She's No Beauty Queen

Lily had a hard time getting her homework done because she was so stressed about having to pretend around someone Angel actually knew. She forced herself to focus and get it done because she refused to let her GPA drop below a 4.0 over this ridiculous contract.

She had a hard time focusing on her classes the next day too. Randi noticed something was off with her at lunch and she had a hard time playing it off. She wasn't an easy one to convince because she knew Lily too well. It took a lot of not-so-subtle subject changing to get Randi off her back.

By the time her last class of the day rolled around she was so keyed up that she had no idea what notes she was even taking. The page in her notebook was full but she hadn't processed a single bit of it.

"Lily! Have you started the research paper yet?" one of her classmates asked on the way out. Polly Lyman had been in multiple project groups with her before and they were on friendly terms but she really wasn't in the mood to chat right now since Mark was on his way.

"No, I was planning on starting my research tonight. I have a topic nailed down though," she said with a sigh.

Polly laughed. "Better than me. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to write about. There are too many options!"

"I'm sure you'll find somethi—" Lily was in the middle of consoling her when she heard her name being called from the parking lot in front of the building.

"Lily! Get in; we have to go!" Mark called.

She flinched. Polly was looking back and forth between her and the car in confusion because she almost never talked to boys in class. They weren't terribly fond of her for calling them out on all of their crap, the same as in high school.

"Who's that? Your boyfriend?"

"Of course not! He's more like a colleague," Lily said quickly.

Mark was getting impatient. "Get in here before your food gets cold!"

Polly raised an eyebrow, more suspicious than before. "A colleague that brings you dinner?"

"…I have no idea why he's bringing me food. I didn't ask him to or anything like that." She was screaming on the inside. 'Don't misunderstand! I could never be with a business bot like him who doesn't have any convictions!'

Unfortunately, she couldn't bring herself to say that aloud. Completely mortified, she excused herself and ran to the car. They really were short on time for the stylist to turn her back into Miss California.

"Sorry. We really do have to go. I brought you food so you won't have to be hungry watching other people eat later," Mark explained as he plopped a paper bag in her lap.

She opened it and discovered a barbecue chicken sandwich, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and a sugar cookie from a popular sandwich chain. These were all her favorite things to get from that restaurant. What sort of wizardry was this?

"How did you—"

"It was a shot in the dark but I've picked up this exact order for Mrs. Todd a few times. I noticed at dinner the other night that you seemed to really enjoy the food and it was one of her favorite meals so I assumed your food preferences might be similar," he said simply. "I'm glad I was right."

Lily felt an odd sense of warmth flood through her. So they had something in common after all. And here she had thought she and Angel were polar opposites in every possible way.

"I thought you said you didn't know her that well."

Mark shrugged. "I don't. But on the rare occasions I was there when she was around dinner time they always seemed to be having what we ate so I figured it must be something she liked a lot."

That was an awful lot of deductions to make. What was he, Sherlock Holmes? She was glad she had something to eat though even if it did make Polly misunderstand things. Watching other people eat when you were hungry was the worst.

Something occurred to Lily suddenly. "Why do you call her Mrs. Todd if they aren't even married?"

To her surprise, Mark actually seemed a bit embarrassed. "Habit. Mr. Todd introduced her as his wife so that's how I've always addressed her. I didn't even know what her real name was until the other day because he always calls her Angel.

"I wasn't sure if it was a generic pet name like 'baby' or 'sweetheart' so it would be too weird for me to call her that. Especially since I always address my boss formally. He's kind of a big shot so no one ever calls him by his first name."

Lily frowned. What a sad way to live, never being called by your name. Hadn't Eddie said something about how Angel was the only one who called him by his nickname? That was one thing but not getting called by your first name either was worse.

"Aren't you two friends? I think you're close enough that you can call him Edward at the very least," she pointed out. "Not having anyone call you by name seems awfully lonely."

Mark's brow furrowed. "I wouldn't have thought he was the type of person to care about things like that because he's so unflappable and barely softens around his family. But my impression of him has shifted since he fell apart after the woman he loved went missing.

"I never would have seen that coming. He may be more sentimental than I originally guessed. You might be right about him wanting to be called by his first name more often. I noticed he didn't stop you from calling him Eddie after he found out you were a stranger."

Lily felt slightly smug that he was conceding her point. Maybe the poor guy might get another person to call him by name after this.

"See? I'm sure he wouldn't mind. So you can call her Angelina if you aren't comfortable with referring to her as Angel. I think of her as Angel even though we've never met because that's what Eddie calls her…do you think she'd get mad at me for calling her that when we finally do meet?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Mark replied. "But you should eat your food before we arrive because the stylist is waiting for us."

Lily didn't want the subject to drop but he was right. She started chowing down on the sandwich before it got cold and shoveling in Doritos like there was no tomorrow. She did need to eat fast.