Life Is Sweet

by Lily Seabrooke

  “Do you really think this is a good idea?”

  She stuck out her tongue. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to ignore all the problems and keep doing exactly what caused the problems?”

  Dammit. It obviously wasn’t a good idea.

  But I wasn’t about to admit Kayla—of all people, Kayla, the living gumdrop, was right.

  “Worth a try,” I finally sighed, and Kayla all but jumped out of her seat, pumping her fist.

  “Yes! I look forward to tearing up at your graduation.”

  “So you can send me mailers asking for donations for the rest of my life?”

  She made to respond, stopped, put a finger to her lips, and seemed to think it over. “Didn’t think of that,” she said. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  This was such a bad idea.

  Chapter 6

  Kayla

  This was such a good idea.

  “Shayyyyyyyyy,” I said as she came out of the back room and flinched at the sight of me looking at her from the counter. “Shay, you’re beautiful and I love you.”

  Shay blinked fast. “I’m already taken and I don’t date bosses.”

  I laughed. “It’s not a date I’m asking you out on. It’s a mission. I have to teach my grumpy new friend how to have fun again. I’m taking her to karaoke tonight and you’re going to come.”

  Her mouth fell open. “You have a girlfriend and you want me to come with you two?”

  “No, no no no.” I pouted and made an angry face so my flush didn’t look like I was embarrassed. “She’s not my girlfriend. Just a very pretty and very stuck-up friend who needs to learn how to smile. I had to teach her the concept of a favorite color the other day.”

  Shay’s eyes went wider than I realized they could go. “Oh no. How did you end up wrapped up with someone like that?”

  “Long story. Involving a jellybean accident and yelling at my ex. So? Is it good? Are we a go?”

  “Tonight after I close?” She checked her phone. “I’ll have to see… I was going to go out with Freja tonight, but I still don’t know if she can make it.”

  “Going out where? You could just bring her. It can be a big party full of gay people.”

  She stopped. “Your friend is gay too? Are you sure it’s not a date?”

  “We’re not dating. Not for real, anyway.”

  “Now what does that mean?”

  I flushed. “Nothing. I didn’t say it. Look, don’t read into any of this! Just answer the question, are you and your girlfriend coming, yes or definitely?”

  “Those—those are the same option.”

  “No. One is yes, and one is definitely.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “I’ll have to ask her.”

  “Maybe isn’t one of the options,” I said. “But fine. Just let me know. I’ll be at home, singing with Leonardo to warm up.”

  She sighed, sinking into the seat. “I will. I will. Have fun singing. See you later, Kay.”

  I was about dancing and twirling on my way out of the store, down the street a ways to get to my apartment, where I kicked down the door and yelled, “Leonardo! We’re singing together! Warmup time!”

  Leonardo was sitting on the sofa, staring at me. He didn’t respond, because he was a spiteful jerk. Also a bunny, but still a spiteful jerk.

  We got maybe fifteen minutes through vocal warmups, for which Leonardo was shamefully quiet, before I collapsed on the sofa with snacks, ready and willing to reward myself for a hard day’s work.

  I was honestly exhausted from opening the store and just sitting there for the majority of my shift. I didn’t get how people like Melissa could put in twelve-hour shifts, or more, day after day after day.

  I’d probably forget how to have fun, too. I could only wonder the last time she ever had a date. I couldn’t even find out a way to fit dating into my life, and I worked maybe half as much as she did.

  “What do you think is the point of life, Leonardo?” I said, looking down at where he was throwing toys around on the floor like a little punk. He completely ignored me. “If you’re just working all the time, like, what’s even the point of all the work in the first place? What are you gonna do, buy memories of a happy life when you’re older?”

  Well, not that I was much better. I was lying here on a sofa, coming home from a failing business, eating potato chips out of a bag. And talking to a rabbit.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. “And if she still has her family… a family who loves her…”

  Maybe I was going out on a limb. I had no way of knowing her family actually did love her. Maybe part of the reason she was apprehensive was because she wasn’t on good terms with her family.

  But if that were the case, she should have done something better for herself than just going wherever they wanted her.

  My phone buzzed, and I checked, getting a text from Shay. We’ll be there! Time and place?

  All right. Tonight would be good.

  ∞∞∞

  A knock at the door pulled me out of my meandering thoughts, and my heart danced as I got up, all but twirling across the room to pull the door open. Melissa stood there in the same outfit as always, leaning with her arm on the doorway and her other hand in her pocket, and I met her eyes and forgot everything I was about to say.

  “I got a bit of time,” she said. “There’s a client flying in right now and he wants to meet at ten, but until then, I’m all yours, Kayla.”

  Whoa. She was all mine. I tugged my thoughts back into line like a bucking bronco. “Your makeup looks really good,” I said before I realized I was saying anything.

  A smile tugged at the corner of her lip. “Thanks. Touched it up after work today. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, definitely.” I pulled my shoes back on, pink platform wedges with ribbons I had to squat to tie up my legs below my knees. “My friend is coming too, and she’s bringing her girlfriend, so it’s not going to just be the two of us, don’t worry.”

  I think I was saying that more to comfort myself.

