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Michael supposedly got a girl’s number at the last party he snuck out to, and Lia is not jealous at all.
Nope. Not even a little bit. They’re off, and Michael’s a big kid, he can do what he wants. There is no reason for Lia to be remotely jealous.
It’s times like these that Lia wishes she knew somebody who was good at girl talk. Cassie is okay at it, she supposes, and Sloane is a good listener, but she never has much personal advice despite her healthy relationship⎼⎼
Wait.
Lia goes to find Celine.
By some stroke of luck, Michael’s half-sister is by herself, for once not with Sloane. Celine is in the living room, sitting on the couch. Her sketchbook is open, and her pencil is slowly tracing lines across the page, but Lia can tell her full focus isn’t really on the drawing. “Can we talk?” she asks abruptly.
Celine doesn’t look up. “Sure. Is it about Michael? Do you want embarrassing stories about him?”
Lia makes a mental note to remember that Celine definitely has all the dirt on Michael. “Yes, it’s about Michael.” She scowls for dramatic effect. “He told me he got some girl’s number at the last party we went to. And he wasn’t lying.”
“When was the party?” Celine asks, finally glancing up.
Lia considers for a few seconds. It wasn’t that recently⎼⎼they’ve been wading through active cases for a good chunk of time now. “Two weeks ago. Maybe.”
“So he got this number two weeks ago, and he’s just telling you now,” Celine says. She arches her eyebrows. “Why?”
“He’s probably trying to make me jealous,” Lia huffs.
“It sounds like it’s working.”
“What⎼⎼ It is not working,” Lia snaps.
It is working.
Celine shrugs and starts drawing again. “Why don’t you just talk to him about it?”
“Talk to him?” Lia repeats, mildly horrified. She folds her arms over her chest. “Having a civilized conversation with him about this is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.”
“Hmm. Probably because you’re jealous.”
Lia huffs out a breath. “Not all relationships can be as easy as yours,” she insists instead of denying that she’s jealous.
Celine looks back up at Lia and sets her pencil down. “It’s not always easy,” she replies simply. “Compared to yours, it might seem that way, but we have our own problems.”
Lia raises her eyebrows, suddenly very curious. “Like what?”
Celine exhales slowly. “So much has happened to Sloane that she doesn’t want to tell me about,” she says carefully. “Have you ever seen her having a nightmare?”
“Yes,” Lia admits, picking at the flaking nail polish on her nails.
“They’re bad,” Celine continues. “And she processes things her own way, so it can be hard to help her sometimes.”
Lia doesn’t form a response for several seconds. “Michael and I aren’t like that.”
“Obviously,” Celine replies. “You two have your own problems.”
Lia rolls her eyes. “Well, yes. But I meant that we don’t help each other.”
“Maybe you should,” Celine notes.
“How am I supposed to initiate that?” Lia demands. “He has some random girl’s number in his phone, for God’s sake.”
Celine shrugs. “Just go talk to him.”
“I have no idea where he is,” Lia lies. He’s in his room.
“You’re stalling.”
“I assure you, CeCe dearest, that I am not.”
Celine picks her pencil up again. “You definitely are.”
Lia huffs out a breath, more dramatically than probably necessary. “Fine,” she grouses. “I’ll find him.”
Sure enough, Michael is in his room. Exactly like Lia knew he would be. She wonders if his new girl knows anything real about him, and then mentally scolds herself. She needs to stop thinking about this girl, damnit. She’s going to have a very civilized conversation with Michael Townsend, and everything will go splendid.
“Knock, knock,” Lia announces, waltzing into the room.
Michael barely spares her a glance. “That took longer than I expected.”
Lia frowns and places her hands on her hips. “Than you expected? I’m sorry I don’t align my personal schedule to fit with yours. Especially now that you’ve surely got a new girl on your calendar.”
Not civilized, she mentally chides herself.
The corners of Michael’s lips quirk up in a tiny smile as he finally turns around to look at her. “Knew that’d get your pants in a twist.”
Lia smiles sweetly at him. “Well, you were mistaken. As you can see, here are my pants.” She gestures to her leggings. “Untwisted.”
“You’re jealous,” Michael says flatly.
Lia’s smile drops. “You got her number.”
“What does it matter to you?”
“You never get the numbers of the girls you flirt with.” Lia narrows her eyes. “In fact, you’ve never taken anything past flirting. You practically charm their pants off, but you’ve never slept with a single one of those girls.”
“What would you say if I did?” Michael challenges.
“What would I say?” Lia adopts a very innocent expression. “Well, I’m flattered you thought of me. It really says something about you that you’re thinking of me when we’re talking about who you’re sleeping with.”
Michael rolls his eyes. “I can sleep with whoever I want.”
“And yet you don’t,” Lia counters instantly. She flutters her eyelashes at him. “Why might that be?”
Michael glares at her. “Can you just drop the subject?”
“No.”
Not very civilized of her.
“We’re off right now,” Michael continues, almost frustratedly. “Just let it go. Go hook up with some rich boy or whatever. I don’t care.”
Lie. He does care. Lia pretends to be scandalized. “God, do you seriously think I’m only attracted to rich boys? For your information, I had a thing with Sloane before you showed up.”
That catches Michael’s attention. “Did you really?” he asks, sounding curious but annoyed about his curiosity.
Lia shrugs. “Obviously.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Michael asks skeptically. “It took weeks for her to get together with Celine.”
“Well, it wasn’t that official,” Lia replies dismissively, waving her hand. “I had a theory that she was not quite straight, and decided to test it out.”
“By hooking up with her? You’re unbearable,” Michael replies. He folds his arms over his chest. “Are you being serious right now?”
Lia widens her eyes. “You don’t trust me? I’m offended.”
