Page 73 of Damián

Yeah, great plan.

“I’m fine, Serena. Anyway, I can’t today; I’m meeting my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?!” Serena gasps, so excited that her fork drops onto her plate. “You have a boyfriend? Like… dating, committed, ‘hey look, this is my boyfriend’ boyfriend?”

“…I do.”

“OMG, Ollie! Who? When? Where?”

“His name is Damián. We’ve seen each other around at parties before, but we really hit it off at the gala. We made it official a couple of weeks ago.”

“Well, cancel your dinner plans,” Serena beams. “Bring him here!”

“Yes, Ollie,” Rafael says with a menacing tone. “Bring him here.”

Holy! No… this is bad.

I can’t bring Damián to this house without at least talking about our timeline or having some sort of cover.

What if I say the wrong date or mess up our ‘meet cute’ story?

And if something goes bad, Damián doesn’t know the layout… I haven’t told him any information about this place. He won’t know where to run.

No. I can’t.

It’s too dangerous to bring him now.

“Absolutely not. We just started dating, so I don’t—”

“Who cares! The weather is gorgeous. Tell him we have tons of bathing suits.”

“Stop it, Serena,” Elijah sighs, turning a page. “Oliver is almost thirty years old. He can do whatever he wants.”

“I don’t care if he’s thirty or fifty! He is my stepson, and I want to meet the man he likes.”

“Fine, I’ll text him. But I make no promises,” I relent.

Serena cheers and leans over my shoulder to see what I will write.

Okay, so there’s no getting away with this…

I pull out my phone and type:

OLIVER: Come to the house. Serena says we have bathing suits here.

I click send, trying not to worry about it because Dami is smart. He knows it’s way too soon for him to come to the house, especially without a plan.

Yes, that’s right… Just calm down, man. He’s a damn agent.

He knows it would be best to be prepared first. He will see my text, know something is strange, and suggest another day to meet.

I relax a bit and wait, knowing he will know what to do and how to make up an excuse for why he can’t come.

Not even a minute later, my phone buzzes. I open the reply, ready to read Serena the perfect excuse he came up with…

DAMIÁN: See you in fifteen.

What… the… fuck…