Page 47 of Little Do You Know

“But you want to tell her,” Penelope hedges, leaning forward eagerly.

“Is it going to involve Owen getting hurt?” I question, choosing against commenting on the stupid bro code.

“Potentially,” Sebastian answers vaguely. He shakes his head, swearing under his breath. “He’s started talking to Amelia again. I don’t approve, but I can’t exactly tell him what to do. I’m secretly dating his little sister,” he reminds me as if it’s something I could have forgotten. I wonder if he’ll ever see me as someone other than Owen’s sister, even now that we’re together. I don’t want to feel guilty about us. Maybe it was the wrong thing to suggest we keep it quiet until after my birthday.

I push the thought out of my mind to explain Amelia’s role. “Owen’s ex-girlfriend that cheated on him. We were in…I think Barcelona when I found out?”

“Yes! That’s right. Okay, wait—why is he with her again if she cheated on him?”

I look at Sebastian because that’s an excellent question. Why is he talking to her again? “I don’t understand. Owen said he wanted nothing to do with her.”

“Thalia, English.”

Oh hell, that will be said a lot in the next few weeks. “Never mind, when did this happen?” I rephrase my statement.

“Sometime recently. He knows how I feel about it, so he doesn’t talk about her much.” Sebastian clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the current trend of the conversation. “So, Penelope, how were you able to come a week early? Wouldn’t that make your stay like three weeks long?”

“I’m a free spirit; I tend to go wherever, whenever I want,” she says, crossing her legs in front of her. “I’m not sure if I’ll stay the full time, but I was sick of waiting to see ma chienne préférée.”

I can’t help but laugh because she just explained herself perfectly. Penelope is a free spirit, and I can’t imagine a better way to describe her. It’s why we get along. I lean into Bash again, enjoying how it feels to be held by him without feeling like we’re hiding, at least until Owen returns.

“I think I’m jealous you have nothing tying you to one spot. I’ve always wondered what I could do if I didn’t have so many responsibilities,” Sebastian admits, and I didn’t know that’s how he felt about here. What’s tying him down? Mimi is here, but she’d never ask him to stay in one place for him.

I don’t know all that much about him anymore or what happened in the year I was gone. I’ve known him since we were kids, and we were friends when we were younger. Then, this whole ignoring thing started once Owen and Bash got to middle school, and I became Owen’s annoying little sister.

Since coming to Duke, it’s been a mixture of kisses and insults.

We’re in the honeymoon phase, where we can’t keep our hands off each other when we’re alone, which doesn’t leave much time for talking. I want to know more about Sebastian, moving past the surface-level things.

“It’s a great way to live, but it can get old. Where are we going tonight?” Penelope asks, and I’m confused. Were we supposed to be going somewhere tonight?

“To bed? Dude, it’s a Sunday night. Bash has weights in the morning for football, and I have class.”

She juts her bottom lip at me, pouting. “Ma chéri, when did you get so boring? We have to celebrate being together again!”

“I promise, Lia is not boring.” Sebastian chuckles, shaking his head as if this idea of me being boring is ludicrous. “Owen has a bottle of tequila under the ice packs at the bottom of the fridge; I can babysit.”

“That’s not how this works. If I’m drinking on a Sunday, so are you.”

Penelope is already on her way to the kitchen to find the said bottle of tequila. “One drink,” he promises, leaning forward to press his lips against my forehead, making me forget his comment.

“We will see. Penelope is good at getting her way. It’s hard to say no to her. Why else do you think I have a tattoo of a sun?”

“I’m not sure, but I can’t say I don’t enjoy the placement of it. You’re pretty sensitive there,” Sebastian teases, and my cheeks burn. “She’s fun. I like her.”

“Good.”

Penelope comes back out with a half-empty bottle and no glasses. “We’re drinking straight from the bottle tonight.” She smiles innocently. “What? I couldn’t find your glasses.”

She takes a pull straight from the bottle without even flinching. “Bash, this is exactly why my partying days are slowing down. It’s not a real party until you’re with an eccentric French woman,” I warn as she passes the bottle to me for my pull.

Tequila is not my liquor of choice, but it’s effective. It burns going down, and I can’t help coughing at the revolting taste. I feel better watching Sebastian’s face after he takes his pull. I lean over and kiss him briefly. “Better?” I ask, and he smiles softly at me, his dark eyes crinkling with happiness.

He kisses me again. “Better now.”

It’s silly how happy I am now with my favorite person and boyfriend. It still seems wild calling Sebastian my boyfriend. I never would have thought this would be my reality. How was I supposed to say no when he asked me to give him a chance? He was telling me he thinks about me all the time and that if I didn’t want him, he’d respect my decision. The only logical answer was to say yes. We don’t have to hurt each other anymore.

“Lia, I’m disappointed. You used to do so much better than that,” Penelope scolds. I settle under Sebastian’s arm, savoring the feeling.

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