The American Roommate Experiment (Spanish Love Deception #2)(8)

“I’ll make you a deal,” he said, cutting me off, and for some reason, I had the feeling he’d done that to save me from myself. “You stay here for the night, get some rest, and tomorrow I’ll be back. We’ll start over. Forget tonight happened. Then, we’ll figure out what to do in terms of accommodation.” A careful pause. “What do you think?”

We’ll start over. Forget tonight happened.

What I’d give for that to be something we could do. “But there’s nothing to figure out, Lucas. Lina promised you the apartment. You should be the one taking it.”

“Okay,” he said simply. “But not tonight.”

This wasn’t right. This was so not okay. Everything about it had gone wrong and I… I only realized I was blowing air out of my mouth when I heard my mouth releasing it.

Lucas’s chuckle was deep, masculine. “I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise.”

My lips parted, ready to fight him some more, to tackle him to the floor and make him stay if I had to.

But then he said, “It will be fine, Rosie.” And his expression turned serious. Earnest. “Everything will be okay.”

And all my determination to fight him back loosened up, letting the exhaustion in. The toll from years and years of trying to keep everything together, contained, always on my own, washed right over me. Head to toes, like a wave. And for once, just for this one time that I was being told those four words, Everything will be okay, instead of being the one using them to comfort someone else, I felt the need to let go.

“Okay. Thank you for doing this,” I murmured, and I meant it more than Lucas would probably ever know.

He nodded slightly, then took another step away. “See you tomorrow, then. I’ll knock this time, I promise.”

I tried to think of something clever and funny to say, but what was the point anyway? I’d already ruined this. First impressions were like words penned with permanent ink. Once etched on paper, there was little one could do to change them. So, I simply stared at him as he turned the knob and threw the door open.

“Hey, Rosie?” he called before crossing the threshold. “It’s been great finally meeting Lina’s best friend.”

Finally.

He’d said finally.

Just like I had a while ago. But probably for a completely different reason.

“Likewise, Lucas. This was all… great.” A great freaking disaster.

A small smile turned his lips up. “Do me a favor and lock up after I’m gone, yes?” He turned around, giving me his back and striding away. “You never know who might try to break in.”

And just like that, I watched Lucas Martín disappear down the stairs as swiftly as he had landed right on my doorstep—or Lina’s doorstep.

As if this had been nothing more than a dream, all of it a product of my imagination.

A silly and bizarre dream about a man I had spied on through the screen of my phone for months and months, all thanks to the magic of social media.

A man I had somehow harbored the biggest, stupidest crush on, even when I hadn’t even meet him in person and even when I’d thought I probably never would.





CHAPTER THREE


Rosie


When I woke up the following morning—at exactly 6:00 a.m., just like I had done every weekday for the last five years but didn’t need to anymore—I did so with a certain brown-eyed, smile-wearing man in mind.

And for a split second, I was sure I’d dreamed it all.

Lucas Martín at the door. The disaster that followed.

But as seconds ticked by and awareness returned, I realized none of that had been a product of my subconscious. It had really happened. Lucas had really been here. I had really mistaken him for a burglar. And I had managed to make the worst first impression in the history of first impressions.

We’ll start over. Forget tonight happened.

If only I could be so lucky.

Covering my face with one arm, I groaned loudly.

To make things worse, my much less dumbfounded brain realized now that I’d let him leave—venture into a city he had just arrived in—with barely any resistance on my side. I’d taken the apartment and left him on his own.

God, I was the worst.

I rolled on my side, refusing to get up and leave the comforting safety of my best friend’s bed. My gaze fell on a framed picture of Lina and her grandmother that rested on a shelf, reminding me of how close she’s always been to her family.

But then, why hadn’t Lina said anything about Lucas’s visit? Lina was an oversharer, especially with me. This was something she would have said at least in passing.

In Lina’s defense, ever since Aaron proposed in September last year, she had been swarmed with the wedding preparations. Planning a wedding in Spain from the other side of the world wasn’t exactly easy. And after tying the knot two months ago in a beautiful summer wedding by the sea, she had been overwhelmed by everything that followed, even if they hadn’t left for their honeymoon until now, in October. So, I guessed… I guessed it must have slipped her mind.

Closing my eyes, I decided that either way, it didn’t matter. Now Lucas was in New York, and Aaron and Lina were away, in Peru, enjoying their deserved honeymoon. I had no business feeling hurt.

Especially when I myself wasn’t being truthful to those around me. Lina had no idea about my secret crush on her cousin. And that was nothing in comparison to consistently lying to Dad and Olly about my job situation for months. Months.