I closed my eyes. Life really didn’t get much better than this.
Chapter 10
Maven liked to cuddle. Under the blankets, he touched me everywhere he could reach until he seemed to get me into a position he liked. I was like putty in his hands. I’d do whatever he liked right then. Once he had me settled, he let out a long sigh.
“I want to just pass out right here, but any second now, Banyan is going to come through the door downstairs, followed a few minutes later by Chance, and my nap would be short lived. That will make me all grumpy. I feel too good to be grumpy.”
I guessed that meant I wasn’t getting a nap either. “How do you know?”
“All these years together, and actually sharing a room with Banyan for three of them, means I can predict him pretty well. I just know Chance’s schedule.”
His phone beeped, and he rolled over, groaning. “Yep. Banyan’s here. He wants us downstairs. Says he got something. Fuck. That could be anything from a new jacket to a puppy. If it’s a puppy, you can’t let us keep it. We’ll all want to keep it, and that’ll be bad because we don’t have room in our life right now for a puppy.”
I touched his shoulder. “I won’t let you keep the puppy.”
He turned around to kiss my lips. “Am I rambling?”
“You’re adorable. Little stream of consciousness. It’s cute.”
Maven groaned. “I’ve got to cut it out before I go back down there.” He held me for just a second. “Are we good?”
I didn’t understand. “In what sense?”
He smiled at me, a big toothy grin. “Giovanna.” He smoothed my hair off my forehead. “We just had sex. And I know we made this arrangement and said we were all good with it and we would be friends. I want to make sure you’re still okay?”
This time, it was my turn to smile. “Because we had sex? Oh, I know this novel. This is where I get all goopy, and I’m not really okay with the arrangement I made myself because I’ve tied sex with emotion, and because we had sex I have to be… overwhelmed?”
Maven nodded. “I’m thinking you’re fine.”
“I’m really glad that we’re becoming good friends. And that was amazing. My body is buzzing from it. But I’m okay Maven. I like you. I think you like me, too. Otherwise…”
He kissed my cheek. “Yes. I like you. Buddy. Pal.” He laughed as he let me go. “Just when I think I’ve got a grasp on who you are, I don’t.”
A pounding on the door had me grabbing for the covers. Banyan’s voice came through. “Hurry up. I’ve got something.”
Maven smiled at me. “You know we could be naked. Like right in the middle of something.”
“If Giovanna is naked, I might just forget about what I have downstairs and come in to play.”
Maven threw his pillow at the closed door. “You weren’t invited. We’ll be right there.”
I grabbed my clothes, and Maven turned to me once more. “No puppies. No cats. No birds or fish. Nothing I have to feed. I’ll change my mind when I see it. Don’t let me.”
I shook my head. “Maven, I don’t know that I can stop you from doing anything at all. If you want the animal, I’m pretty sure you’ll get to keep it.”
“Don’t be silly, Giovanna. I think you’d be the only person in the world who could.”
What did he mean by that? I never got to ask him. Banyan pounded again. What in the world did he have downstairs?
Chance came through the door just as Maven’s mouth fell open. The owner of this house set down a couple of brown bags by the door and stared at what Banyan had brought into his place. “A margarita machine?”
Banyan beamed. “Yep. Awesome right? I thought we’d try it here and then bring it back to SPiI with us.”
“A margarita machine? Where did you even get one?” Chance walked over to me and tugged me against his side. “Did they show you around, Vonni?”
“I showed myself around. Hope that was okay. Maven thought you’d be okay with it.”
Chance squeezed my shoulder. “Maven was right. All right, we have a margarita machine. Do we have anything to make margaritas with?”
Banyan pointed to a large black duffel on the floor. “We do. I went shopping. After I found the margarita machine for sale near where I was having lunch, I just couldn’t leave it.”
Maven walked over to the machine and stared at it. “Should we clean it first? Before we use it? How did you find this thing?”
“I was bored, so I was checking out Craigslist at lunch. I saw this. Answered the ad. Voila. Our parties are going to be huge. We’ll put a pledge on it. In charge of serving them. I can see it now.”
