“I don’t know.” He shrugged, powering down in a slump. “I think I’m more adorable.”
I snorted and wiped off some toothpaste. “Okay.”
“You don’t think I’m adorable?” He stuck his hands in his pockets and sidled closer. “Am I hideous? Is that why you were staring?”
“I wasn’t staring.” I turned so fast I almost smacked him with the brush.
“Easy.” He laughed, leaning back.
Heat flared through my veins. This was silly. He shouldn’t be able to rattle me. I wiped my palms on the dirty rag. “If I was staring, it wasn’t at you.” I was thinking. Analyzing.
“Oh.” His mouth stayed open a second, then he closed it, nodding and looking at the floor.
“Although your shirt’s certainly eye-catching,” I added.
He chuckled and rubbed out the leftover toothpaste streaks on the floor with his bright gym shoe. “Thank you. I can put in a good word with Ash, if you want me to.”
“Why would you do that?” He had no reason to like me. I destroyed his drone. I glared through the windows. Why would he care if True Tech continued to employ me?
“I just want to see people happy,” he said, his gaze sliding along the emptying mall.
That was nice. Almost too nice.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“I know you don’t.” He sighed, swinging his upper body back and forth like he was trying to crack his back. “Tell you what, we usually go out on Wednesdays after closing. If you want to get to know us better, you can come.”
“Where?” Someone’s house?
“Ask Ash. It’ll give you something to talk about besides tech stuff.” He winked.
What, he didn’t think I could talk about other stuff?
I wagged the toothpaste at him. “Don’t you have a store to be in?”
“Don’t forget to fight those cavities, sweetheart.” He swiped some toothpaste off the end of the tube with his finger, then stuck it in his mouth and brushed.
Oh my god. Thegerms,the disease he just risked…for what? Fresh breath for his girlfriend?
He gave me a toothy, foamy smile, and backed away. “See ya.”
I nodded, not sure I could reboot my brain enough to respond. Whatever was off with him, I couldn’t diagnose it; but even stranger, I wasn’t sure it should be fixed. Sooner or later, that goofy, kind facade had to give way to something deeper. It could be sweet or sinister. Or stupid, I guessed. Part of me hoped it was that one, but I had a horrible feeling he was actually quite intuitive.
And now, we had to spend time together.
No problem, I decided, capping the toothpaste. That just meant I had to be smarter.
5
Beta
On the surface, crashing a mall manager get-together didn’t seem like the best way to make a friend. It wasn’t a college mixer where people were looking to get to know each other. Not that those were wildly successful for me either.
I mulled it over until the last second, walking with Ash through the darkened parking lot after our shift. It was unlikely she parked in the same aisle, so I had to make this quick. I gripped my taser disguised as a tag on my keychain and fought to keep my voice steady. “So, Sal said the people here socialize on Wednesdays.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes.”
A woman of few words. I could identify with that.