Michael rolls his eyes. “I’m sure.”
Lia makes a tsking noise. “Of course I’m being serious. We kissed several times. She was actually quite jealous when you showed up on the scene.”
“I’m asking Sloane about this later.”
“By all means, do. She’ll probably get flustered and start stammering a lot.” Lia smirks, thinking about Sloane’s reaction the first time they’d kissed. “Now, tell me about your mystery girl.”
Michael narrows his eyes. “You don’t really want to know.”
“I do,” Lia replies sweetly. “Tell me.”
Michael turns around, back to whatever he was doing before Lia popped in. “I’m not going to tell you anything. You don’t have to know everything about my love life.”
“So you love her,” Lia presses, immediately honing in on his word choice. “You want to date her.”
“I didn’t say that,” Michael replies defensively.
Lia takes advantage of the fact that he’s not looking at her and sticks her tongue out at him. “Then what, Michael dearest, are you saying?”
Michael doesn’t say anything for several seconds.
When it becomes clear he’s not going to reply, Lia starts pushing again. “You got her number two weeks ago and only decided to tell me yesterday. Why? Are you sleeping with her?”
“God, you always get so fucking jealous,” Michael mutters.
“Like you wouldn’t if I brought a hot new boy home one day,” Lia shoots back. She’d actually never risk bringing one of her hookups back to the Naturals house, even if she was actually invested, but Michael doesn’t need to know that.
Michael doesn’t deny Lia’s statement. In fact, he doesn’t say anything at all.
“Well?” Lia prompts when the silence is getting to be too much for her.
“Well, what?” Michael’s voice is low in his throat. Lia sort of hates that it’s kind of turning her on.
Lia lifts her chin defiantly, even though he’s still not looking at her. “Well, what do you have to say about that?”
He can’t lie to her. If Michael decides to try and claim he wouldn’t be jealous if Lia brought some random boy home, they’ll both know he’s lying.
Which means the situation is just going to escalate from here.
“Yes,” Michael says finally, and he sounds very frustrated about it. “Okay. Fine. I would be jealous if you brought somebody else home.” He turns around to face Lia. “But I haven’t brought this girl home.”
“But you told me about her,” Lia counters. She taps her foot on the ground impatiently, civilized conversation be damned at this point. “Why would you do that?”
Michael shrugs. “Isn’t communication key in a relationship?” he asks dryly.
Lia thinks back to what she’d said to Celine about Michael. We don’t help each other.
Maybe you should.
“No response to that?” Michael asks flatly.
Lia tunes back in and glares at Michael. “I was thinking about your sister’s advice, if you really want to know,” she says with a haughty sniff.
Michael blinks. “Celine? You went to Celine about this?”
Lia shrugs delicately. “Cassie and Sloane aren’t the best at girl talk.”
Michael rolls his eyes. “What did she tell you?”
Lia hesitates for half a second. Not long, but noticeable enough if Michael was paying attention. “She suggested civilized conversation.”
“Really. And how is that working out for you?”
Lia taps her finger against her chin. “Maybe it would be working out better if you weren’t such a stubborn asshole.”
“A stubborn asshole,” Michael repeats. “And yet you care about my relationships.”
“Because I’m one of them, dumbass,” Lia hisses. “Or are you so swept up in your new girl that you’ve forgotten about all that?”
Michael rolls his eyes again. “Of course I haven’t forgotten,” he fires back.
Lia narrows her eyes at him challengingly. “You care about me.”
“What?” Michael replies, raising his eyebrows.
“You. Care. About. Me.” Lia emphasizes each individual word. “Say it.”
“Why the hell would I say that?”
“Say that you care about me,” Lia insists. “Say it, and I’ll leave your mystery girl alone.”
Michael groans. “You’re always so difficult,” he mutters.
Lia cocks her head. “Sorry, that didn’t sound like the right words to me.”
“Fine,” Michael grumbles. “I’ll do you one better.”
Before Lia can ask him what the hell he means by that, Michael closes the distance between them and kisses her. Hard.
One thing about Michael and Lia is that their kisses are always very passionate, very intense. More often than not, they lead to something more than kissing, exhibit A being the way Michael’s hands are finding their way under the hem of Lia’s shirt.
Two can play that game. Lia kisses him back and, in doing so, slips her hands under his shirt, running her fingers up and down his back. His fingers press into her back in return, and Lia feels her body arch slightly.
“We’re off,” Lia reminds Michael the second their lips aren’t touching anymore. Their faces are still very close together. “Are you going to have to tell your mystery girl about how our relationship works?”
Michael rolls his eyes. “You said you’d drop it if I said I cared about you.”
“And you didn’t.” It’s petty, sure. But Lia excels at being petty.
“Fine.” Michael rolls his eyes again. His voice is rough in his throat when he says, “I care about you, Lia.”
He isn’t lying.
He isn’t lying.
Lia wonders for half a second if it would be easier if he was lying.
“Now what?” she asks flatly. “Are you going to start juggling two girlfriends?”
“I haven’t texted her,” Michael says abruptly.
Lia blinks. “What?”
“I haven’t texted her,” Michael repeats. He shrugs slightly. “I’ve had her number for two weeks, but I haven’t texted her.”
“Because of the cases,” Lia replies dismissively. Surely that’s why. “You were busy.”
“No. Well, yes, but no.” Michael slowly lifts a hand and rubs at the back of his neck. “I haven’t texted her because I’m not interested in her.”
Lia knows what Michael wants her to ask. “So who are you interested in?” she prompts, taking the bait.
A small, twisted grin slowly spreads across Michael’s face. Lia leans a tiny bit closer. “Kiss me again,” he says in a low voice, “and maybe I’ll tell you.”