Chance rubbed his eyes. “No pledges. I don’t want to talk about the pledges again until January 7th okay? I can’t think about them at all. Vonni, which room did you choose?”
“I didn’t pick a room.” Was I supposed to?
Chance looked at Maven. “Where did you put her stuff?”
“Fuck. I left it in the car in the lot three blocks from here. Wasn’t thinking. I’ll go get it. Be right back.” Maven squeezed my hand. “Sorry, Giovanna. I had my mind on other things.” He winked at me. “Like pasta.”
I covered my eyes with my hand and hoped my cheeks weren’t as red as I thought they probably were. How could I be so fine with sleeping with all of them and then embarrassed at the innuendo? “It was really good pasta, Maven. Thanks for it.”
Banyan snorted and then that turned into a full on laugh. “Oh, look how you got him all red.”
Maven grabbed his coat and was out the door with a groan. Chance grinned at both of us. “So you see what I mean about this place? Good bones. Lots of work. Everything is old.”
“And beautiful.” I interrupted him. “Yes, it’s old, but it is so beautiful. I hope you keep some of the furniture. Maybe in one of the living rooms?”
Chance reached out and stroked my cheek. “Maybe I’ll do that.”
“So what do we think? Margaritas? Tonight? And a movie? Sweetheart, you pick the movie.”
They wanted me to pick the movie? “Did you guys like French Kiss, or are we thinking it’s a different genre movie tonight?”
They talked about movies for a second, but I wasn’t really listening. My mind had wandered, and not into a story that involved movies and a serial killer in a movie theater. No, I was staring at the margarita machine. What did it do? Blend the stuff?
“Does that taste good?”
Chance and Banyan stopped talking and turned to me. Banyan put his hand on the machine. “Sure does. You want one?”
“Maybe.” I decided early on not to drink. Did that mean I had to never try it? “I told Maven tonight that I don’t drink because I’ve seen it make my father sad. I don’t need that in my life. But I have to admit I’ve always been curious.”
Banyan rocked back on his seat. “So we’ll make the movie a comedy.”
Chance rolled his eyes. “Banyan.”
He held up his hands. “Okay, sorry. That was stupid. I’m not that dumb. Try it. If it makes you sad, don’t do it again.”
“Only if you want to.” Chance walked into the living room and grabbed the bags he had there. “Which room do you want? Since you didn’t pick one.”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I’m not sure which ones you guys picked. I only know which one is Maven’s.”
“I’m one up from him. The wallpaper is kind of black and gold. Banyan took the green room.” They were all really pretty and good choices for them to have made.
“How about the one with purple on the walls? Is that taken?”
He shook his head. “You’ll be on the top floor. You’ll love the views. It’s yours. Whenever Giovanna is here, the purple room is hers.”
Banyan shrugged. “Fine by me. Who were you proclaiming that to? The universe?”
Chance groaned. “Kiss my ass. I’m putting these in your room, Vonni. I hope you like them.”
He bought me something? “What is it? Thank you, by
the way, for whatever it is.”
“Look when you’re alone. It’s a surprise.”
He took the stairs two at a time. Banyan nudged me with his elbow. “I’m going to clean this thing. Then you can have one.”
“Do you know how to clean it?”
He scrunched up his face. “No, but I’m sure I can figure it out.”
“Let’s do it together.”
His whole face lit up. “Awesome.”
The fact I’d never had a margarita and had spent an hour of my afternoon scrubbing the machine wasn’t lost on me. There had to be some sort of dramatic irony to that fact. I just couldn’t focus on it when I was wearing gloves and up to my elbows in dish soap. A Google search had told us that the major parts were all dishwasher friendly.
I’d tried to send Banyan out to buy some dishwashing detergent. Chance’s house was always ready for him, sort of. He obviously had someone else clean it and no on hand cleaning supplies, which just didn’t make sense to me. What if he spilled? Did he call someone? In any case, Banyan told me they had groceries delivered and he’d gone on his app to order instead of going out to get the stuff. He hummed while he scrubbed, which I found really endearing.
