Devotion

seventeen ﾒ uh oh

LUCA

I've arranged for Angelica to meet me at my apartment. But she doesn't know this because she'd refuse to spend quality time with an available bachelor. How unlucky she is.

Angelica: You know, real gentlemen pick up the women for study sessions. Studies show....

Me: I'm not reading that link. Not while I'm driving.

Angelica: But you're texting and driving???

Angelica: You sound stupid.

I enter her driveway and stop in front of the door. A peek from the window four stories up, and I see a flitting woman running down the stairs with her pink purse. She closes and locks the door before walking to the car. I open the door from the driver's seat and watch her slide in.

"It's too late to be sneaky, Bertarelli," she says, snapping her seatbelt on. "Why did you call me and then text me that you were coming to pick me up? Is this a date? How pathetic can you be?"

My car leaves her driveway and enters the main road. "Ask yourself." Angelica glares at me and plucks my arm.

"Freak," she mumbles. "But really, where are we going?"

"My apartment," I say. I knew her initial reaction would be to throw herself willingly out of the car just to avoid coming to my house, but since Leilani is staying over and her brother is on patrol in their house, I'd rather just be at my house.

The bad thing is, our fathers are at my penthouse. One of two reasons. They were discussing something about dinner and decided to get comfortable in my kitchen just to ramble on about the food served at Sunday dinner.

Angelica smacks me in the middle of my driving. "Goodness gracious. You couldn't wait to hit me after I, at least, was off the road." I ask with a slight grumble. "I wanna go home." She attempts to grab the steering wheel and almost leads us off the road.

My patience runs thin as she continues to provoke me, so I pull over. My car automatically turns on the emergency lights as I pull over, get out, and go over to her door. I opened it. "De Santis, I swear to fucking God, you're going to get us killed."

"I don't want to be alone with you." She crosses her arms like a little kid.

"What are you, five? De Santis, stand up and get out of the car right now." She listens, unbuckles her seatbelt, and gets out. She's dressed in a pink hoodie and black sweatpants with Converse. I stand in front of her and stare. "What's your problem?"

She scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Mia came back."

"And that's a prime excuse to act like a brat." I cross my arms.

She shakes her head. "No, my bad. And don't use that against me; it's been a rough couple of days." I start to feel bad for being harsh on her, so I help her back in the car. She buckles herself back up, and I do the same once I'm in the driver's seat again. And we headed off to my penthouse.

When we arrive at the penthouse, I unlock the door and immediately come face-to-face with Aziel and my father. The silence is deafening until I feel Angelica's body pop up behind mine, revealing herself to the two most powerful men.

Aziel instantly stands up, his face hardening at the sight of his daughter and the son of his newfound alliance. How amazing. It's too late for this, frankly. "What are you doing with my daughter?" He asks.

"Is this a joke? Was this a set-up all along? Matching our children together, knowing your son is dangerous?" Marco smiles at Aziel's antics.

"We're partnering on a project together. Not having sex, Aziel. Your daughter is also safe with me; if anything, she'd kill me first." I reveal Angelica to the both of them, as she looks to be in one piece before she elbows my arm.

Angelica and I make our way up the stairs and into my bedroom before I lock the door. I unbutton my dress shirt from work and switch to a tank top. I go into my closet and come out with sweats on. And she stands there in the corner in an awkward position. "You can come over and at least take something out to plan for this project instead of being scared."

"We could've just stayed at my house for all of this," she says. She makes way for the bed. "Like, seriously, Rowan wouldn't have seen you."

A knock on the door interrupts my turn to remark. I open the door only to reveal my lovely father, whose face naturally hardens without commands. "Keep the door open. I don't need grandchildren, and neither does Aziel."

"Gross! Like I'd ever do anything with him," she says. Angelica pops up behind my shoulder, using her tip-toes to look at my father. "I promise we are keeping it PG-13, family-friendly." She gives my father a thumbs up.

And he smiles at her. "Maybe one wouldn't be the worst," he mumbles, wandering away from the door.

I close and lock the door again. After a few minutes of sitting in silence, both occupied by our phones, we hear the door finally shut, meaning our fathers have officially left. While Angel is doing what God knows behind me, I open my smartboard on the TV and pull out snacks for us to eat.

Because it's going to be a night of mystery.

"Ooh, Twix!" She jumps from the bed and fishes all of them out of the pile. "I love these things."

"Pay attention," I say as I write. "So what do we know about our families? In other words, what have our parents been open about?"

Angelica snacks on a piece of Twix. "Um, I know that my mother and your father had a relationship going on back like 20 years ago. The grandfather scheme. And the rivalry between them. So, not much to work with."

"My mother died when I was young. I don't remember what age, but she passed away," I say more to myself but she butts in.

"Woah, I didn't expect a casual trauma dump. If I knew that, I would've been a little more prepared, but here goes nothing." I interrupt her. "Do you always get a kick out of this shit? Do you ever take anything seriously?"

Her eyebrows furrow. "Uh, yes. My education."

"Education doesn't define who you are, coming from someone who is visibly smarter than you." Her fists ball with one of the candies in between, crushing the candy apart. "Oh, I'll show you who's smarter, alright."

Angelica tries to push my shoulder, but I catch her with my reflexes. "How many times do you plan on attempting to commit a crime?"

"However long it may take, I enjoy you in pain."

"Are you a fan of BDSM?" I ask, still holding her hand in mine and the pen in the other. "No, I'm more vanilla than you think."

I smirk. "Oh, really, so you don't mind aggressiveness and all that."

"Oh, yeah. Top 3." Our banter moment was going great until my phone lit up with a notification from messages. I grab it and unlock it using Face ID. Angel looks over to peek, and we both stare at the text.

Unknown: You miss me?

"You'd think that since we're adults, she'd be over you." She comments. I nod. "Yeah, I must be that amazing, but jokes aside, we start the day after tomorrow with this project."

"What detail are we working with first? Let's start with the most interesting. Our parents' relationship, and what was the reason your mom died? Who's the genius now?"

I set my phone down. "Sorry to burst your pretty little bubble, Barbie, but I'm still the genius."