The Spanish Love Deception novel Chapter 165

“Oh no,” she cut my words off.

And at the same time, a head popped up in my field of vision.

“Hi, Rosie, Lina. How are you ladies doing?”

As of right now, not too well anymore, I wanted to tell him.

“Hello, Gerald,” I muttered instead.

Neither of us bothered to answer his question.

Not that he cared, apparently, because he stayed rooted in place.

“So, how was the vacay, Lina?”

The vacay. It hadn’t even been a holiday—I had just taken three days off, for Christ’s sake—but there was no point in correcting him.

Turning in my chair and facing him with what I hoped wasn’t a grimace, I braced myself for a few tortuous minutes of small talk. “Wonderful, thank you.”

He gave me a knowing nod, followed by a blatant smirk. I frowned.

“Big day tomorrow with Open Day, huh?” He leaned a hand on our table, the buttons of his shirt struggling under the change in position.

Why did he have to stuff himself in clothing two sizes smaller? Someone should tell him. He didn’t deserve the courtesy, but the world didn’t deserve this kind of sight either.

“You have an outfit picked out and all? I know you girls take your time, deciding.”

My teeth grated together with the sheer effort of not turning the table over and flipping him off. “Yes,” I answered through my teeth. “Now, if you don’t mind, we were having lu—”

“Did you have trouble putting everything together?” Gerald asked, not caring about my brush-off.

I thought I’d heard Rosie mutter something that sounded a lot like jerk under her breath.

Damn, she’s ragey today.

“A little. But it’s all sorted now,” I told him with a neutral expression.

“I bet you managed to find some help.”

That last word—help—the way he had said it, accompanied by a twitch of his eyebrows, sounded as if it meant much more than it was supposed to.

I felt the blood rushing out of my face, a chilly sensation slowly advancing in its place. “Yeah, I did.”

I hadn’t thought to hide that Aaron had helped me; there wasn’t a point, but of course, that had happened before Spain. Now, there was something between us. Something new and wonderful and so very fragile.