I wasn’t sure I knew the song, and I didn’t even know if he knew that he did it. We’d gotten everything scrubbed, cleaned, and plugged in which meant it was time to put in the ingredients and see if it worked. Banyan assured Chance he had seen that it worked before he took it. I left them to the discussion and to fill up the machine with the ingredients.
Chance had brought me a present, and I still hadn’t seen it. I ran the three flights of stairs to my room. I didn’t really get presents. My family made donations in my name to various causes they supported.
I found the room I picked, and my suitcase was waiting. Maven had come back some time during our cleaning and headed upstairs to nap. He must have stopped to bring up my bag, which meant going a whole two staircases out of his way. I would have to thank him.
On the bed were two brown shopping bags. I opened them up, and then stopped as stunned wonder turned into giggles I couldn’t control. Chance had bought me underwear. A ton of it. He’d filled two bags worth of underwear. I picked up one of the bras. He’d gotten the size right. How had he done that? I had to try all of it on, which was going to take a few minutes to do so. That was okay. With Maven asleep, no one was going to start the margaritas just yet, and I wasn’t one hundred percent I wanted one.
I shut the door to the bedroom and got busy trying them on. An hour later, having quickly showered, I was in a new pair of panties and a bra beneath my jeans and t-shirt. I felt… decadent. Every single pair he had bought me fit.
My cheeks had to be pink from the state of arousal I was in just thinking about him picking out each pair, one by one. Still, I pretended all was normal. That was part of this. He wanted to know I was in them.
He didn’t necessarily want me out of them yet.
I strolled into the kitchen. “Hi.”
Maven was up, sitting on top of the table instead of the chairs. He’d done that in the SPiI house, too. Was that just his thing? Chance leaned against the counter, and Banyan stared at the margarita machine, which buzzed like it was on.
He looked up first. “Hey, sweetheart. What were you doing?”
“Took a shower. Got dressed again.” I walked over to Chance and leaned next to him. I placed my head on his arm, and he leaned his head down on top of mine. “Thank you. Lavender.”
Chance’s body jumped slightly, which I could feel thanks to where I leaned on him. He cleared his throat. “Cool.”
“Yep.”
Maven jumped off the table. “Let’s fire it up.”
Banyan picked up a plastic cup. “You want to try the first one, Mave? Tell us if it’s any good. Or if I need to adjust the recipe at all.”
“Yep.” He held out his cup. “I’ll be the margarita guinea pig. I hear you may be joining us in the evils of liquor, gorgeous?”
“So he is of course, talking to me.” Chance laughed. “I mean, I’ll take the compliment. Thanks. I’ve always wanted to be gorgeous.”
Maven laughed. “Now now, Chance-y, don’t get your feelings hurt. You have a pretty face, too. But this time I’m talking to that redhead leaning on you. Joining us?”
“Yes.” I’d made up my mind just as he’d asked me. “If I don’t like it, I won’t do it again.”
Maven pressed on a lever, and the small machine pressed out half a glass of margarita into Maven’s waiting cup. “You know that if we use this during the parties, we’re going to have a huge mess.”
“That’s what pledges are for.” Banyan laughed, and then grimaced. “Sorry, Chance. No pledges. I know.”
Chance ran a finger up my arm. “How is it, Mave?”
Maven took a long sip. “Good. You got it right. I never doubted you, Ban. No one makes a drink like you do or follows the directions to put it in the machine.”
Banyan rolled his eyes. “We all have our talents. I’ll pour. Move.”
Maven got out of his way as Banyan poured three drinks and filled up Maven’s the rest of the way. He handed me mine. “Drink it slowly. That’s strong stuff even though it’s sweet.”
“Thanks. I might take one sip and put it down.”
He nodded at me before he winked. “Whatever makes you happy. No peer pressure. Don’t drink unless you want to.”
“Don’t listen to him.” Chance sighed. “Banyan watches a lot of movies of the week.”
Banyan passed out the glasses. “We have a new member in our midst tonight, gentlemen. The lovely Giovanna is keeping us civilized this vacation from school. Thank you, sweetheart.” He lifted his glass. “We always say the same thing when we toast. Here’s to Carter. Wherever he is, may he say good things about all of us.”
