Focus (The Crescent Chronicles, #2) (15 page)

“
What’s that supposed to
mean?”

He looked away and took a long drink
from his water. “Are you ready to tell me why you decided to change
schools? It’s because of the boy, isn’t it?”

“
His name is Levi, and sort
of.” I’d already decided that was the easiest answer, especially
now that we were somewhat dating again.

“
What does ‘sort of’ mean?
Either it was because of him or it wasn’t.” Dad finished off his
water before signaling the waiter for a refill.

“
It means I wanted to see
where things went.”

“
And where did they
go?”

“
What’s going on, Dad?
What’s with the interrogation?”

“
Interrogation? You’re the
one who decided to throw away my deposit at Princeton to transfer
schools for a boy you’d just met.”

“
Deposit? It’s the money
you care about?”

“
Money doesn’t grow on
trees.”

“
Where’s all this coming
from?”

Dad ran a hand through his hair. He was
nervous. “Are you sure you don’t want to get back with
Toby?”

I took a sip of my water. I needed to
calm down before I answered. “Toby? We’ve been over for months.
What does Toby have to do with anything?”

“
We’re going
under.”

“
What’s going
under?”

“
The company,
Allie.”

I gripped the table for support.
“How?”

“
We had two bad quarters,
and we lost several investors. I thought I had Tyler Henderson on
board, but he made it clear he was only interested in helping
someone who had the same interests.”

“
Are you saying he won’t
invest because I dumped Toby?”

“
I’m saying he won’t invest
unless you two work it out.”

“
Well, we’re not going
to.”

“
Tulane’s not
cheap.”

“
Don’t pin this on me.
Princeton would have been just as expensive.”

“
You would be back with
Toby.”

“
No, I wouldn’t. And don’t
worry about tuition. I’ll figure out loans or
something.”

“
Even if you did, that
doesn’t help the bigger picture. This is about a lot more than
tuition, it’s the whole business. I’m not asking you to marry him.
Just spend some time with Toby and see if you can’t work something
out.”

I’d had enough. First, all the crap
with Levi, and now my dad? No one was cornering me again. “I’ve
lost my appetite.” I stood up to leave.

“
Allie, wait.”

I ignored him and walked out of the
restaurant. I picked up my phone and called Owen. “Can you take me
home?”

“
Levi’s going to give you a
ride.”

“
Perfect. I’ll meet him
outside.”

“
No, I’m here.” Levi
materialized out of nowhere. He’d probably been hanging out at the
bar.

Just then, Dad walked out of the
restaurant. He’d probably realized I wasn’t coming back. “Allie,
we’re not done.”

“
Yes, we are.” I turned to
Levi. “Please get me out of here.”

Dad pleaded. “Allie, we need to talk.
You’ve got the wrong idea.”

“
The wrong idea? You pretty
much just told me to whore myself out to save your company, or am I
wrong?”

“
Lower your voice. I didn’t
say anything of the sort. I was just giving you
information.”

Levi wrapped an arm around my waist,
and I was glad for it. I needed any support I could get. “You know
I love you, and I care about your company, but you just crossed a
line you shouldn’t have. I don’t want to say anything I’m going to
regret, so I’m leaving.”

“
Allie.”

“
No.”

Dad looked at Levi. “Can you please
give us a moment?”

“
Sorry, I think I better
get her home.” Wow, he’d seriously just stood up to my dad. I let
Levi lead me out to his car.

“
You want to tell me what
that was all about?” Levi asked when we were about halfway
uptown.

“
You didn’t get it from the
part you heard?”

“
I’m guessing he didn’t
actually want to use you as a prostitute.”

“
He wanted me to get back
with Toby to help his business.”

“
What?” Levi’s hands
tightened on the wheel.

“
I know my dad didn’t
really mean it. He’s just desperate. He got the company from his
dad—who always called him a failure. He’s just trying to save
it.”

“
Are you okay?”

“
Yeah, just
mad.”

“
I’m guessing you don’t
want to talk about it?” He put a hand on my arm.

“
Good guess.”

“
Want to grab some
lunch?”

“
I’d love some.”

“
All right, I know just the
place.”

“
Where?”

“
Semolina’s. It’s good
Italian.”

“
Sounds
perfect.”

I couldn’t believe that I’d just run
away from my dad and to Levi. Sometimes life just seemed so
complicated.

***

“
Come on guys, this is
serious.” Anne crossed her arms, glaring at us from across the
table.

“
How can Halloween costumes
be serious?” I tried to pay attention to the economics notes in
front of me, but my mind was still on my conversation with
Dad.

“
We need to come up with
the ultimate costumes. I don’t want anything lame.”

“
Then come up with one. Why
do we all have to have matching costumes?” Hailey used a clip to
pull back her hair.

“
Because then everyone
knows we’re together. It’s more fun.”

“
All right, what ideas do
you have?” Tiffany set aside her laptop. We’d fallen into a routine
of all studying together at the same table at one of the campus
coffee shops.

“
I was thinking Disney
Princesses. We can make them all cute and slutty. Obviously, Hailey
could be Ariel, I’d be Jasmine, Allie could be Belle, and Tiffany
can have her pick of the blondes.”

I laughed. “Oh, how can Tiffany choose
between Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty?”

Hailey shook her head. “No way. You
couldn’t pay me to dress up as a love sick mermaid.
Next.”

“
Fine, what do you guys
want to be?”

“
Flappers?” I suggested. “I
dressed up as one sophomore year, and it was fun.”

“
We need to save those for
the Prohibition party. I heard it’s epic.” Anne played with the
straw in her iced coffee.

