The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (novels for students .TXT) 📕

to figure that out.” I shook my head. “But there’s a difference between not keeping it a secret and broadcasting to everybody that I just got laid.”

“You are right. Sorry.” Some of the pink returned to her cheeks. “It’s your hair, seriously. It looks …” Her hand spun in the air in an overexaggerated way.

“It’s really windy today, okay?” I passed my hands down my chestnut locks, trying to tame them. I lowered my voice. “It’s not like we are constantly going at it like animals.”

Although we sort of were. We had done exactly that earlier this morning. Just as soon as the alarm went off. Both of us equally voracious and greedy with each other the moment we had opened our eyes to a tangle of arms and legs.

Only thinking about his hands and—

“Oh my gosh,” Rosie loud-whispered.

I zeroed back in on her and found her green eyes widening.

“You are thinking of it right now, aren’t you?”

I didn’t bother to deny it; she knew me well enough to catch me on a lie.

“In the office?” she gasped. “It’s only noon.”

“No,” I gasped back, although a spark ignited something low in my belly at the thought of office sex. Damn, am I sex-crazed? “Back at his place.” I shrugged my shoulders, unpacking the bagel we had grabbed on our way to work. It felt weird, thinking of Aaron and me as a we who picked up lunch and headed into work together. No, the flutter in my stomach didn’t say weird. It said different. Light-headed, butterflies-in-my-tummy different.

She searched my face for a long moment, making me frown. Then, her lips tugged up, breaking into a sunny grin. “Wow. You have it so bad.”

Maybe I do, I thought, biting into my bagel. “So, what did I miss, Rosalyn?”

“Nuh-uh.” She popped open a metallic container, revealing a rice salad, topped with some greens. “No time to talk about my boring life or work. Things are the same. Start talking right freaking now, friend.” She dug a fork into her food, a little too forcefully. “I want all the details. And don’t leave out the cheesy, swoonworthy ones.”

My mouth opened with a complaint.

“Again, no. Don’t you even dare tell me there aren’t a few movie-worthy moments because I’ll unfriend you.”

Plopping my bagel on the table, I sighed dramatically.

“Spill the beans, Catalina Martín.”

“Damn, since when are you this bossy?” I asked her right before she pointed at me with her fork while she shot me a dagger or two with her eyes. “Okay, okay.” I lifted my hands in the air, took a deep breath in, and then started reciting every single thing that had gone down between Aaron and me. Keeping the name of our soon-to-be boss out, just in case.

Once my friend was all caught up—and if her shit-eating grin was saying anything, she was more than satisfied with what she had heard—I snatched back my bagel and resumed my lunch.

“Fuck, Lina,” she said through her ear-to-ear smile.

I flinched. “Rosalyn, did you just swear”—I blinked—“while grinning like a Cheshire cat?”

“Fuck yes, I did, you goddamn idiot.”

Jaw hanging open, I watched her look around, lifting the few things we had lying on the table and putting them right back where they had been, an unconvinced expression on her face.

“What the hell are you doing?” My throat worked, trying to pass down my bagel.

“Looking for something I can throw at your head,” she answered nonchalantly. But that grin was still there.

Is this angry Rosie? It was unsettling.

“Maybe if I did, I’d knock some sense into your hard head. Although from what you are telling me, you are not only stubborn, but also pretty darn blind. So, really, I am at a loss here. I just want to smack you and see what happens.”

My mouth snapped shut. “Smack me? That’s where your loyalty lies, so-called friend?”

She leveled me with a look that immediately sobered me up. “Lina.”

As I released a breath, my shoulders fell with defeat. “I know, okay? I deserve some of that smacking.” I knew how fucking dumb I had been. How blind and stubborn. I knew she was right. But I was also starting to understand what I felt for Aaron and how big and scary it was. “Rosie, I think … no. I know that I—”

“Oh no,” she cut my words off.

And at the same time, a head popped up in my field of vision.

“Hi, Rosie, Lina. How are you ladies doing?”

As of right now, not too well anymore, I wanted to tell him.

“Hello, Gerald,” I muttered instead.

Neither of us bothered to answer his question.

Not that he cared, apparently, because he stayed rooted in place.

“So, how was the vacay, Lina?”

The vacay. It hadn’t even been a holiday—I had just taken three days off, for Christ’s sake—but there was no point in correcting him.

Turning in my chair and facing him with what I hoped wasn’t a grimace, I braced myself for a few tortuous minutes of small talk. “Wonderful, thank you.”

He gave me a knowing nod, followed by a blatant smirk. I frowned.

“Big day tomorrow with Open Day, huh?” He leaned a hand on our table, the buttons of his shirt struggling under the change in position.

Why did he have to stuff himself in clothing two sizes smaller? Someone should tell him. He didn’t deserve the courtesy, but the world didn’t deserve this kind of sight either.

“You have an outfit picked out and all? I know you girls take your time, deciding.”

My teeth grated together with the sheer effort of not turning the table over and flipping him off. “Yes,” I answered through my teeth. “Now, if you don’t mind, we were having lu—”

“Did you have trouble putting everything together?” Gerald asked, not caring about my brush-off.

I thought I’d heard Rosie mutter something that sounded a lot like jerk under her breath.

Damn, she’s ragey today.

“A little. But it’s all sorted now,” I told him with a neutral expression.

“I bet you managed to find some help.”

That last word—help—the way he had said it,