“Here, here.” Chance raised his glass and then downed at least half the contents of the glass. Maven was silent but didn’t drink as much in the first pull as Chance did. Banyan took a long sip and turned away before I could see how much he downed. I took a small taste. It was sweet. Was there alcohol in this?
I’d never had it, but I’d always heard it was bitter. I took another sip.
“What do you think?” Chance asked me right before he finished his drink.
“It’s good.” I answered him. He had gone through that fast. Was I supposed to drink it like that? “Who is Carter?”
Chance walked over to the margarita machine. “My dead roommate.”
“What?” I hadn’t expected that answer or the way Chance’s shoulders tightened when he said it.
Maven answered me. “There were twenty-one of us in the pledge class when we started. There are twenty brothers in our year. That’s because Carter died over Christmas break. Banyan was my roommate, Carter was Chance’s. We were all pretty tight. Even within pledge classes, there are breakdowns of friendships.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Cliques?”
“Not really, but fine, we’ll use that word. It was the four of us. Pretty rough.” Maven looked away and took a gulp of his margarita. “I actually might have been wrong. I don’t know if there is enough tequila in this.”
I hated to bring it up if they were sad, but they’d toasted Carter. “How did he die?”
“In a car accident, on an icy road on Nantucket. He was with his family. We all were, actually. But he stormed out.” Chance shook his head. “Pissed at his dad. Just like that. He was gone. A lot of that in this world. Just like that and—boom—dead.”
Banyan sipped his drink. “I’m thinking the time to stop toasting Carter may have been reached.”
“You think?” Chance rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Vonni. I have a lot of mixed feelings about what happened that night, and I might as well leave it alone. How is your first drink?”
I stared down at it. I’d been feeling sort of jovial, but now I wasn’t sure I was in the mood. “Good.”
“She said that before.” Banyan backed out of the roo
m. “Come on. Movie. Comedy. Not so much for Giovanna but for you, Chance. No more toasting Carter if it’s going to make you do a one-eighty in your mood.”
Chance shook his head. “Going outside for air.”
He stormed out of the room and slammed the front door. Maven cocked his head to the side. “You know how he gets when he’s mad. I’ve never seen it with Carter before, but maybe there’s something he’s dealing with. Some kind of trigger. Don’t poke at him when he’s on edge. He’ll be out there all night.”
Banyan set down his drink. “I’ll go talk to him.”
“Leave him. There’s nothing you can say right now that isn’t going to make it worse. He needs time. Start the movie. He’ll come back. Giovanna’s here. He’s not going to miss out on that.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Maven said to leave Chance out there. I supposed he knew best. Everything had been really fun and even enticing. He’d been rubbing my arm. We both knew the color of my underwear. And then it all shifted.
Sitting down on the couch with Maven and Banyan, I tried to get lost in the movie. It wasn’t one I’d seen before, but it had a guy from a sitcom I liked and an actress who did a lot of slapstick. None of us laughed. I checked the clock every five minutes. Chance had been out there for half an hour. He had to be freezing. It was seriously cold.
I rose. “I have to check on him. I’ll be right back.”
Maven shrugged, looking at Banyan. “Anyone can turn around his night, it’s her.”
I went outside, foregoing my coat. Maybe my being cold might encourage him to come back inside where it was warm. I crossed my arms over my chest. Chance sat at the bottom of eight stairs. A few people passed by on the street, but he didn’t move his gaze from where it landed on the sidewalk.
“You okay?”
He turned to look at me. “Vonni, it’s freezing. Go back inside.”
“I’ll be okay for a second.” I walked down toward him. “I’m worried about you.”
He got to his feet. “I’m fine. I’m just… mad.”
I reached the bottom, and like something out of a slow motion movie, I lost my feet. Maybe there was ice. I hadn’t seen any, but it didn’t matter. One second I was on my feet, and the next, I hurdled backward. Chance reached for me but missed. I hit the sidewalk on my rear end before slamming a second time into my shoulder.
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