His eyes sparkle. His mouth hovers above mine. My breaths are audible as I lug them in the small space between us. It’s as if he sees right through me.
“Game on, buddy,” he whispers, cracking a deep, mischievous smirk. “I play to win.”
His hands fall away from me, and I gasp for breath.
“You fucker,” I say, reeling at his use of my own words against me.
A knock raps against the door, and Drake smiles victoriously. “I better get that.”
“I hate you,” I say, dragging air into my lungs. “I think I’m breaking up with you over this.”
He laughs, earning a glare from me as he opens the door.
“Hey …” Juni’s eyes widen as she looks at me and then back at Drake. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Yes,” I say as Drake says the opposite.
I sigh.She was supposed to call first.“Come in, Juni.”
She doesn’t look sure but takes a deep breath and resets herself with a bright smile. “Okay. Are you ready to get started, or should I come back?”
“No. We’re ready,” Drake says. “We were just getting a plan together.”
“That’s right,” I say, staring at Drake. “We were.”
His grin wobbles ever so slightly—enough for me to know he’s worried about how I might respond.
And he should worry. Because I have a plan.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Gianna
“My ears work fine, Pearl,” I say, putting her on speakerphone and setting her on the table next to my scissors and a purple permanent marker.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think that they do. You keep saying the same thing over and over. If your ears work, then you’re not listening.”
I shouldn’t have answered her call. It’s not like I didn’t know it was going to be her. I saved her number in my phone the first time we talked—back when I was optimistic about buying her coat tree.Before I knew she was an extortionist.
A variety of aluminum soda cans are spread out on a towel in front of me to finish drying. I sifted through a box of my finds in the garage before pulling out five of my favorites. There’s a bright blue, green, red, orange, and a brown one that used to hold root beer. The brown one is the one I was after when I got sliced by glass in the dumpster.
Guess I didn’t get tetanus after all.
“My ears work, and I’m listening,” I say, trying to determine which can to start with. “You just keep saying the same thingover and over again. But you’re at one thousand dollars, and I’m at fifty bucks. We’re not going to come to an agreement.”
“Maybe you need to see it in person.”
I roll my eyes and choose the blue one. “I’m a busy woman, Pearl. I don’t have time to spend on frivolous things.” I reach for the scissors and grimace. Iamspending my evening cutting butterflies from Coke cans, but what Pearl doesn’t know won’t hurt her. “Besides, I trust your photography skills. You should believe in yourself more.”
“Should I take new pictures for you? Because although I, too, don’t have time to spend on frivolous things, I will make an exception for you.”
“Oh, Pearl. You’re so sweet.”
“So do you want them?”
“No.”
