Dylan
MY GAMER FRIEND Quentin had my laptop. I called him, but he didn’t answer, so I left him a voice mail to get back to me as soon as he could. I had deleted the spreadsheet before I’d dropped the laptop off. I trusted Quentin and all, but I still wouldn’t have given him access to my company’s confidential budgets.
But I had backed up all of my documents on a small flash drive I storedin one of my snow globes, which was... sitting on the dresser. Addison (amazing little mind-reader she was) had somehow thought to bring it. The base of my dragon globe had cracked in one of my moves, enabling me to remove it from the globe and get to a secret compartment where I sometimes stashed things. I’d stuck my flash drive there, so I wouldn’t lose it or forget what I’d done with it whilemy laptop was getting repaired. I pulled it out and flipped it over in my hands a couple of times, reassuring myself that the spreadsheet had to be on it. If this was what the goons who’d broken into my apartment were looking for, it could clear my name. I just needed some quality time with my laptop and the drive to figure out what they were after. Until then, I stuck it back in the snow globe forsafekeeping.
The minute Jake left, Addison glued herself to her peephole for as long as it took him to saunter to the elevator before turning on me. “Did you get in touch with Asher yet?”
Damn it.I’d known it was coming. After last night, I was honestly surprised she didn’t steal my phone while I was sleeping and fire off some ridiculous text professing my undying love for him.
I shrugged,trying to appear nonchalant, like even the prospect of telling Asher how I felt about him wasn’t tying my stomach in knots. “I thought I’d let it play out naturally.”
She leveled a threatening glare at me. “Dylan...”
“What? I said I’d explore this thing between us. That doesnotmean throwing myself at him.”
“Communication is important. How will he know it’s game on if you don’t sound the whistle?”she asked.
“Game on?” I sighed, wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into. “I don’t want to play games. This would be so much easier if we were twelve again so I could just pass him a note, asking him to check yes if he wants to go out. If not, we can both spit on our hands, shake, and pretend the whole thing never happened.”
Addison’s face scrunched up in disgust. “First of all... gross.Secondly, wetriedthat route! You chickened out and shredded the note, remember?”
“I didn’t chicken out. I reasoned that at twelve, neither of us was ready for a steady relationship. I tabled it.”
Addison picked my phone up off the coffee table and held it out to me. “Well, now you’re twenty-four and it’s time to un-table it.”
The phone buzzed in her hand and she was so startled she almostdropped it. She read the screen and a gigantic smile stretched across her face. “What do you know? It’s Ashey! He wants to know if you’re free for dinner.”
“What?” I asked. “You mean both of us, right? He wants to take us both to dinner.”
“Nope.” I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but her smile actually widened. “Just you.”
“Why?” I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Ohmigod,did you say something to him?”
“Nope.” Her fingers flew over the keys of my phone.
“What are you doing?” I asked, lunging to intercept it before she wrecked my life.
