The Sun in My Eyes

13 Need the Sun to Break

Night had fallen. Soft music rolled from the speakers outside and everyone milled about the yard. Bobby stood near the beanbags, entertaining everyone with his King of the Villa impression. Lili wandered over, standing outside of the crowd and looking amazing in a short red dress. "Everything the light touches is our kingdom," he continued. "A king's time as ruler of the villa rises and falls like the sun."

Everyone laughed. He wandered over to Lili. "What'd you think of my impression?"

"Spot on. Best Mufasa ever."

"You flatter me." He gave her a wink. "Now you try one."

She tipped her head and thought. "Okay, got one."

"That's my girl," he said. Her cheeks turned pink and his burned in return. They looked at each other for a long moment. "Ahem," he cleared his throat and looked around, hushing an invisible crowd. "Shhh, Lili's about to be amazing."

She grabbed the back of her neck and shouted, "Oi! Ten-thousand yearrrrrrrrrs, will give you such a crick in the neck!"

"Genie! Nice!"

She grabbed the edges of her dress and gave a dainty curtsy. "I also do an excellent Ursula the Sea Witch."

He rubbed his chin. "Okay I've got one more." He cleared his throat and began to speak in an exaggerated Irish drawl. "Duuude, this one time, in my truck, I picked up a stray dog that was like, hitchhiking through central Europe, and we shared this intense connection. Our auras aligned and it, like, totally changed my life."

"Rocco!" Lili threw her head back and howled with laughter as she applauded. "Oh my god. Perfection! Right down to the hitchhiking dog."

He dipped into a theatrical bow. "I live to entertain." He gestured to the beanbags. "Want to sit?"

She nodded and flopped down, unconcerned that her short dress rode up high on her thighs.

"You're such a lady," he said.

"Oh yeah. Wait till you hear me belch the alphabet." He laughed and pulled his beanbag next to hers before collapsing beside her.

She smiled at him and his heart went crazy, as if it were dancing to "Prince Ali".

"Tell me something I don't know about you," she said.

"Okay. One time I spent months saving for this amazing top-of-the-range cake decoration set. Big fancy cake stuff. You know. But then Priya coupled up with the last one!" He laughed nervously. "Get it? You thought it would be about cake but it was actually about..." He coughed. "Too soon?"

Her laugh snort was epic. "God you're such a bellend."

"I took some creative liberties there." He bit his lip and traced shapes in the grass with his fingers.

"It was a wonderful fiction. And a great way to avoid answering my question."

He flushed. "Had to call me out, did you?"

"Someone has to." She bit her lip and reached out as though she might take his hand, but she pulled back.

Disappointment bloomed in his chest. Now that she was single maybe she was rethinking her options. He certainly wasn't the only one interested. Rocco wasn't subtle. Rahim was clearly still infatuated with her. Noah seemed glued to Hope but sometimes his eyes wandered to Lili a little too much. And then there was Mari—

As if he'd conjured her with his thought, Marisol, sauntered over, looking annoyed. "You two look cozy," she said, a tinge of jealousy in her voice.