Stars Falling [Book 2]

Chapter 6 - Pet Sitters

Tegan couldn't believe her luck. Christian Lu was standing in front of her house with his baby cousin Marie. How in the world did this even happen? When Tegan agreed to humour Chelsea and do an interview with this Marie chick, she didn't think she would get stuck dealing with the turd's relative. Tegan felt like an idiot for not knowing. They did have the same last name but who would have thought that Toronto was that small? Tegan wanted to tell herself that it was just a coincidence, that it wasn't anything to worry about, but inside she was having a mild heart attack.

The smile on Christian's face was infuriating. "You're everywhere," the asshole said walking ahead of his cousin. Marie was a tiny girl with long black straight hair that ended at her back. Her almond eyes were small and dark and her complexion perfectly fair. Dressed in a navy button-up coat and a light purple circle scarf, she paired it well with her knee-length boots.

"I thought I said to meet at the boarding house on Wednesday," Tegan sighed verifying it on her mail application. Her eyes caught Marie. "I'm sorry, did you not get it?"

"I-I got it," Marie answered staying where she was. "Chris said that he knew you and dragged me here...because he's going back to L.A on Wednesday. I'm sorry."

"Unbelievable," Tegan snapped glaring the idiot down. "I sent that e-mail like four hours ago too. How the hell did you organize everything so quickly?"

His laugh was irritating. "Well, I did have plans," he said coming closer. "But they ended early so I thought I would check up on Marie and see how her apartment hunt was going. That's when she told me about the boarding house. I really didn't want her staying somewhere cheap and shady so I did a background search and when I saw your name—well—I was convinced."

"I'm sure you were," Tegan crossed her arms. "Well, I'm sorry to have to send you away Christian but this is really bad timing. It's Sunday night."

"I know," Christian was on her porch now. "But like Marie just told you, I won't be here next week to look at the house so I wanted to get some important details out of the way."

Taking a deep breath, Tegan whipped around and left the door open for her guests. The universe hated her. It just had to. Why else would this be happening? Christian Fucken Lu of all people. It could have been anyone else but no! It had to be him. Rhea wasn't even home yet. Tegan was planning on calling her to see what was taking her so long. Maybe she had a run in with somebody and they were catching up. Man, Tegan wished someone would run into her so she could send Christian Lu and his baby cousin away. Tegan really didn't want that asshole's relative living in the boarding house.

Upstairs, Tegan made the cousins some tea and brought out a plate of biscuits. Christian was having fun watching Tegan struggle to be polite. It was hard to keep her rage in. Tegan didn't want to lash out in front of Marie. It wasn't her fault that her cousin was the bad egg in her family. Tegan never really questioned Christian's last name or his background because she was working hard to not have any sort of relationship with him. But now it was all she could think about—how did a Caucasian boy get adopted into a Chinese family?

"Thank you," Marie said sipping her tea. "It's delicious and I'm sorry again for intruding so late into the night."

Tegan was impressed with her manners. "You're very welcome," she smiled. "If you want something more filling to eat just tell me. Do you like banana bread?"

Marie nodded. "Is it homemade?"

Tegan shook her head. "Sorry, no."

"Banana bread tastes even better when it's homemade," Marie beamed. "If this all works out I'll make some to share. Chris loves banana bread, don't you Chris?"