6. Diego

"You got what you wanted, Dad. Are you happy now?" Roni said to her dad.

"Yes, I am," he said simply.

We were at the dinner table going through the motions of fake dating.

"The whole world knows that I used my best friend's funeral as an excuse to flaunt my ‘attractive new boo,'" she said, quoting a magazine that wrote an article about the funeral and us. A photo of us standing on the steps to the church made the front page.

I watched Roni as I politely shoved a bite of overcooked steak into my mouth. The woman was trapped between a rock and a hard place. I actually felt sorry for her, which was not something I'd expected. If high school me had known this was coming, he wouldn't have believed it. Back then Roni was tough and able to dig herself out of whatever corner I put her in. Even better, she always came out swinging. To see someone as tough as nails be dragged through the media the way she had been, it was rough—and arguably undeserved. I couldn't believe that I felt sorry for her.

"Veronica, Nina knows the world of politics. She would have just laughed about this," Monica, the First Lady, said—although it didn't sound like she believed her own words. Roni nearly rolled her eyes into the back of her head. Monica shook her head slightly before she went back to looking at her steak.

Roni scoffed. "Knew. She knew the world of politics. She knows nothing now except eternal darkness. If you'll excuse me, I'm going upstairs to my room. Diego, I'm sure you know your way out," Roni said and then stormed from the room.

I couldn't even be upset at the dramatic exit. I was suddenly so uncomfortable that I wanted to leave, too. I'd faced down enemy snipers, explosions, and all kinds of bad-ass shit, but none of that prepared me for the hostile relationship between Roni and her parents. What disturbed me even more was that I was siding with Roni. Again, high school me never would have seen this coming.

"You'll have to excuse her…"

"She's going through a great loss, and her entire life is being uprooted as if she were five. She's a grown adult who has no control over her own life. I get it," I said simply.

They stared at me briefly, trying to gauge my opinion of their family, but I kept a poker face. I couldn't let my opinions get in the way of the mission before I'd barely started. As spoiled as Roni was, and no matter how much she used to get under my skin, I had a feeling she needed my presence—to be someone she's confident would watch her back. I'd be someone safe in the way that she knew what my intentions were. My mission was laid out for her by her father.

I finished my meal with Roni's parents, who filled the silence with polite chit-chat. The experience was excruciating. I almost craved the remote silence of Alaska at that moment. I didn't understand how they could make their entire lives revolve around that shit. It was easy to see that she detested her father's political career and everything it brought her. She'd formed a wall that she didn't have back in our school days. She'd had friends and had been popular. In the couple of days I'd spent with her since the funeral, she hadn't picked up the phone one time to text anyone. She didn't receive any phone calls. It was as if Nina was her only friend. She was absolutely alone—isolated because of her father, and yet he had no sympathy.

I wasn't sure why I was surprised. The man wanted to use my ethnicity to gain voters…

While Roni didn't have anyone reaching out to her, I experienced the opposite. Everyone and their mother, brother, and uncle had crawled out of the woodwork to contact me. My family was shocked by the news that I was dating the daughter of the president. My grandmother had cried tears of happiness on the other end of the line. She proceeded to tell me in Spanish that I was what our family had always hoped for. I was the American Dream. The words had turned the guilt deep in my gut. I wouldn't be able to tell them this was all a lie. She wanted me to bring Roni for dinner sometime to meet the family, but that wouldn't be happening—nor would I be able to contact them when I took Roni off-grid. I was going to hurt my family with this assignment. Roni wouldn't be the only one with family issues when this was all said and done.

When my friends called me in a group chat the night of the funeral, Christine was shrieking like a banshee in the background. The news had already published photos of us.

"Garcia, what the fuck?" Jones had asked.

"Yeah, Garcia, what the fuck?" Jasmine had said from behind him.

"Whoa, everyone, cut him some slack. Everyone's been pretty busy of late, especially Garcia. Give him a minute to explain," Abbi said as the voice of reason. That was new.

"I knew I liked you, Abbi," I said with a smile.

