When in Rome: Part 7

“See, this is the perfect tone, and now you finish to blend the V-shape, and…” Bianca set the brush down and stepped back, beaming. “Voila!”

Bobby gaped at his reflection. Between the double push-up bra and the contouring witchcraft Bianca had done on him, he looked… Stacked. He had definitely never had this much cleavage before -- Bianca’s were still bigger, and obviously realer, but if Bobby didn’t know better he’d say he’d just gone up a cup size.

“Huh,” he said weakly. “No shit.”

“It is very easy,” Bianca said modestly. “I wasn’t always so lucky, you know. I learned all the tricks!”

The show had just wrapped up, but no sooner had Bobby gotten his top back on than Bianca dragged him to the bathroom and took it off again. At first he’d thought he was about to get some kind of crazy hook-up in a toilet stall, which he’d been slightly nervous but also knee-shakingly excited about. Of course, it turned out Bianca just wanted to give him a tutorial on some of the “titty tricks” she’d mentioned to him yesterday.

“Well, um, good to know,” Bobby said, eyeing Bianca’s own cleavage in the mirror.

“If you want, I can refer you to a very good plastic surgeon,” Bianca said proudly. “But for now, this is good, right? You can maybe use it before your next date.” She gave him a wink that made Bobby feel all tingly inside -- a feeling her next words immediately cancelled out. “Was he, like, a super good kisser?” she asked innocently.

Bobby’s brain froze up. “What?” he squeaked. “Who? Kissing?”

Bianca patted his arm affectionately. “Barbie, you did such a good job with the concealer, like, really good,” she said, placatingly. “But it smeared a little while you were getting dressed. That’s the other reason why I am bringing you to the bathroom. Don’t worry, we’ll fix it.”

Bobby twisted his neck and saw what Bianca had already spotted: part of his carefully-applied concealer had smudged off, leaving the purplish edge of his hickey visible. His face turned bright red. He’d thought he was saved when he found the YouTube tutorial on How to Hide Love Bites early that morning, but now he had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

There was a reason he’d kept his summary of the date brief when he was on the phone with Kimberly -- there were some details she absolutely did not need to know. For instance, the fact that he’d spent the entire second half of the night trying to keep Andreas “happy” without losing his last shred of male ego.

His date had been emboldened after their first kiss, and since Kimberly wasn’t around to save him, Bobby had been forced to fend for himself. Which was not easy to do after pretty much declaring your undying love to a horny young Italian guy. Andreas had slid around to the same side of the booth, supposedly to show him a video on his phone, and before Bobby knew what was happening he’d had his arm around him and one hand casually resting on his upper thigh.

Bobby claimed he didn’t want to get too frisky in public, but Andreas told him that was a very American thing to worry about, right before sticking his tongue halfway down his throat. Bobby did his best to stay in “Barbie” mode, letting Andreas kiss him whenever he wanted and even making a few half-hearted attempts to reciprocate, but he had never felt so humiliated in his life -- especially when his date scooted him up onto his lap.

The worst part was, some traitorous part of his brain had kept mixing signals. As much as he wanted to be disgusted by the feeling of Andreas’s tongue exploring his mouth, his breasts kept tingling throughout the date. It had made for a very long, stressful, and confusing evening, to say the least. Eventually, Bobby just gave up, sitting submissively on Andreas’s lap with his eyes shut, letting the Italian boy play with his hair and suck on his neck.

Ironically, he’d spent that whole time trying his best to fantasize about Bianca. And now Bianca was the one who’d spotted the damning evidence: evidence of just how far he’d already gone to get into Uncle Nino’s good books. Bobby swallowed, trying to hide the stricken expression on his face.

“Yeah, um, I just…” He trailed off. “It was… Um…” He couldn’t stop flushing. He’d also been fantasizing about taking Bianca out on a date, as a guy, right before he went on his date with a guy and spent the whole night playing tonsil hockey. There was just no way he could talk to her about this.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Bianca said softly. “If it’s, like, a secret? That’s okay. I won’t say anything, and we will never talk of it again, okay? Secrets are important.”

Bobby stared at her. All of his experiences with popular, attractive girls -- from Ally and Beverly, to Kimberly, to even Serena -- had taught him that secrets were basically the girl form of ammunition. But try as he might, he couldn’t see any hint of sneakiness on Bianca’s face. On the contrary, she looked so concerned for him he was worried she might start crying or something.

“Thanks, Bianca,” he said. “You’re… You’re cool.”

Bianca’s face instantly reformed into its usual sunny smile. “Oh my God, I have always wanted for an American girl to say I’m cool,” she said. “It sounds so nice when you guys say it. Barbie, your secret is safe with me. Now, let’s hide your little succhiotto.”

She dove back into her makeup kit to find the right shade of concealer, and a few minutes later the hickey was gone like it had never been there in the first place and they were on their way out of the bathroom. They were just rounding the corner when Kimberly finally decided to show up. His ex-girlfriend did a double take when she saw who he was walking with, and another double take when she saw his makeup-enhanced chest, which made him blush slightly.