  A look I couldn’t read passed over her eyes for just a second, and then she was back to neutral. “That’s fine. Let’s get a move on.”

  I was low-key panicking as I followed her out the door, and my stomach dropped when she led me over to the Maserati.

  And I think I was enough of an emotional mess before she opened the door for me, leaning against the car in the absolute sexiest way possible, holding it open for me.

  “Oh my goodness,” I said. “You’re letting me in this… this… car.”

  “It’s a car, Kayla. It’s designed for people to get in.” She smirked, and my legs felt a little weak at the gesture. “You all right? I promise it’s not going to bite you.”

  I flushed down to my neck and stepped in the car, trying not to think about how incredibly expensive it looked. Unfortunately, the only thing that left for me to think about was Melissa closing the door behind me, and how much this felt like a date all of a sudden.

  When Melissa slid into the driver’s seat and pulled the door shut, she pushed the push-button ignition, and lights came on through the car as her seat shifted, and she ran her hand through her hair before she glanced over at me.

  I swear, she had to be trying to be sexy. She was doing this on purpose.

  “Something the matter?” she said. “You’re staring at me like I did something wrong. Did I fail the first class?”

  “No, no no,” I blurted. “You’re, uh, perfect score so far.”

  “Seems like something’s bothering you,” she said, buckling her seatbelt and pulling the car off from the side of the road. “Don’t like something about this?”

  “No, it’s great, just great,” I said. “Just… you know. Feels weird being in a car that probably costs as much as my entire business.”

  “It’s nothing that fancy. It gets you from one place to another. All it’s good for is making people think you’re important, and I’m sick of people thinking I’m important.”
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  I wanted to ask what that meant, but I clapped my hands together and said, “Okay! Let’s talk about fun things. What’s something you do in your free time?”

  “Free time?” she laughed. “Sleep, or as much as I can get.”

  “Sleeping? That’s it?”

  She shrugged. “Don’t think making an Old Fashioned counts as a hobby.”

  I swallowed. Tough case over here. My first student was not an easy one. “What do you think you’d do if you had more free time?”

  “If I had more free time,” she said, chewing on her words. “Who knows? Find a girlfriend so my sister stops getting on my case about it.”

  I fidgeted with my collar. “What do you think you’d do with your girlfriend, then?”

  She laughed. “You got me. No clue. Take her to a candy shop and karaoke? That seems to be all I’ve heard of.”

  Uuuughhh. She was doing this on purpose. She was taking me to karaoke. “So you have, like, a billion dollars, but you never go out or anything?”

  “I do not have a billion dollars.” She pulled up into the parking lot where the GPS directed us, parked the car, and lay an arm over the wheel to turn and stare into my eyes with the most piercing look. “Nor would I want to. Having more money just makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong if you’re not making more. A million is bad enough.”

  I blinked. “You have a million dollars.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “It’s not that weird. Everyone I work with does too. But most of them have it invested in useless vacation houses and a collection of cars more expensive than this one. At least I have the good sense to invest it in assets.”

  “Wow, you’re intense,” I said. “Okay, miss intense millionaire investor, let’s get out of your Maserati and go sing Katy Perry and eat ice cream.”

  When we got inside, Shay was already there with Freja, a woman who looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a fashion mag. She was so skinny it was scary, with gaunt cheeks and hawk eyes, an undercut and a piercing on the side of her nose. They were both looking at us like we’d just come down from another planet, and I felt a little giddy coming in with Melissa.

  “Hey, Shay, Freja,” I said. “This is Melissa, my friend.”

  “Did you just roll into this place in a Maserati?” Shay said, her voice small.

  Melissa strode forwards and they both shrank back, but when Melissa offered a handshake in her power stance, they hesitantly accepted, first Shay, then Freja. “You’re Kayla’s friends? It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  We booked a room and headed down the hallway, Melissa power-striding ahead of us while Shay fell back next to me and whispered, “Crap, you found yourself a sugar mommy.”

  “Oh, quit that,” I said, a blush making its way up my neck. “She’s just a friend.”

  Except I think part of me really wanted to change that.

  Melissa stood when we got in the room, leaning against the wall instead of sitting down on the booths around the perimeter, her hands in her pockets, just looking around like she was memorizing the surroundings. I closed the door behind us and said, “You can sit down, you know.”

  She gave me a playful smirk that made my heart flutter, and without a word, she sank down on the edge of the booth. I felt wild nerves as I sat down next to her.

  I convinced Shay to go first, since she was actually good at singing. And even though I tried to look like I was just watching her as she got up and took the first song, I kept sneaking glances at Melissa out of the corner of my eye.

  She had the most intense expression, staring at Shay like she was trying to commit every part of her existence to memory. I felt like gunfire could go off and her concentration wouldn’t break. She sat with her legs spread, leaning in, her elbows on her knees, and it hiked up her sleeves enough I could see her arms were more toned than I’d expected.

  When Shay finished, the rest of us clapped, and she thrust the microphone in my face. “You next,” she said, grinning. “Let me sit next to your intimidating friend and gossip with her.”

  Melissa stood up. “I’m not being intimidating yet. Let me sing with you, Kayla.”

