Billionaires Meet Millionaire (A Steamy Romance) (23 page)

Olta
looked over her own shoulder to see Alice's
reaction.

Alice
glared at Niall mockingly and stepped forward.

"Of
course I don't mind you inviting people to my party." She said
giving Niall a pointed look. She then turned to Josie and she
flashed a bright smile.

"But if you
want to drop by, you're more than welcome."

Gaping
like a fish suddenly got a visual as Olta looked at the girls at
the table.

Only Josie and her neighbor had their
mouths closed. The neighbours was completely engrossed in her peas,
much like Bailey had been earlier. Her face was a deep shade of
crimson. Josie, however, just kept on smiling her smile even though
her eyebrows had vanished under her bangs.

"If
everything else falls through we might drop by. Thanks for the
invite." Josie said with a small nod.

"Cool."
Alice said and with that she turned and they resumed their route
outside.

"Niall."
Bailey said as soon as they were outside. He was almost growling.
Olta involuntarily took a step backwards as Bailey came towards
Niall. She looked to Alice and Peter for some kind of explanation.
They just stood aside and watched the scene unfold itself. Olta
decided to join them. No need to get in middle of this, whatever it
was.

"What?"
Niall said innocuously raising his hands in surrender. Olta could
see he was working hard to suppress his smirk.

"Just
because you've got Olta now doesn't mean you can go and play
matchmaker for the rest of us." Bailey said his voice was still
dangerously low but he had stopped his advance.

"Just
you, Ry. Me and Alice aren't exactly single." Peter decided to
throw in. Bailey shot him an evil glare over his shoulder before
returning his attention to Niall.

"I only
invited Josie because Olta knows her and otherwise she wouldn't
know anybody besides us." Niall was still playing the innocent
victim. And doing a very poor job of it.

Olta
watched as Bailey looked about ready to pounce Niall. He
looked pretty brassed off.

Who was
Niall setting Bailey up with? Surely it wasn't Josie. She was
single but from what Olta had seen Monday morning she had a soft
spot for Sam.

"Right,
and what if she hadn't been sitting with her sister, would you have
been so magnanimous towards Olta then?" Bailey asked
sardonically.

"She has
a boyfriend you know." He added and all anger seemed to have left
him instantly. He sounded defeated.

Olta
looked at Alice and she was sure she mirrored the look of
dawning realization and the widening grin that followed
it.

"No she
doesn't." They all but yelled in unison. Bailey turned around
slowly. A nice myriad of emotions played across Bailey's face.
Confusion, doubt and hope were all there. He looked like a small
boy.

Before
History on Monday Olta and Alice had been talking with Josie about
her sister's crush on some sophomore. For the past month or so he
would frequent the video store where she worked and they would talk
about nothing and everything. Josie said that her sister had
blurted out that she had a boyfriend on one his visits to protect
herself from crushing any further.

"She
doesn't?" Bailey asked. Olta and Alice shook their heads, again in
unison.

"But she told
me, well not exactly told me. But you know one of those casually
tossed in things so that a guy knows he doesn't need to try. So if
she doesn't have one, then we all know what that means." He sounded
utterly crestfallen as he moved to slump down to a low brick
wall.

"And you
have been making fun of me?" Niall smirked broadly. Bailey snapped
his head to Niall. Niall raised his hands in surrender again and
wisely replaced his smirk with a look of concern.

"No it
doesn't you stupid fool. She has major crush on you. She didn't
want get her hopes up." Alice explained as she sat down next to him
and put her hand on his arm.

"Really?" Alice only nodded. Bailey looked to Olta for
confirmation and she nodded with an encouraging smile. He looked
like a boy who just got told Interclass would be giving him
presents after all. Of course in Bailey's case that would be Santa
Claus.

"Not
that I'm not enjoying all of this. But who, what and how?" Peter
asked, clearly exasperated by being the one out of the
loop.

Olta
figured he and her mother would get along just
fine.

Alice
turned to her boyfriend and opened her mouth to explanation
but Niall cut her off.

"Short
version, Bailey likes Josie's sister and she likes him. Long
version will have to wait." Niall glanced at his watch before
turning to Alice.

"Her
name is Chesla." Olta heard Bailey mutter. She couldn't resist a
roll of her eyes.

"Look,
Alice. I need a favour." Niall said. Alice looked at Niall
unsurely.

"I'd
like to invite Sam and a couple of his friends to the party
tomorrow as well." Alice looked horrified. Bailey and Peter looked
at Niall disbelievingly.

Olta
was sure that she was missing something here.

"What?!"
She almost shrieked. "You want to invite Sam to my party. Need I
remind you that he caused the Pairos' house to be almost burned to
the ground?"

Niall
shook his head.

