Page 32 of Us in Ruins
Margot stuttered, “Everything about what?”
Suki threw herself back onto the bed, arms spread starfish wide. “Why you blew off pizza night for your date with Chad, obviously.”
Excuse me? Margot could have died right then, right there. “My what with who? I didn’t go on a date with anyone. Definitely not Chad.”
Astrid finished brushing out her white-blonde hair in the closet’s full-length mirror. “Please. You’re clearly obsessed with him.”
“Me?” Margot asked. “Suki hasn’t stopped drooling over him in the twelve hours since she met him.”
Suki raised an eyebrow, completely unfazed. “Guilty as charged.”
“I thought you had a thing for Rex,” Margot said.
“That was before I knew Chad Vanderson existed. The heart wants what the heart wants.” Suki rolled over and propped her chin up on her hands, her feet kicking in the air. “Seriously, how did I not see him at all last year? I totally would have remembered a face like his.”
“That’s what I want to know,” Astrid said. She sat down on the floor next to Suki’s bunk, and Suki weaved her fingers into her hair, threading the silk strands into braids. “By the way, thanks a lot for ditching me this afternoon just to go pick him up. You know how much I love doing your work for you.”
Suki added, “And you guys bailed on dinner, sooooo... I demand deets!”
While the rest of the group scarfed down pizzas, Margot and Van slipped inside a vintage consignment shop filled with patched leather jackets and well-worn cotton blends. Astrid had been right about one thing: Van stuck out like a sore thumb in his suspenders.
Margot had piled her arms full of clothes and shoved Van into the dressing room. He’d grumbled with every quick change. There were spaghetti western cowboy hats and feathered boas and plaid bell-bottoms. His frown lines grew as deep as the Adriatic when he donned a shirt that barely stretched across his shoulders and did nothing to cover the flat planes of his abdomen.
Heat had flared against Margot’s cheeks. “Crop tops are a fashion statement.”
“Not one I plan on making.” Van glowered. Absolutely no joy reached his eyes.
“Here,” Margot had said as she slid a pair of outrageously pink sunglasses on his face. “To complete the Ken doll look.”
His scowl had deepened. He ripped the shades off and plucked another option from the pile of shirts and vanished back into the dressing room.
The memory warmed Margot’s cheeks as she hopped down from the windowsill. Goose bumps had risen on her arms despite the evening’s humidity, and she tried not to obviously shuck them from her arms as the girls stared. “I told you. His luggage got lost, so we went to buy him some new clothes. Hardly scandalous.”
A light flashed in Suki’s eyes. “So, you’re just friends?”
Margot gave a tight-lipped nod. Friends. Was that the word for what she and Van were? They were acquaintances. Reluctant allies, maybe. He did cover for her with Dr. Hunt, even if he nearly drowned her within the same hour. But anything more than that? It would take a pretty hefty suspension of disbelief. After all, he didn’t do partners. She knew better than to think that he could do friends.
Margot went to shut the window but paused halfway. Below, the hotel’s back door slammed, and Margot leaned out for a better view. Whatever she expected to see, it wasn’t a very familiar set of shoulders in a daffodil-yellow T-shirt with the tag still flopping out of the back collar, wandering the parking lot.
“Oh, my god,” Margot said, lurching upright. If it weren’t for the wrought iron window guard, she would have tumbled out onto the pavement.
What was Van doing out there? And, more importantly, why was he doing it without her?
She slammed the glass panes shut with such force that Astrid startled backward and banged her head against the bed frame.
“What is it?” Suki asked. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
Margot couldn’t get her sneakers on fast enough. “Not a ghost. Just, um... I just remembered that Chad forgot to pay me for the thrift shop. Thanks for reminding me.”
She whipped out the door and bypassed the elevator entirely. Instead, she sped so quickly down the rickety set of carpeted stairs that her feet tangled underneath her. Everything spun until she crash-landed into the lobby with a spectacular finish.
“I’m fine!” she called out to Giuseppe, who may or may not have bothered to look up from his computer.
With a huff, Margot peeled herself off the floor and raced to the parking lot. She braced her hands against her knees and caught her breath as she scanned for Van.
There.
He beelined toward the back of the lot. Inhaling, Margot marched up behind him.