Page 43 of The Pucking Kiss

“Hmm,” my brow furrowed as I got up from the table and made my way over to the living room. I had been so busy with my dad that I hadn’t even noticed where Romai had been all day.

“Romai?” I called out, not seeing her anywhere.

Had she left? That couldn’t be possible. Things between us were great. Especially considering how great last night went.

Finally, I spotted her crouched on one of the sofas with her legs cuddled closer to her chest.

“There you are,” I said, relief flooding over me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Come on, lunch is served.”

“I’m not hungry,” her reply was short, and she didn’t look up at me.

I got the sense that she was avoiding me.

“Hey,” I went over to her, sitting right in front of her so that she had to look at me. “What’s going on? Aren’t you hungry? I grilled.”

“Nope,” she shook her head and then went back to staring at a random spot on the wall.

“Did something happen?”

“You tell me.”

“Romai…” I said, growing impatient now. “You’re acting pretty weird.”

“I’m just not in the mood, Bryan,” she said, slowly uncurling her legs and getting up. “I’ll be in the bedroom. Just let me know when we have to leave, okay? I want to go home.”

“Is it something I did?” I asked, but she didn’t bother gracing my question with a response as I heard the door shut loudly behind her.

God, girls were confusing.

And if my fake relationship was having problems like this, I couldn’t even imagine how bad it would get if it was a real relationship.

Still feeling confused, I walked back to the porch where my dad and Samantha were having lunch. My dad looked at me expectantly as if he knew something was wrong.

“She’s not hungry,” I announced as I took my seat at the table.

“She should at least come and sit with us,” my dad suggested. “You’ll be leaving pretty soon, and it’d be nice to get to know her a bit more.”

“I don’t really think she’s in the mood,” I said and started piling food on my own plate.

Suddenly, though, I wasn’t hungry anymore either. It didn’t sit right with me that Romai was acting cross with me for no reason. I hadn’t even done anything.

“You really care about this girl,” my dad said, observing my face carefully. “I can tell.”

I didn’t reply. Instead, I just kept my eyes on my plate.

Later, Romai was still quiet when we were driving back home. She barely said two words to me, and we had already been in the car for three hours.

“So,” I spoke up, hoping to spark up a conversation, “Should we keep the tutoring session for tomorrow? You know we have that big math test coming up, and I could really use the help.”

She shrugged, looking down at her phone. “I’ll let you know.”

“You’ll let me know?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. She had never acted so cold with me before.

“Yeah, I have a life, too,” she replied. “I’m not always free for you to call whenever you want.”

Ouch. That one hurt a little.

“Romai…” I focused on the road again, “Wasn’t the entire point of doing this with me precisely that you didn’t have a life and wanted my help? It goes both ways.”