"Niall,
what are you playing at?" Peter asked.

"Yeah,
man, what is this all about?" Bailey piped up, having forgotten all
about his love life for a moment.

Niall
ignored his friends as he continued.

"First
off, what happened at the Pairos was an accident. Secondly, I don't
think he'll go rampaging through your house, seeing as he wouldn't
be exactly crashing the party and thirdly if he does do any damage
I'll pay for it. Okay?" His voice was very business like except for
the slight pleading note at the end.

Alice
thought it over for a moment and then nodded her
assent.

"Okay but they
break it, you buy it. And you better be sure what you're doing."
She said. She was clearly not too pleased about this.

"Thanks.
Right let's get going then." Niall said throwing an arm around
Olta's shoulder and steering her across school grounds.

Olta
mulled everything over. She knew Sam was kind of a punk,
both in lifestyle and attitude but Olta found that after he had
gotten over his condescending attitude towards her, she liked him,
just like she did Josie. Before she could think any further about
things she heard Bailey's voice.

"You
know he's going to throw a fit, don't you?" Olta didn't need to ask
who Bailey was talking about. So, this too was a way to get at
Daniel. What was Niall playing at?

Niall
nodded. Olta noticed he was grinning, once again. Bailey
sighed.

"Alice
is right, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Just
playing around. Nothing serious." Niall answered and Olta couldn't
help but think that that wasn't all there was to it. Bailey
obviously didn't think so either.

They
found Sam and his friends lounging at a secluded part of the
grounds. As they approached them, the group stopped their
activities and rose almost like one man.

Olta
glanced over the group. They definitely were the punk group
of the school. Most of them Olta had seen around the school but
there were some unknown faces there. They were decidedly suspicious
of them.

Sam
stepped forward. Where his friends were suspicious Sam was
clearly intrigued.

He swept
his eyes over them swiftly before focusing on Niall and
Olta.

"Told
you he liked you." He smirked at Olta and she couldn't help but
smirk back.

She felt
Niall mouth near her ear.

"Sam
told you I liked you?" he asked quietly, genuinely surprised. Olta
nodded, not taking her eyes of Sam.

"Should
listen to him, he's a smart man." He added in a stage whisper, loud
enough for Sam to hear. Sam acknowledged this with a small nod in
Olta's direction before turning his attention to Niall.

"So what
brings to this neck of the woods?" He asked, not trying to hide his
surprise.

Somehow
this felt like a business meeting between two gangs who weren't
rivals but weren't quite allies either. And both Niall and Sam were
playing the role of leader with vigour. The image of Niall as a
mobster came to life.

All of a
sudden Olta's nose caught a very familiar scent. Someone was
smoking grass. And not just any kind. She recognized the kind of
grass that was being smoked but couldn't put her finger on it. She
looked in the direction where the scent came from and spotted a guy
with green hair holding a joint leisurely.

"I would
appreciate it if you and a couple of your friends made an
appearance at Alice' party tomorrow." Olta heard Niall ask but her
eye was on the joint. She shook her head wearily. God, Americans
really didn't know how to roll a proper spliff.

"And
shake things up a bit?" Sam asked although it sounded more like he
was musing out loud.

The
green haired guy had apparently noticed Olta's gesture and mistaken
it for some sort of moral indignation. He made a show of taking a
puff and blowing out the smoke into her direction wiggling his
eyebrows.

"It
might make things fun." Niall replied.

Olta
rolled her eyes at the guy's antics. She was, what,
supposed to be impressed or shocked now? Right, better leave him
be. Olta returned her full attention at the
conversation.

"Sounds
like it could indeed." Sam said and his smirk grew even wider. Then
he turned to Alice, who wasn't hiding her apprehension about the
whole situation.

"Don't
worry Alice, we'll be on our best behaviour." Sam said sincerely
giving her a crooked smile. Alice relaxed visibly at that and gave
him small nod. She seemed rather subdued.

Then
Olta finally placed the scent.

"Northern
Lights." She blurted out and kicked herself mentally for doing
that. Great, why not take an add out in the paper why don't
you.

Sam
smiled at her appreciatively but Niall and Alice looked at
her with her confusion.

"The
grass he's smoking, its Northern Lights." Olta explained softly,
pointing at the guy in question. He, in turn, looked at her
bewildered.

"Right,
well we need to get back." Niall said still looking confused. He
looked at Sam once more.

"So, see you
tomorrow then?" he asked, his confusion was readily replaced with a
smirk.

"Sure
thing." Sam said and he was smirking too. It seemed like they had
were sharing a private joke. They probably were too.

As Niall
ran his hand over her back all Olta could do was wonder whether he
wasn't getting himself into a shitload of trouble.