was hot. There was no harm in stating the truth.
“She’s messed up Landon’s head, too,” said Will.
“Really? How so?”
Will shrugged, then he rubbed his chin. “Come to think of it: Landon’s head’s always been messed up. Never mind.”
I laughed. “Well, she’s definitely messed up mine.”
“You’ve got it bad for her, and that ain’t good.”
I caught Ken watching us out of the corner of his eyes. “What do you suggest?”
Will shrugged. “Lighten up. Have fun. Enjoy the moment.”
I smirked.
“What can I say?” said Will. “It works for me.”
With that platitude, he was off to make himself another drink. I went over to Ken. If there were anyone sensible in this group who could understand what I was going through, it would be Ken.
“How’s it hanging?” he asked.
“Could be better.”
“Bonita?”
I nodded.
“You guys have a falling out?”
“I kissed her.”
“Good for you. And?”
“She kissed me back.”
“Great.”
“Then she pulled away.”
“Not great.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Girls. One minute I get the sense she’s into me, the next...”
After a long pause, Ken tried to finish my sentence. “The next you think she might be into Ben?”
“Ben?” That was not the end of my sentence! “I was going to say: she just wants us to be friends.”
Ken nodded and sipped his drink.
“Why? Why did you say she might be into Ben?”
Ken glanced over his shoulder at Ben then turned back to me. “You have to admit he’s pretty sexy.”
I nearly spat out my drink. “No. I don’t have to admit that.”
I did have to admit that I wasn’t the only one Bonita had eyes for—if she did even have eyes for me. I left the group to go mope in private. At least that was what I told myself, but deep down, I knew I was leaving the group to look for Bonita. She was the only one who could straighten this out for me.
Walking down the empty corridors and passing through the empty rooms of Sasha’s mansion didn’t exactly do wonders for the feeling of emptiness that weighed in my gut. What kept me going was the faint din of women’s voices I heard from a distance.
The voices led me back to the entryway. Bonita and Sasha were upstairs, talking and laughing. Since we hadn’t been shown the upstairs, I didn’t dare go up. Instead, I stood there for a good while, not eavesdropping, just admiring the mural of the entryway’s high concave ceiling.