Page 83 of Nothing to Do

Leaving her sister to the interrogation, because Roxie seemed completely at ease with it, she went into the bathroom to do her hair. Her makeup was flawless, Roxie was a woman with many talents.

When she got out again, dressed and ready, her sister was still talking.

“…it couldn’t have been just normal, you know, like, there had to be something. Wasn’t there something?”

“Okay, if you’re done,” she spoke over her sister. “We’re due downstairs.”

Alessia jumped up. “Oh my God, I was supposed to be in Lark’s room like twenty minutes ago.”

She ran a couple of steps, then stopped, her head going left to right between Roxie and the door.

“Same rules as the other night.” She read her sister’s mind. “You can eat with us if you want, but only you. I do not want Roxie mobbed.”

“Are we going to ‘Ula ‘Ula after dinner?”

“Sure are.”

So everyone else knew where they were going, how did her sister know? Okay, so she hadn’t asked, maybe that would be an obvious first step to achieving that goal.

“Will we be in the VIP area?”

“God, yes,” Roxie said. “Z banned me from the main floor of every club on the planet.”

Alessia laughed. “That’s funny. You can get into like the most exclusive level of every club, bar, and hotel in the world, but you can’t go where the regular folks go.”

“Hmm,” Roxie said, pondering. “When you put it like that…” She inhaled. “It’s not that I can’t go, I would, I can, it just gets…”

“Dangerous,” she said, channeling Zairn.

It was obvious why Zairn wouldn’t want the woman he loved in the crush of a thousand bodies, in a hot, dark, wet cavern drowned in heavy bass and deafening tunes.

“My birthday party was on the main floor in Crimson, LA.”

“Where you got arrested?” Alessia asked.

No big deal to them, but, uh, a big deal to her.

Shit. “You got arrested?” Now the little back and forth with Zairn about jail had some context. “Why were you arrested?”

Roxie did another of her dismissive waves. “It was nothing. A million years ago. The first time anyway. The second time was…” She made a strained sound. “Yeah, that was a little more dicey. At least I was alone that time.”

“You weren’t alone the first time?”

“Oh my God,” Alessia droned. “Sometimes you are so embarrassing! I bet even Mom knows more about Roxie’s relationship than you do.”

And that was a good thing? She didn’t go around taking notes on other people’s relationships. Apparently, though, she lived in a cave, had to if this was such common knowledge.

“It’s okay.” Roxie wasn’t that bothered. “I don’t know that much about her relationship either.”

“No one does, she won’t even talk about him.” Her sister wasn’t impressed, but quickly perked up again. “How did youhave your party on the main floor? Were there like tickets? Did you do a contest? How did I miss that?”

“No, it was just people we knew. Z closed the club.”

And her sister swooned. “Aww, that’s so romantic.”

“He’s good like that. Does his best work with an audience.”

“You are so lucky. He’s so hot and rich and—”

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