"Hey, she's my girl. Fuck off," Strong said with a smirk. His body language betrayed his harsh words.

"So take it from the top. You are dating the president's daughter?" Yates asked.

I was taken aback by the fact that he hadn't made a joke yet.

"Are you sick?" I asked him.

"Sick of you dodging the question. Chop, chop, lover-boy," he said, sounding more like the Yates I knew and loved. Natalia laughed at him in the background.

"I can't really go into much detail, but hey, I'm dating the president's daughter," I said with a slight laugh.

They all stared at me expectantly.

"That's it?" Mendez asked, staring at me through the phone.

"That's it," I said.

There was a moment of silence. "We were hoping for more of the scoop," Christine said.

I felt bad lying. I was dying to tell my friends about this new arrangement. I just hoped they'd forgive me when this all came to light. "Well, it's really new. There's not much to dish."

Jasmine took the phone from Jones. "It's so sad about her friend. Is she okay?"

"No, she's not, but she will be after some time. They were really close." At least I hoped she'd be okay. While I'd been through my own fair share of loss, I was certainly no expert. I had my friends to help me get through each time we heard taps and watched a battle buddy get lowered into the ground. Roni had no one. Correction, she had me, which to her might even be worse than being alone. We'd hadn't addressed our past issues, and they hung out in the background, only complicating matters further.

"That reminds me, she and I are getting ready to take a long trip. Who wants to come watch my apartment?" I asked.

"I thought this was new. You are already vacationing together?" Mendez asked. His eyes narrowed. He'd be the most skeptical of all of my friends. He was my best friend, and I was scared he'd see right through me. If I never admitted anything, I wouldn't be breaking my NDA, but I didn't want to take any chances. That thing spelled out a lot of consequences for a fuck-up. Consequences that even Christine's money would have a hard time getting me out of.

"Mhmm," I answered.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes even further.

"Nothing, I promise. Everything is good. I'm just caught off guard by how drastically my life has changed in the past few days. The media broadcasting my face all over television and in magazines is a little weird," I answered.

"The spotlight isn't new to you. We were all in the news after we caught each trafficking ring," Jasmine commented suspiciously.

She was right, but this was totally different. It wasn't related to the work I'd done; it was for who I was connected to. Suddenly, people were commenting online about my hair, my face, my body. Everyone had an opinion on if I was worthy of dating the president's daughter or if she was worthy of someone like me. It was extremely jarring.

"Yeah, but I wasn't dating the daughter of the president. And my race wasn't spun to make the president look better," I said pointedly.

"You're right. There's more to you than your dual citizenship. The news is really spinning that angle, huh? They really are trying to make the administration look a certain way," Jones commented.

"Yeah, they are," Wells piped in.

"Where are you going to vacation to?" Abbi asked.

"I'm not sure yet. We're just going to try something spontaneous," I lied. I knew exactly where we were going: Alaska. It was the best place to disappear, without either of us having to show a passport.

"That's not like you. You're a planner," Guy commented.

The whole group was suspicious of me and my new relationship. I never should have answered the phone, but I couldn't just ignore them and disappear. The fuckers would coming looking for me and ruin everything. I loved the nosey bastards.

"Not my doing," I answered. "Hey, I've got to go. Roni is calling me," I lied again.

"Tell her your friends said hi!" Christine almost seemed starstruck. She was one of the most influential women in the country. It made me want to laugh, because to me, Roni was just Roni. Just the woman who'd always had to one-up me at everything and then had the nerve to look gorgeous while doing it. It was absolutely infuriating.

"Will do. Later, guys." I hung up before anyone else could get in a word.

I let out a sigh of relief. I knew lying to them would be the hardest part of this whole thing. Lying to my family was easy, despite the guilt. My family didn't know me all that well. Lying to my best friends was extremely difficult. They were all intelligent in their own right, and none of them were gullible; they were critical thinkers. They were probably still on the call talking about how weird I acted.

I'd just have to let them talk. When the whole arrangement was over, then I'd let them know what happened, once the Geneva Project was arrested and Roni was safe.