All's Fair in Love and Blackmail

by Gracie Ruth Mitchell

I hate being in a bad mood. Even more than that, though, I hate being in a bad mood without knowing why. I’m not PMSing; everything is fine at work and in my social life. My family is all good. It’s just me. I’m the problem today, and it makes me feel like a mean little rain cloud, raining on everyone else’s parade.

Real

even though she’s not technically a Marigold sibling, she’s Cyrus’s best friend and has been for years. Anyone who puts up with our grumpy big brother deserves to be treated like family.

I see a friends to lovers in the near future

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I like looking at pretty things.

He's so cute

“I like all women,” I say truthfully.

So instead of going home and crying normally like me and Juliet would do, we’re all crying here in the theater instead, watching things blow up in high def.

“Felicia,” she says in a flat voice, and a wide smile splits across my face.

He actually is cracking me up

“stop trying to sound friendly and charming. You’re holding me against my will.” “When I hold a woman, it’s never against her will,” I say with a grin.

She gasps, a loud, dramatic sound. “Does the famous Felix Caine think I’m attractive?” And good grief. Am I blushing? I can feel the heat in my cheeks.

Did you wake up one morning and think ‘You know, I’d like to be a sexy biker chick’?”

I got a fish. His name is Janis Joplin.”

I’m not interested in her, of course—she’s firmly in the friends category now—but I’m happy to admire beauty where I see it.

“You could be buying drugs,” I go on. “I wouldn’t stress about buying more books.” “When you say things like that, your attractiveness level goes up at least three notches,” she says matter-of-factly, and I grin. “So…from a ten out of ten to a fifteen out of ten?”

Word

“India finds most of her books in the brother’s best friend section.”

She did her so dirty

“Who are you checking out, Caine? It wouldn’t be your best friend’s sister, would it?” My denial seems to be stuck in my throat, lodged in there along with my heart as it thunders against my Adam’s apple. “Only sometimes,” I find myself saying,

Then, even though there’s a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about her, I pull my phone out to call India.

This is adorable

My own version of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days—an article titled “How to Get Over a Playboy (After You’ve Already Wasted Too Much Time).”

“All’s well that ends well.

Definitely foreshadlwing Jules' and Lucas' book