  I flushed. “A duet? You mean? Like, the both of us?”

  “I’m pretty sure duet is the term for it, yes.” She offered a hand and my breath left me. I fell into the moment when I took her hand and let her help me up, a weightless feeling like I was way too high up.

  “Okay,” I said. “Cool. That’s pretty fun. Full marks.”

  She shot me a heart-melting smirk. “At this rate, I’m going to graduate summa cum laude. Never did like accepting less than a hundred percent.”

  “Isn’t that a lot of pressure?” I heard myself say.

  She met my gaze hard enough to give me vertigo. “I think I can handle it.”

  “You couldn’t even handle a little candy, or, or a favorite color,” I said.

  “It’s orange.” She trailed her gaze down my body, slowly and intensely, and I could feel her studying every inch of my outline before she reached out and ran her hand along my skirt. “Just like this right here.”

  The touch sent shivers over my whole body. “Only… only because the candy dots told you.”

  She looked back up into my eyes and raised an eyebrow, just the tiniest motion that was inexplicably hot. “That’s true. I guess I owe you for the candy dots. And the sticker. Now, let’s sing.”

  I gulped and started the song, desperate to get her eyes off me, but she didn’t even look at the screen. She held the microphone up just in front of her lips, barely parted, and held eye contact with me so hard I think my hand shook with my own microphone.

  “You’re not looking at the screen,” I said.

  “I know this song,” she said.

  “Why are you staring at me?” I said, blushing harder than I’d ever wanted to. She laughed.

  “You’re my teacher. I have to pay attention. And maybe you have pretty eyes.”

  Whoa. I didn’t think I had enough breath to do this song.

  Chapter 7

  Melissa

  Maybe, just maybe, singing really was fun. If I had more free time—if I didn’t have to cut three different obligations just to get this one karaoke session—maybe singing was something I’d do more often.

  Of course, maybe it was because it was with Kayla. Something about her brought out a side of me I didn’t even know I had, a side that reveled in teasing her. All it took was a well-placed smirk, a quirk of the eyebrow, or a bold comment, and she’d get so flustered she’d mix up words.

  Was I flirting with her? I tried not to think about that. I’d been telling the truth when I’d said getting a girlfriend was something I’d do if I had more free time. I wasn’t really in any position to go dating anybody as I was now.

  But that doesn’t mean that, at the end of the night when we were heading back out to my car, I hadn’t had fun. And it wasn’t like I didn’t have fun opening the car door for her again.

  “What’s wrong?” I said when I saw her freeze up. “Forgot I drove a self-indulgent car designed to compensate for something?”

  “No, no. I just.” She fiddled with her collar. “What are you compensating for?”

  That one actually caught me off-guard a little. But I recovered quickly enough. “Not being fun at all, isn’t it? But once I have my degree from Kayla University, I should be good. Now, are you getting in the passenger side, or are you planning on sitting on my lap?”

  She took in a sharp breath, her face reddening. “I don’t think that’s safe at all. And if I were responsible for a scratch on your car, I’d have to spend a year paying it off.” She sat down in the passenger’s side, and I closed the door, made my way back to the driver’s side, wondering why I’d just said that.

  I wondered what it would be like to have her sit on my lap. Whichever way she might have been facing.

  I licked my lips unconsciously as I was getting in on my side. Maybe there were some hidden expense
s to attending Kayla University.

  “Sorry to cut your fun off so early tonight,” I said, backing the car out. “This guy will have my head if he flies in from Tokyo and I cancel to go to karaoke.”

  “Oh, psh.” She waved me off. “Shay’s gonna be grateful, so it’s fine. Long enough singing themselves silly, and odds are good Shay’s getting lucky.”

  When was the last time I’d gotten lucky, anyway? I tried not to think about it. It had never bothered me and I wasn’t going to start letting it. “Good for them,” I said, pulling out onto the road and starting back towards her place. “So? Success tonight? Do you think I’m better shaped-up?”

  “Not yet.”

  She didn’t even hesitate. I glanced over at her for a second. “Was I not any fun after all?”

  “You were great,” she said. “But there’s still a lot to learn. When can we go again?”

  “Go where?” My heart went a little faster than I wanted, but I kept my voice even.

  “You want honors level coursework, or regular?” She shot me a challenging smile, and I didn’t miss a beat.

  “Honors. I want a good transcript.”

  “All right. Then our next assignment is the trampoline park.”

  “Trampoline park?” I laughed. “What, you just go and jump around?”

  “There’s a bouncy castle there too. And a ball pit.”

  I cringed. “And you want to crawl around in them, surrounded by yelling kids.”

  “That’s right. Honors level. What do you say?”

  I sighed, shook my head. I drove in silence for a while, just thinking, before I pulled up along the side of the street next to her place again, and I turned to her.

  “I can get next Tuesday cleared, after seven-thirty. I need you free then, too.”

  She sat up straighter, stared at me for a second, and then broke out into a huge grin. “Seriously? For the trampoline park? I thought for sure you were going to say no.”

  “Do I look like I’ll be intimidated? I’ve had to face down a lot worse than trampoline parks, Kayla. Tuesday.”