I squinted. Maybe?
“You need better lighting,” I said, since I legit couldn’t tell. “Where are you?”
“At Scott’s,” she said, which made me frown.
“You still seeing him?” I asked, even though... yeah, obviously. “I thought he was an ass.”
“Shut up, you did not,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You thought I was getting serious about him, and you were right. That doesn’t make him an ass.”
“Debatable,” I said, because apparentlyIwas the ass. She wasmybest friend, though. “Besides, I thought we didn’t do relationships.”
She laughed. “Youdon’t do relationships, but don’t worry, you know I’ll always love you best,” she said, knowing me way too damn well. “You don’t have to be jealous.”
“I’m not,” I lied, feeling a little better, though, since she’d confirmed that the ass wasn’t going to totally steal her away from me. “You sure you want to do that, though? Get serious and all? Sounds pretty sketch.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said, her face doing a dreamy-looking thing that actually did make me jealous for a second. At least, until I came to my senses. Sure, it looked good on Nichol, and if I was honest, I could even see someone like her pulling something like that off long term, but me? I had no interest in setting myself up for the kind of let down that that kind of shit would bring into my life.
Other than Nichol, everyone in my life eventually got sick of me or disappeared at some point… or, I guess, stuck around to see what they could milk me for, like Dev. So relationships? Hard pass, thanks. But no-strings sex, on the other hand…
I eyed the club clothes I’d just pulled from the closet before Nichol had rang.
“What are you up to tonight?” she asked, almost on cue.
“I was thinking about heading out,” I said, suddenly itching to find the kind of distraction that would help me forget about Paolo’s simmering anger in the other room and Nichol’s amazing new man and the fact that Christmas was a few weeks away and she wasn’t even coming back for it.
“Please tell me that means you have a hot date,” she said, disappearing from the screen for a minute and then coming back into view with a ball of fur in her hand.
“What the fuck is that?” I said, leaning forward to see as my lips curved up without my permission. It was so cute it was disgusting. Seriously, that level of fluffiness should be illegal.
“Scott got a new kitten,” she said, nuzzling the little thing and making stupid little cooing sounds to it. “I think he’s trying to lure me over here more often with it.”
“I hate it,” I lied. “It looks like it has fleas and shit.”
Nichol grinned. “Stop being a bitch. You know you’ve always wanted one. Youcouldfind a place that allows pets, you know.”
“Gross.”
Nichol wasn’t wrong about a lot, but she was about that. I mean, sure, Icould… but that wouldn’t be fair to the pet. Because what if thenextplace didn’t allow them? Then what? Or what if I ended up having to couch surf between addresses again, what would I do with it then? Or what if I got one, my own little cute-as-fuck fluffball to cuddle and love on, and it ended up hating me? Or I screwed up its food or something? Or it died? Yeah, sounded like a real riot.
“So tell me about your date,” Nichol said, tucking the little ball of future heartbreak under her chin and staring me down through the screen.
I laughed. “Nice try.”
Her face fell. What, she’d been serious? The girl knew me better than that.
“I was hoping you’d found a hot daddy on that kink app. You know you have about a billion notifications, right?”
“You’re hacking my hookup apps now?”
She rolled her eyes. “I helped you set it up. It’s on my phone.”
“Well, delete it,” I said, not that I gave a shit about her seeing my info. I had no secrets from Nichol. But, “You know I was just putting on a show for the channel.”
“Actually...” she said, a gleam in her eye that made me freeze.
Fuck. I knew that look. “Delete it, Nic.”
“Okay,” she said, giving in way too easily and with a much too evil smile. “Afteryou log on and look through some of these Daddies with me.”
