Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

Anya shrugged, "Alright, I won't eat then."

Leo chuckled, "You've got a partner now, and wedding bells are in your future. Why stress about staying in shape? Embrace the chub! How about some chocolate?"

Anya just rolled her eyes.

Molly strolled over, "Hey Anya, what's up?"

"Just listening to Chad vent about me."

Molly smirked, "Put it on speaker. I want to hear this nonsense and show him I'm not someone to mess with."

Following her lead, Anya hit the speaker button. Leo chimed in, "Molly, why are you jumping into our little lovers' spat?"

"Because it's not a spat; it's you bulldozing Anya."

Realizing he couldn't win against his cousin, Leo quickly wrapped up the call to settle the bill.noveldrama

Back at the apartment, Jerry and Kathy had shown up as expected. Kathy had that sharp, professional vibe, and all the roommates, worried Tony might get the jitters, cleared out to give him the stage.

And Tony? He nailed it. He could act, had some slick dance moves, and his singing was decent-not quite Grammy-level but good enough to catch an ear.

Kathy watched, her face unreadable. She glanced around, "Where's everyone else?"

Tony, looking to Jerry for confirmation, said, "They didn't want to throw me off, so they headed out."

Kathy replied, "I have a few questions for them, can you get them back?"

Soon, all but Leo returned. "Hi there, we're Tony's roommates. Tony's a great guy-kind, hardworking, and ambitious. Signing him would be a win; he's got loads of potential."

After one roommate praised Tony, another jumped in with more compliments.

Hearing they needed to come back for questions, they all prepped their Tony speeches downstairs.

Meanwhile, Leo finished his errands,

parked, and checked the group chat from his car without heading upstairs. He started digging into Jerry's company on his phone, checking out its size, staff, projects, and artists.

Upstairs, Kathy noticed, "Seems like someone's missing."

Tony hesitated, "Well, that roommate..."

"He's on a date, probably won't be back tonight. You can ask us anything." One roommate cut in before Tony could finish.

They knew Tony was too honest to

ко

fib. Leo, seeing the chat, had already briefed another roommate over the phone, "Tony can't lie. If they ask about someone missing, just say I'm out on a date, not at the store Otherwise, they'd wait for him to return.

Jerry and Kathy exchanged a knowing glance, asked a few perfunctory questions, then said, "We let you know if there's any news. We're off."

Once they were in the elevator, everyone relaxed and asked Tony, "So, how'd you do?"

Tony nodded, "I think it went well, but," he looked a bit downcast, "I realized they were here more for Leo than me."

He was sharp enough to sense they used the audition as a pretext to scope out Leo.

In the elevator, Jerry grumbled, "He's dodging us. We aren't leaving until we see him, even if it takes all day."

Kathy added, "You must see something special in him. Now I'm intrigued too. I definitely want to meet him."

Instead of leaving, they doubled back and hid in the stairwell, waiting.

Seeing messages that the coast was clear, Leo knew it was time and took the elevator up from the basement.