In the Age of Love and Chocolate (Birthright #3)(23)

“Si. You will have to open a new location in another city so that I can find some new women to date.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

“Maybe Canada. I would like to see Canada before I die,” Theo said.

“Or Paris!” Natty said with a squeal of delight.

“Unfortunately, chocolate’s legal there. What would be the point?”

I excused myself to go talk to the DJ. She’d been playing too many slow, romantic songs. It was a party; I wanted party music. On the way back, I ran into Win, who was by himself.

He didn’t look like he wanted to talk to me, but whatever. I still hadn’t thanked him in person for going to see Natty. “Hey, stranger,” I said.

“Hey.” He barely looked at me. Instead, he looked over at the table where his parents and the Viking still sat.

“I wanted to thank you in person for visiting Natty.”

“It’s nothing,” he said. “Her school’s not that far from mine.”

“It is something,” I insisted. “You and I didn’t exactly end on good terms—so I appreciate you doing this.”

“Doing things for you is a bad habit with me. I should get back.”

“Wait.” I tried to invent a reason to prolong our conversation. “Win, how do you like school?”

“Good.”

A one-word reply, but I pressed on anyway.

“Astrid is really pretty. I’m happy that you met someone,” I said. “I hope me and you can be friends someday.”

Silence. “I don’t need a friend like you,” he said finally. He sounded angrier than when we had broken up. “I should not have come here tonight.”

“Why are you still so angry with me? I’m not angry with you.”

I heard him take a deep breath. “How about my parents’ divorce?”

“That is not on me, Win. Your parents have been unhappy for years. You told me as much yourself.”

“They seemed better after he lost the election. But all that went to Hell after you and your big idea.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am sorry I ever met you, Anya. I am sorry that I pursued you and that I didn’t leave you alone when you asked. I wish I’d never had to move from Albany. You were not worth getting shot for. You were not worth waiting for. You were not worth this trouble. You are the worst thing that ever happened to me. You have been a hurricane in my life and not in a good way!” He was almost screaming at me, but maybe that was the effect of the loud music. The DJ had honored my request to play party music, and the bass was literally deafening. “But hey, it’s not like I wasn’t warned. My father only told me about—I don’t know—roughly one million times to stay away from you. So no, I don’t want to be friends with you. The best part about breaking up with you is that we don’t have to be friends.”

And then he left. It would have been pathetic of me to run after him, to insist that he accept my friendship when he clearly thought it was worth so little. Even if I felt like it, I couldn’t leave the party I had thrown. I couldn’t go home, get into bed, pull the covers over my head, and cry. I put a smile on my face and went back to my friends at the bar.

The DJ announced that there were only two minutes until 2085 would officially begin.

Leo and Noriko came over to our group, and Natty chatted to them about whether they should have another wedding, a real one, now that Leo was out of prison.

With thirty seconds to go, Theo took my hand and looked at me with bright and perhaps slightly intoxicated eyes. “Abuela says that it’s bad luck not to kiss someone on New Year’s.”

“You’re such a liar,” I said. “I’m sure your abuela says nothing of the kind.”

“It’s true,” Theo said. “She worries that in New York, I am not getting kissed enough.”

I rolled my eyes. “Then you’ve not been telling her the full story.”

“12 … 11 … 10…”

He took my hand and rotated my barstool toward him.

“Life is short, Anya. Do you want to die knowing you had a chance to kiss a sexy Latin man but let it pass you by?”

“What sexy Latin man are you referring to?”

“9 … 8 … 7…”

He set his hand on my knee. “Once in your life, chica, you should be kissed by a man who knows how to do it properly.”

“6 … 5 … 4…”

Theo looked at me with his smoldering Jesus eyes, and the Catholic schoolgirl in me crossed her legs.

“3 … 2…”

I would be lying if I said it hadn’t occurred to me that across the room my ex-boyfriend was being kissed by a Vikingmermaidicelandicprincess.

“And 1! Happy New Year! Here’s to 2085!”

“All right, Theo,” I said. “Since it’s a brand-new year, you may as well show me what you mean by ‘properly.’”

VII

I HAVE AN IDEA; EMBARK ON A RELATIONSHIP FOR DUBIOUS REASONS

I WOKE UP BEFORE DAWN on New Year’s Day. An idea had popped into my head and, once it had, that idea would not let me rest.

Theo and I had fallen asleep on the sofa. I unwrapped myself from his arms and went outside to call Mr. Delacroix.