The Odds of Happily Ever After (The Reyes Siblings #2)

Chapter 11

chapter eleven

luna

Kriz

LULU. You turned Shawn down??

Luna

He was too pushy. He sent me a shirtless selfie!

I’m not even sure he was wearing anything

Kriz

OOH let me see!! I’ll be the judge of that

“Hey, Luna,” Kai greeted me with a grin as I walked into the store. “How are you?”

“Hey! I’m good, you? How was your shift?” I rounded the counter, letting my bag strap fall from my shoulder to my hand.

“Pretty chill. Sold a couple of planners.” He opened the cabinet where we stored our stuff during our shifts. “Here, let me put that away for you.”

Passing my bag to him, I said, “It’s definitely planner season. I actually got one for myself—don’t forget, we have an employee discount.”

“Yep, I might grab a couple of things. Maybe some merch to show off my school spirit. Which, speaking of, I see you got the shirt.”

I glanced down at my oversized tee with its retro font and couldn’t help the smile that stretched across my face. “I did.”

“It looks perfect on you.”

“Thanks. I love it.”

“Are we getting new stocks of that anytime soon?”

“They said it was a limited release, but who knows—they might restock it cause it was so popular.” We’d run out of inventory in less than two weeks, which made this gift even more special.

“You’re lucky you got to grab it.”

“Yeah, definitely.” I looked around the counter to give myself something to focus on because if I thought of how I’d gotten the shirt any longer, I might just start bouncing on my heels. “Anything I need to know for my shift?”

Kai shook his head. “Nope, nothing out of the usual.”

“Great! Thanks, Kai. I’ll take it from here.”

“Awesome.” He stepped away from the counter and hesitated before tugging on his backpack. Then he said, “Have a good one, Luna.”

I waved goodbye, and as he left the store, he held the door open for a group who came in asking about our planners. The first hour of my shift passed in bursts of students looking for supplies. When I hit the usual lull during the afternoon classes, I took the chance to refresh our display stocks. As I arranged our selection of planners, my mind replayed how I’d gotten the shirt I’d wanted.

Gabe had left after helping me clean up the dinner spread. Fresh from a shower, I finally opened my Moscato and poured out a glass to drink while opening my presents. A gift bag stood out to me because it had one of those white bifold cards instead of the printed tag that came when you ordered a package for delivery.

Lifting the flap, I found a short message written out in black, capitalized print:

L—

I hope you don’t have this yet.

Merry Christmas.

There was no “from,” but that alone was a giveaway. Anyone else would have signed it—except for Gabe.

I held my breath as I opened the bag with fumbling fingers. Inside, I found what looked like a shirt wrapped in cream tissue paper, and when I saw exactly what it was, my heart jumped into my throat.

Somehow, Gabe had gotten his hands on the nicest shirt the school had designed . . . and he’d gifted it to me.

That night, I called him for the first time. He picked up after two rings, saying, “What’s wrong?”

Since he didn’t waste time on a greeting, I went straight to the point too. “Why didn’t you give me the gift yourself?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said without missing a beat.

I ran my fingers down the chunky maroon lettering. “Uh huh. Well, if you find out who gave me this Sterling U shirt, could you tell that person I love it? And that I didn’t get to buy it, so it’s perfect.”

“I’ll pass on the message.”

“You do that.” I rolled my eyes and laughed. “You are such a liar, Gabe.”

“You’re drinking, aren’t you?”

“Do you really want to know?” I took a long drink because I could but also because hearing his voice on the phone had me parched.

He let out a breath. “Take care, Luna.”

“Night, Professor,” I sang out before ending the call.

A message came in as I emptied my glass.

Gabe

Glad you liked the shirt. Merry Christmas.

As much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t lie to myself. I was down bad for the professor, and it might just lead to my undoing.

I walked down the central path through the quad, my mind running through what I needed to do tonight. Homework for finance, readings for English, then there was the chore I least enjoyed—household accounting. Nothing like tallying up your expenses and paying off bills to make you feel like you’d never get enough money.

“Luna!” Chloe strode toward me with her tennis bag slung over her shoulder. “I called your name, like, five times.”

“Sorry, I was thinking about something.” Now that she’d caught up to me, I had to adjust my steps to her faster pace. “Good practice?”

“Eh, the usual. Kriz told me you ditched Shawn.”

“I didn’t ditch him. We were just chatting?—”

“And he sent you a thirst trap,” she said, shrugging. “At least he’s upfront. You should go for it. Getting laid does wonders for your stress.”

My mouth fell open. What the hell did I say to that?

She glanced at me and snorted. “God, you should see your face. You definitely need that di?—”

“I’m good,” I blurted out.

Chloe burst out into laughter. “You are such a prude, Luna. Haven’t Kriz and I cured you of that yet?”

Trust her to leave me speechless twice in as many minutes. Honestly, her going out of her way to talk to me when Kriz wasn’t around was a shocker on its own. If it weren’t for Kriz, I doubted Chloe would even notice me.

She sighed loudly. “Whatever. You heading home?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t have a car, right?” Before I could answer, she barreled along. “Come on.”

“Oh, no, it’s okay. It’s just a quick walk,” I said.

“Your place is on the way. Besides, I need to talk to you.”

Chloe veered to the left, and I had no choice but to follow her to the parking area. She unlocked her white convertible and dropped her bag in the back seat.

“Get in,” she ordered, sounding like Gabe had that one time.

The sad bit was I did exactly what she said without arguing because as different as we were, I still wanted to win her over somehow. Part of it was that I didn’t want to give Kriz a hard time managing two friends who didn’t get along. But there was also that part of me that admired Chloe for being exactly who she wanted to be and not caring what other people thought.

I aspired to reach that level of self-assurance.

We’d passed the main gate to the university when I broke the silence and asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh. That. So you sure you’re not into Shawn?”

“Definitely not,” I said.

“Okay, then you’re okay with me hitting him up? Kriz told me to clear it up with you.”

I did a double-take, not expecting that at all. “I didn’t know you liked him.”

Chloe snorted. “Hell, no. Not in that way. But I need to blow off some steam, so why not take him for a ride? He looks like he has stamina. And the abs on that guy . . .”

“Yeah, go ahead. Enjoy?”

“That’s the plan.” Her eyes slid over to me. “You’re not in some secret relationship, are you?”

I reared back and stared at her. “What? No.”

“Cause I don’t think you’ve hooked up with anyone since Theo. Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on him.”

“Not even a bit. I told you guys, I need to focus on school and work right now.”

“Boring. You’re gonna regret not having fun while you can.”

“Tell that to my parents.” When I sent them a copy of my grades from last semester, Papa immediately zeroed in on the single C+ I’d gotten even though my overall average had improved from a B- to a solid B. He’d brought up the idea of me going home again, and it felt like nothing I did would ever be good enough.

“I mean, whose life is it—yours or theirs?” She scoffed, as if the matter was as simple as giving a single-word answer.

“That’s not how it works.”

“It could be. But hey, if you’re happy trying to be perfect Little Miss Sunshine, by all means. Anyway, your stop’s here.”

My apartment building came into view, and I couldn’t have been happier to escape that conversation. “Thanks for the ride,” I told her as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

“K. I’m off to Shawn’s.” With that, she sped off, leaving me shaking my head.

I had to give it to Chloe—she knew what she wanted, and she went after it without thinking twice.

Maybe one day I’d get to that point too.