Page 58 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

“Let’s do it now. We’ll help wrangle her into the car,” Lucy said as she stood up and wobbled on her feet.

Leo snorted. Lucy couldn’t wrangle a baby at the moment.

“It’s Monday night,” Alex said. “Where could we possibly go?”

“Son of a bitch,” Ben groaned. “Don’t remind me of the day. I have a shit ton of meetings tomorrow. I’m so fucked.”

Rome helped him stand. “That’s on you, dumbass. No one told you to have multiples of each drink.”

“Who would’ve thought those girlie-ass drinks had so much alcohol in them?” Ben wailed, defending his double fisting.

“You would’ve if you paid any attention to Leo while he was making them,” Liam said from Leo’s left where he was helping clean up the bar. He too was probably sober, since he stuck to sipping his neat whiskey and switched to water once he saw how hard Kamilah was going. He’d used it as an excuse to get water into her system at regular intervals. He’d take a drink and then get her to take one too.

It was one of the many little things Leo had witnessed Liam do to take care of his sister throughout the last year and a half. It made him feel confident that Liam was the right one for her, despite their decades of fighting. It gave him hope that he and Sofi could also make it work.

Speaking of Sofi, she was currently hugging Gabi and Alex goodbye while they all swayed like sunflowers in the wind. They were so drunk.

Over their heads, Saint gave him an accusatory look, but it was ruined by his own rosy cheeks and squinty eyes.

Leo smirked at the idea of his deadly serious veteran big brother getting tipsy on a bunch of pink drinks. “I hope y’all know that I’m keeping these until tomorrow,” Leo told them, gesturing to the bowl where he’d collected everyone’s car keys. “I’ve already gotten you all rides.” He looked at Rome and Ben. “Although, I didn’t know where either of you live, so I put in the brewery.”

Rome waved him off. “That’s fine. I have a pull-out couch in my office.”

“I’m not sharing a bed with you,” Ben grumbled to his cousin. “What are we, six years old again?”

“We aren’t sharing a bed,” Rome said. “I’m leaving your ass there while I walk down the street to my apartment.”

“That’s some bullshit,” Ben groused. “This is why I keep telling you to move out of that tiny studio and get a big-boy apartment.”

“You better not leave him alone,” Liam said. “He might choke on his own puke.”

Ben swung around to glare at Liam but tipped into a table instead. “I never puke,” he claimed.

Both Rome and Liam laughed at that.

“Y’all are assholes,” Ben mumbled as he stumbled toward the door, Rome close on his heels to steady him.

Within moments everyone else followed them out, leaving only Leo, Kamilah, Liam, and Sofi behind. Kamilah and Sofi were both slumped onto each other at the bar and looking like they were ready to pass out. “Come on, you two lushes,” Leo told them. “It’s time to go to bed.”

“Ugh,” Kamilah groaned. “I’m so glad the restaurant is closed tomorrow. I know I’m going to be so hungover.”

“Same,” Sofi said. “I don’t know whose idea it was to drink heavily on a Monday night, but I’m going to have words with them or maybe I’ll just vomit on them.”

Leo stayed quiet because it had totally been his spur-of-the-moment idea, but he honestly hadn’t planned for everyone to get drunk as skunks. He just thought he’d try what Abuelo and Doña Fina had suggested and create a nice way for Sofi to relax after a long day at the office. But he’d forgotten about the food portion of that plan. By the time he’d realized she was getting intoxicated and hadn’t had dinner, the damage had been done and not even the pizzas he ordered could fix it.

“Oh no,” Kamilah said. She reached out to pat Sofi on the back but missed and swung at the empty space between them.

“I’m okay,” she told Kamilah. “Just feel like I got my bell rung like Quasimodo inThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame.” She slid to the edge of her seat. “Do you know that was my favorite movie growing up?” She grabbed the hand that Leo had extended. He pulled her up. “I wanted to be Esmeralda so bad,” she continued. “But then I grew up and realized how fucked up the movie truly was.” She looked at him through glassy eyes. “Did you know how messed up it is? The stereotypes and all that?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Anyway, I was so sad that I wasn’t able to see it in all its glory.”

“The movie?” Kamilah asked, her face scrunched into a frown that reminded Leo of her child self.

“No the real Notre-Dame,” Sofi said. “It’s still under construction because of the fire and so I could only see it from the outside. That made me sad even though the story was terrible.” Sofi propped herself against the bar. “But you know what made me really sad?” she asked.

Leo scooped up the rest of the unused ingredients and looked for the grocery store bag he’d brought them in. Unable to find it, he just stuck everything in one of the small fridges behind the bar.

“What?” Kamilah asked in response to Sofi’s question.

“Everywhere I went, I was sad that you weren’t there, because you were supposed to be there with me, but I was by myself. That made me sad.”

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