Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Pearl
I can feel the heat hit my cheeks and want to fling myself from something a lot higher than the seats we just sat in. God, how can I be so fucking awkward? Not only did I fall on him before he even knew my name, but now he thinks I barely remember that name.
I open my mouth to drive the death nail in. He already knows I'm a hot mess hurtling towards an accident waiting to happen, it's not going to hurt taking it all the way and showing him what a geek I am too.
"Your name is Spade? Like the detective Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon? Were you named after the character?"
"Uh, no. I can't say I was. Given what I know about my birth mom it was probably due to a gambling addiction."
I lose the smile on my face and stare blankly at the hot man in front of me. Yep, the plane is on fire and going down. No, it's not just on fire. I'm pretty sure it blew up before it ever even took the fuck off.
Way to go stupid. You just brought up something I'm sure this man didn't want to have dredged up and did it in front of all his friends.
"You'll have to excuse me, I have social Tourette's. If it's the wrong thing to say I'll say it. Although there's nothing wrong with Tourette's, that isn't what I'm trying to say. I…I'm going to be quiet now."
He laughs hard and starts shaking his head. "No, it's alright. I think I would rather be named after your detective than the other."
"Spade," both of us look over at Kat who I have all but ignored since falling on Spade. Bad friend. Bad, bad friend. I give her my full attention now. "Is there any way you can take Pearl to the restaurant in your car? We came with Bea and Bear, and I don't think there is going to be enough room."
"Oh, yeah, sure. I don't mind at all."
This guy is so sweet, doing things for his friends like it's no big deal to take a stranger into your car and take her somewhere. I give him a smile and start towards the steps leading down only to trip again. This time I just fall into him instead of putting my boob in his hand as a way to say ‘Hi, how are you'.
"Sorry. Sorry."
It's all I can really say. He helps me down the stairs and I would like to be able to blame it on me being in heels but I'm not wearing them today, or that hell, maybe I had a little too good a time at the game and drank too much. No, not that either. I've never drank before.
I'm just klutzy and being around superhot guys only makes that klutziness worse somehow. So you put me in front of a man as handsome and personable as Spade and I'm a raving menace with balance issues who can't shut her mouth.
The poor man even keeps his hand on the small of my back when he escorts me across the parking lot after I say bye to Bea and Kat. He thinks I'm going to take a header into the pavement and he'll have to be the one to clean me up.
"Hey…is that the new girl?"
We both turn to meet the man who yelled and find one of Spade's teammates grinning wide.
"You got you a pretty little girlfriend, Spade?" I open my mouth to tell the guy he is dead wrong, but he just keeps going, "Why don't you leave him, sweetheart, and come spend some time with a real man?"
"Why don't you get bent, Rogers? If you played and fucked half as good as you mouthed, we wouldn't have to pick up your slack."
"Yeah, whatever pretty boy. Stick to your numbers and leave the pretty girls to us real men."
Spade flips him off and bustles me across the parking lot quickly. "Fucking assholes. Sorry about that, Pearl. I…"
"No, I should be the one who's sorry. That man thinks you're with me and I'm a trainwreck."
"You're the prettiest trainwreck any of us have ever seen, bab…Pearl."
I miss a step and trip over my own feet. I would have gone down if not for Spade holding me up. Was he about to call me…baby? No. I'm not the kind of girl a man gives cute little pet names to or talks to that way. It's sweet that he is trying to make me feel better by saying such sweet, nice things but I realize it's just because he's a sweet, nice man. Not because he…would ever see me as…someone who is sexy or desirable.
Actually, it makes it better for me because I don't have any worry that this man is thinking of me in a sexual way. I don't have to worry about what I look like or what I say. I need to pull myself together and realize this hot, sexy guy could never see me in the same way I see him…if he wasn't my brother's friend, that is.
I shouldn't be thinking of Spade as anything other than Roman's friend. The thought of my brother pulls me up short. He had to leave right after the game but told me I should be in good hands with Bea and Kat, who are adorable, perfect, and too sweet.
I need to get my head out of my own ass and figure out what the hell I'm going to do with my life now that my parents have decided to firebomb it. And of course, I need to find out how to keep the little secret mom told me to myself. The last thing I want is to hurt Roman the way finding out would hurt him. And would he even want me around if he knew…his father isn't my father?
Will he still think of me as his sister after he finds out what mom did? God knows, the man I thought was my father doesn't. One of the reasons he stopped paying for my college was because he found out I wasn't his. Mom made him promise not to tell Roman and I think they made some sort of agreement where Dad wouldn't have to pay alimony or something if he promised not to tell.
And now…I'm lost. I don't belong anywhere; I have to keep secrets to keep the people I love in my life and I live in constant fear that Roman will turn his back on me if he finds out. This is the gift my mother gave me at the end of my first year of college. I'm a dumpster fire with balance issues. Yeah, I don't think there is any real danger of me having to fend Roman's friend off of me. No danger of me having to struggle with the right or wrong of a steamy affair with my brother's friend. No, I have to figure out who I am and where the hell I fit in now that my whole life has been nothing but a lie.