“I thought I’d catch your last walk, but traffic was insane,” Kimberly said ruefully, brushing her newly-brunette hair behind one ear. “I heard you were a hit, though, so that’s…” She shot a questioning look in Bianca’s direction. “Good.”

“Barbie was such a hit,” Bianca said, giving him a playful bump with her hip. She tapped a rapid-fire message into her phone, then smiled up at Kimberly. “Who is your friend, Barbie?”

Kimberly shot a meaningful look at him, but he let her stay on the hot seat for another few seconds. If she hadn’t gone off to bang a gladiator, or whatever the guy’s dumb costume had been, Bobby wouldn’t currently be concealing a hickey. A date with a horny asshole was exactly the kind of thing she was supposed to get him out of -- instead, she’d left him out to dry.

Also, her makeup was smudged.

“Oh, that’s just Kimberly,” Bobby said coolly. “She’s one of my friends from school.”

Bianca gave Kimberly an up-and-down, seeming slightly troubled by the rumpled dress. Bobby gave his ex-girlfriend a similar up-and-down, seeing her through new eyes, and he had a weird realization: Kimberly was one of the hottest girls in Jefferson High, possibly even the hottest, but next to Bianca, she just looked…pretty.

Sure, she wasn’t done up the way the models were, but even at her best, Kimberly wasn’t runway material. Bobby was, and it kind of made sense for him to have friends who were, too. Friends like Bianca.

“Hi, Kimberly,” Bianca said. “I am Bianca Buccino. It is nice to meet you, but I have to run! My publicist is like, yap yap yap, you know? Barbie, do you have a publicist?” She put her phone to her ear. “If you like, I can talk to mine for you, she is very good. See you tomorrow, babe!”

The model leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek -- not a makeup-saving air kiss, the way most girls did, but an actual peck that made Bobby’s stomach flutter. Then she waved goodbye to Kimberly and hurried off towards her waiting mob of assistants, already chattering on the phone in high-speed Italian.

Kimberly watched her go, then turned back to him. “Babe?” she echoed.

“She’s experimenting with, like, English slang,” Bobby said with a shrug, not liking his ex-girlfriend’s tone of disdain.

“Got it,” Kimberly said. “So you’re working this from both angles. Smart.”

“Thanks,” Bobby said, checking his phone -- his mom had apparently just gotten them a table for lunch at the restaurant across the street. He looked up. “Uh, smart how?”

“Cozying up to Andreas is good, but so is cozying up to Bianca,” Kimberly said matter-of-factly.

Bobby wrinkled his nose. He didn’t like the reminder of just how “cozy” he’d gotten with Andreas, thanks to Kimberly’s negligence, but the idea of getting close to Bianca was appealing. He just wasn’t sure Kimberly meant it in the same way.

“She’s cool,” Bobby said plainly. “She’s, you know, fun to hang out with.”

“And you’re in love with her boobs,” Kimberly said dryly. “Yeah, I know. Just keep in mind that she’s the enemy, okay? So if you get the chance to… I don’t know, dig up some dirt? We might need that.”

Bobby frowned. “She’s not the enemy,” he protested. “She’s just the competition, that’s all. Like, friendly competition. Serena’s the enemy.” He bit his lip. “Also, she’s learning how to twerk, and she said she would send me a video.”

Kimberly raised an eyebrow, but her dismissive look just didn’t hit the same way when her hair was all dishevelled and her makeup needed fixing. Honestly, Bobby felt a little embarrassed Bianca had seen her like that.

“Let’s focus on Andreas for now,” Kimberly said. “If the date got you guys to neutral, this party should be able to get you to ‘tell my Uncle I need the Blush campaign’ territory.”

All of Bobby’s anger and embarrassment about the previous night came rushing back instantly. He had been trapped in his worst nightmare for hours, and now he had a freaking hickey on his neck, and it was all Kimberly’s fault.

“If you’re so sure the only way to win is by parading an ass around in front of him, how about you just go fuck him?” he snapped. “It’ll be, like, a two-for-one deal on Italian sausage. You were supposed to bail me out last night, but instead you left me freaking stranded just so you could go off to get some dick.”

His ex-girlfriend’s face turned red, and Bobby felt an immense sense of satisfaction. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten under Kimberly’s skin -- lately it seemed like she was always the one in charge, but it hadn’t always been like that. Not by a long shot.

“Look,” Kimberly said. “I get you’re pissed off, but right now we need to focus.” She rubbed her eyes. “I’m going to kill this hangover with some espresso, then we tell Andreas you’re bringing a friend to the party.” Her lips twisted. “I’m not as fun as Bianca Buccino, but I’ve got your back, okay?”

Bobby kept glaring, but he felt his anger drop down a few notches. He slowly nodded his head. “Okay,” he said. “I’m freaking starving. Let’s go eat pizza.”

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