“
What party isn’t epic?” I
asked, biting back a smile. “But, hey, I tried.”

Anne ate a tiny bite of her blueberry
muffin. “And it was a great suggestion.”

“
Pirates. Why don’t we go
as pirates?” Tiffany took a sip of her coffee.

“
I like that.” Hailey
smiled.

“
Same here. It’s classic,”
I agreed.

“
Pirates…we can work with
that. Let’s go as sexy pirates.” Anne was probably already
designing our costumes in her head.

“
I never said sexy…”
Tiffany got a panicked expression on her face.

“
It went without
saying.”

I leaned over to whisper to Tiffany.
“Don’t worry. I’m not wearing anything too slutty
either.”

“
But remember…Allie’s
definition of slutty probably differs from yours,” Hailey
ribbed.

Before I could throw a sarcastic
comment back to Hailey, Brandon pulled over a chair, throwing an
arm over Anne’s shoulder. She stiffened. I wondered what had gone
down between them. “Hey guys.”

“
Hey.” I gave him a
wave.

“
What are you all up
to?”

“
What does it look like?”
Hailey played with my little highlighter tabs. I resisted the urge
to grab the pink ones from her. I really loved those
things.

“
You weren’t
studying.”

“
We’re planning our
Halloween costumes, if you must know.” Anne crossed her arms
again.

“
What are you going
as?”

“
It’s a
surprise.”

“
Okay when did you two
sleep together?” Hailey said the words on my mind—only I never
would have said them out loud.

Tiffany spit out her coffee, and Anne
turned beet red.

“
I’m going to go…” Brandon
excused himself quickly.

“
Was that necessary?” I
asked.

Hailey shrugged. “Sorry, it just came
out.”

Anne sighed. “We haven’t had sex, but
we got close last weekend.”

“
When?”

She looked down at the table. “We met
up at the Boot…don’t ask.”

“
Okay…” Hailey, Tiffany,
and I looked at each other.

Anne quickly brought the conversation
back to costumes. “So, who wants to go shopping for supplies
tomorrow?”

“
Supplies?” I closed my
econ book, realizing there was no way I was getting back to
it.

Anne pushed away the rest of her
muffin, letting us know it was up for grabs. “For our costumes. I
heard there’s an awesome costume shop on Magazine
Street.”

“
I’ll go.” Hailey seemed
strangely excited.

“
Okay cool. You get out at
two tomorrow, right?” It was a testament to how much the four of us
hung out that we knew each other’s schedules.

“
Yup, we can take the
streetcar to my parents’ house and get my car.” Hailey finally
released my tabs.

“
Okay, great.” Anne was
immediately back to herself again. Considering how messed up things
were with Levi, I couldn’t judge anyone else for their
relationships.

Chapter Twelve

“
I can’t believe I’m
actually going out in this.” I checked my reflection one last time
in the mirror. The pirate costumes Anne designed were actually
cute—but also very revealing. A short mini dress was the base of
the costume, and with my long legs it looked even shorter. Add in
black boots and a low-cut top with laces, and it screamed
sex.

“
You and me both.” Tiffany
finished putting on eyeliner. “No one from home would believe I’d
ever dress this way.”

“
You’ll have to post a
picture tonight.” Hailey laughed. “If it makes you feel better, if
we run into my brother, he’ll make fun of me for the rest of my
life.”

“
Would Owen really care?”
Anne asked. She was already waiting impatiently at the
door.

“
Yes. He still thinks I’m a
little kid. Levi and Jared do too.”

“
An older brother is better
than a younger one. Mine is the most annoying kid alive.” Tiffany
replaced the eyeliner in her makeup bag.

I slipped in gold hoop earrings. “At
least you guys have siblings. I’m an only child.”

“
You didn’t like it?” Anne
asked. She had two younger sisters.

“
It gets
lonely.”

“
Levi’s an only child too,
right? I guess you guys have each other now.”

I forced a laugh. “Speaking of Levi, I
need you guys to swear you won’t let me go home with him if I get
drunk.”

“
What? You think you’ve
lost your willpower?” Hailey adjusted her top one last
time.

“
I plan on drinking.
Hopefully, we won’t run into them and it won’t be a
problem.”

Anne nodded solemnly. “I won’t let
you.”

“
Thanks.” We all grabbed
our purses and headed out.

We waited on the grassy median for the
streetcar. Based on the crowd around us, Bourbon Street was going
to be hopping. When the streetcar stopped, I had my money ready. I
inserted the exact change into the machine, smiling to myself when
I remembered my first time on a streetcar. It was the night of my
first kiss with Levi.

The streetcar was packed to capacity,
so we all found straps to hold onto. If the car was that crowded
uptown, it was only going to get worse. Way before Canal Street,
the car ignored the other stops because there was absolutely no
room.

“
This is crazy,” Anne said
as we pushed through the crowds.

“
You think so?” Hailey
smiled. “Wait until Mardi Gras.”

“
I can’t imagine.” I looked
down at my outfit self-consciously when I caught a group of guys
staring at us.

“
Where should we go first?”
Hailey asked once we reached Bourbon.

“
Let’s do Tropical Isle. I
want a Hand Grenade.” Tiffany uncharacteristically made the first
suggestion.

“
Sounds awesome.” I was
just glad we had a destination.

We didn’t make it that far. “Hey,
guys!” A group of girls from our floor called to us. Sometimes New
Orleans felt more like a small town than a city. It was impossible
to go anywhere without running into someone you knew. I didn’t
think it was a bad thing.