The Slut's Guide to Romance(ONC 2024)

8

Owen Fairchild had a crush. Who, like in the books, we will call "Seri," for legal reasons. Alexia didn't trust Seri. She knew people like her were opportunist and was never comfortable with Lena's lackey clinging to her brother.

So when the teen who had been avoiding the Fairchild siblings like the plague suddenly wanted Owen to meet her at a party downtown. Alexia knew it was some cruel April fools prank orchestrated by her former friends. But Owen refused to listen.

Alexia hadn't noticed the upstairs loft above the Marino's Cuban-Italian fusion restaurant, Bella Clara. An unpretentious two-story shophouse, bathed in a dreamy cobalt blue with sleek black trim.

She only saw her brother standing in front of the given address lost and confused. The sight made her blood boil as Alexia stood in a floral print bustier cami top, comfortable jeans, and sneakers.

"Call her," She commanded, wanting more than a word with the girl who had stood up the sibling Alexia affectionately calls "Bean."

"Alex," Owen wearily reasoned. Mind your temper."

"My temper is fine," Alexia assured. "I told you there's nothing but shops and stores here. But you insisted we come. We came. It's a restaurant. Ha-ha, so funny, now I want to laugh, call her."

Owen masked his disappointment as he forced a smile as he assured his sister it was an innocent joke. "Maybe there is no party," he began as Inez sauntered out of the restaurant following her shift.

Though she wore hearing aids, Inez Marino had a tendency to turn them off to tune out the world around her. She didn't care if the other hostess was running late. It was hours before her birthday and she still had not figured out what she planned to wear.

Inez couldn't hear Alexia's simmering declaration. She could only read the lips of the cute quiet boy from English Lit.

"The party starts at twelve," Inez eagerly called as she pushed back her long dark curls to switch on her hearing aids. "Hey Owen, right?" She asked though she had known his name for months.

Alexia could see on his face that Owen was surprised that the tall slender afro-latina in little black dress knew his name. An amused smile peeling at her lips as she noted Owen Fairchild, a different species from their smooth talking family while he stuttered a reply.

"Inez!" Owen yelped. "You–you know my name?"

"Yeah...?" A grin peeled at her full lips, finding Owen's awkwardness endearing compared to their pushy peers. "We've only shared four classes for three semesters."

Alexia could tell by the way Inez smiled at Owen, she knew more than his name. Her theory confirmed when it faded slightly as the teen glanced in her direction.

"I know you..." Inez declared, unable to quite place how. "You're um..." She snapped her fingers trying to conjure the name to Alexia's confusion.

"This is my Flat-mate Alex!" Owen cut in.

"Flat-mate?" Alexia arched her brow.

Alexia did not know that Owen had elected to use what would be his writing pseudonym to distance himself from his family. The Fairchild's not yet knowing that he had legally taken on his beloved grandmother's Spanish maiden name of Alamilla, the moment he had turned eighteen.

"And Friend," Owen nervously grinned. His eyes begging his sister to play along.

No words were exchanged between them as Alexia cut Owen a glance that warned he would have to explain the lie at a later time. Inez none the wiser as she smiled and said, "Best friend. We're practically siblings."