Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(74)

“What? No.” Dominic laughed. “No. Every teenager I hire does this in the first couple of weeks, handing out food to their friends, eating dinner here as if chocolate and sugar are two of the essential food groups. If I fired every one of them, I’d be working the counter on my own.”

I leaned one hand into the shelf of cupcake wrappers and napkins behind me. “Thank you.”

“But it can’t keep happening,” he said seriously. “Consider this your warning. As of now, you’re on probation. A cupcake doesn’t leave that case unless some money goes into my register. Got it?”

Probation. I felt like I was on probation with everyone. Zeus, Hephaestus, Ares, Orion, even Claudia, in a way, since the jury was out on whether she was still down with my plan. Probation had become my natural state of being.

Otherwise what?

“Got it,” I replied. “It won’t happen again.”

“Good.” He nodded and turned to his computer. “Good night, True.”

“G’night,” I replied.

I was just about out the door when my cell phone rang. The screen read GAVIN DUNNELLON. I quickly hit the talk button as I stepped outside.

“Hello?”

“True? It’s Gavin.”

“Hey,” I said, taking a deep breath and leaning back against the cool outer brick wall of the building. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you, it worked,” Gavin said. “I went with Peter and Josie to the soup kitchen tonight, and she made this huge scene and bailed. Peter is pissed. And he’s talking about getting back together with Claudia.”

“Really? That’s incredible!” I said.

At least something had gone right tonight.

“Totally. What’s up with Claudia and Keegan?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll call Lauren and get an update. We’ll talk at school tomorrow, okay?”

“Cool. This is fun.” Gavin sounded giddy. “I feel like we should have some kind of code name.”

“I’ll leave that to you,” I said. “I’ve gotta go. But thanks for calling.”

“See you tomorrow.”

As I cut across the parking lot, my feet crunching on the asphalt, I tried to focus on the positive. This thing with Peter and Claudia was going to work out. I could feel it. Before the end of the week, I’d have them falling in love for real, and I’d be two-thirds done with my mission.

And if not, then maybe I’d just have to move on to Wallace and Mia. Or find someone new. Maybe it was about time I kicked things up a notch.

“You didn’t really think you were going to get away with this, did you?”

I froze at the sound of Hephaestus’s voice, then slowly turned. He sat in the middle of the parking lot, vibrating with fury. In the palm of his right hand was my tiny, now useless, spy camera.

“How did you—”

“Get up to my light fixture?” he asked, wheeling toward me. “I had a hunch, so I got a friend from work to come over and he found it. Does Aphrodite know you were spying on me?”

His skin was waxy, and he spit when he talked.

“No,” I said. “She doesn’t know anything about it.”

“What did you see?” he demanded with a glare.

“Nothing.” I lifted my chin. “The camera died as soon as you fired up your magic mirror.”

He blinked and withdrew, as if he’d just been slapped. “How could you do this?” he asked. “Why can’t you just trust me?”

“Don’t you get it, Hephaestus?” I demanded. “I can’t trust anyone. How do I know you’re not working with Hera to sabotage me and keep me and Aphrodite stuck here forever? How do I know you don’t still hold a grudge against my parents? If you had only been honest with me—”

“I have always been honest with you!” he snapped. “I kept the secret because your parents requested it of me. And the only thing I’ve done since arriving here is help you. If you can’t look to those facts and see me as a friend, then I don’t know what else to say to you.”

“So you have no ulterior motive?” I said, holding my jacket tighter around me. “You have nothing to gain from being here, other than feeling good for helping a friend?”

Something shifted behind his eyes. It was minuscule, but unmistakable. He was hiding something. I was sure of it.

“I can’t do this anymore,” he said, turning his chair around. He dropped the camera on the ground, then swiftly, ceremoniously, crushed it beneath his right wheel. “Until you come to your senses, don’t bother talking to me.”

“Fine,” I bit out. “I won’t.”

I waited for him to make his way around the corner of the building before I turned in the opposite direction and stormed off.





CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE


Claudia


Peter. I was meeting Peter. I sat at my usual table in the library after school, not studying, because any second Peter was going to walk through that door and we were going to “talk.”

I looked down at my phone. The text he’d sent after fifth period was open on the screen. I’d looked at it fifteen thousand times in the last three hours.