All I've Never Wanted(70)

Roman chuckled. She was pretty cute when she was embarrassed. He froze. Did he just think of her as cute? What was wrong with him?

Stupid storm. This is all its fault.

This time Maya smirked. “See something you like?” she taunted.

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, my clothes. Which you’re wearing. I’d like them back please.”

Maya turned the color of a fire hydrant. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not stripping in front of you!”

Roman couldn’t help but laugh at her indignation, which seemed to make her even madder. She was too cute. “I never asked you to. Your room is right across the hall…” He trailed off, expecting her to be smart enough to catch his drift.

“Oh.” The embarrassed look came back. “Right. Well, I’ll be back then,” she muttered, almost running out of the room.

It really was too bad she tripped over a stray tennis racket and fell face down on the carpet.

“Ow!”

Roman burst out laughing again. He should probably go help her up, but he was having way too much fun. Besides, it was payback for her laughing at him when he ran into that door.

Maya glared at him as she stood up. “Thanks for helping me!”

“No problem,” he chortled, trying to contain his laughter.

He almost succeeded, until Maya took another two steps and tripped. Again. Over nothing at all this time, it seemed.

This time, Roman was almost in stitches. He bent over double, his shoulders shaking with mirth as Maya let out a string of very unladylike curses. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so hard.

This was probably the most entertaining Monday mornings he’d ever had.

* * *

“How about this? I think Zack would like this.” Carlo smiled impishly as he held up a hideous green-and-red paisley shit. It was so ugly I actually gagged.

“That’s disgusting!” I complained, covering my eyes with my hands. “Stop! Put it away before I’m scarred for life!”

Carlo laughed, and I didn’t take my hands from my eyes until I heard the shirt being put back on the rack. “You’re too easy to rile up.”

“Am not,” I said rather childishly, quickly dragging him as far away from that Christmas tree they called a dress as possible. “You’re supposed to help me find a birthday present, not make fun of me!”

It was Thursday after school, and Carlo and I had gone to La Terra, the next town over, to find Zack’s present since he probably had everything he wanted from Valesca. Sadly, our shopping expedition was not going too well. The fact that I was on a bit of a budget did not help matters at all.

“Ok, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Carlo held up his hands. “I promise, I’ll be serious now.” He gave me his best solemn face.

“You look like you’re constipated,” I snickered, even though he didn’t. Hey, I had to get him back somehow, right?

Carlo didn’t look offended. “What a liar. You’re just mad because you can’t think of a good present.”

“That’s what you’re supposed to be here for,” I grumbled, eyeing a wall of cologne. Nah. Zack probably already had every cologne under the sun. “Besides, not everyone can afford to buy people a boat.”

I still couldn’t believe Roman was getting Zack a boat. Seriously, these people had too much money.

I bit my lip as I thought about Roman. We’d been co-existing pretty peacefully the past few days, with the exception of my total humiliation Monday morning. It seemed as though our little conversation Sunday night had eased some of the tension between us, although I was far from feeling comfortable with him. It wasn’t necessarily a bad discomfort, it was just—


The sound of a phone ringing interrupted my thoughts.

“Sorry, excuse me for one second,” Carlo said, pulling out his iPhone. His face darkened when he saw the caller ID, and I wondered who it was.

“Hello?” His voice was terse. “No. I’m not at home. No. I said no. Stop being so difficult! I swear if you—you better not do anything stupid. I’m not covering for you. Yes, I know.” Carlo let out a huge sigh, looking the most annoyed I’d ever seen him. “Fine. I’ll see you later.” He didn’t sound too happy about it.

“Who was that?” I asked curiously as we wandered past the jewelry counter.

“Nobody important.”

I was unconvinced, but if he didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to force him.

“Anyway.” Carlo quickly changed the subject. “We have to try another tack for Zack’s present. Try to think of things with sentimental value, not material goods. He already has all the material goods he wants.”

I furrowed my brow. Zack and I were friends, but it’s not like we were best friends. How was I supposed to know what had sentimental value and what didn’t?

“If it helps, besides music, he’s also really into photography,” Carlo offered.

My jaw dropped as I stared at him in disbelief.

He blinked. “What?”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me earlier,” I groaned. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the store we were in and into the main part of the mall. I was sure we’d passed by a store selling photography equipment before. “You could’ve saved us so much time!”