“Ohhh, shit.” Her grin widens. “You did go home with him. I almost went to check… To see if you put a sock on the doorknob or some shit. Did you wash my sheets? Is that what took you so long to get here? Fuck it, if you didn’t. I’ll totally sleep in cum if the sex was worth it.”
I sink lower into my seat, the rim of my cup pressing against my lip to hide a portion of my face.
Roo slaps the table, ice rattling in her drink. “Tell. Me. Everything. Was it good? Bad? Illegal in some states?”
“It was… fast,” I say, my voice softer than I mean it to be. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“That sounds like a yes to the illegal part,” she murmurs to herself. “Fast to the finish line? Or like?—”
“I didn’t plan it.”
“Even better.”
I sigh loudly at her quick reply.
She’s enjoying this way too much. I’m not enjoying it at all.
Especially when my phone buzzes again. It’s face down on the table to keep me from checking it, but I still feel the muscles in my arm flex, wanting to reach for it like a terrible habit.
I ignore it.
And again.
But she’ll only let it slide so many times before calling me out.
Roo raises an eyebrow, her sickly sweet grin covering the incoming snark. “Is that him?”
“Doubt it.”
“Oooh,” she hums, tapping her lip with her finger. “The AI?”
I tense, and that’s all the answer she needs.
Fuck. I feel like an idiot.
“You didn’t,” she gushes, too excited.
“It wasn’t like that,” I say too fast.
Her gasp is so unbelievably loud the entire cafe freezes to look for whatever startled her. “Oh my god, you sexted your algorithm before you slept with a real man?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
My face burns. “Shut up.”
She smiles, satisfied with my emotional display… Because she’s insane. “You know, I think this might officially qualify as a love triangle. You’re really committing to the future of dating.”
I laugh once, short and humorless. “You sound proud.”
“Of course I am. My best friend is living proof that romance isn’t dead. It’s just being outsourced to a server farm.”
I roll my eyes but don’t argue.
The air around us smells like burning coffee beans and bad decisions… On my part and the cafe owner’s part. The new barista is really fucking things up.
Roo watches me like she knows I’m not saying something and is trying to give me the space to confess. She’s usually right, but she doesn’t need to know that.
