My brother’s voice was muffled, probably by her skin. “Are you sure you can’t stay for breakfast? I’ll make you eggs.”
“Ah, I wish I could, but Jinx needs me,” she said.
“I need you too,” he said, his voice graveled.
“I’m in the kitchen,” I announced.
He grunted in acknowledgment.
“Good morning, Z,” Kat called.
Oh, great. Now she was calling me ‘Z,’ following Victor’s lead.
“Goodbye, Victor. I love you. I’ll see you at work.” She kissed my brother, then hurried outside, setting off the motion camera. I clicked on the notification and caught her waving and blowing kisses at the door. Were those marks on her neck?
I whipped around. “Victor, are you still standing there?”
“I’m making sure she gets to her car safely,” he said.
“You could do that on the cameras,” I said. He was pining like a lovesick teen. “You’ll see her again in five hours or so. Eat something. Please.” I closed the app and sighed. It was almost enough to put me off my appetite.
“Fine.” He locked the door, then trudged to get the other half a bagel I’d left on the counter. His hair looked like it’d been wracked by a tornado.But he did have more color in his cheeks lately. He smeared some cream cheese on the bagel, his shoulders tense and his gaze evasive.
I propped my elbow on the table. “What? You can’t eat without her beside you?”
His jaw flexed, and he shook his head. “There’s something I want to discuss with you.”
“Okay.” I placed both feet on the floor and clasped my hands, my heart hammering in steady thuds. Was she pregnant? Did they revisit the possibility of moving in?
“It came to my attention that Ash may not be an ideal candidate for your friendship."
“What?” I broke out in a laugh. Of all the things he could’ve said, that wasn’t on my mental list.
“First of all, she’s your manager, and secondly, she drank with an underling.” His shoulder twitched as he sat opposite me.
“I wasn’t drinking,” I clarified.
“She also hit on my girlfriend in front of me,” he growled.
Oh. Was that what this was about?
I sighed and waved my phone. “I doubt she’ll do it again. Besides, she backed off pretty quickly, and we were all making somewhat crude jokes last night. If that’s uncomfortable, we can hang out with her in more sober settings. You were eye-fucking your girlfriend all night, and no one judged you for it.”
“Actually, they did.” His forearms flexed as he picked up the bagel.
“Sal may have teased you about being in love, but he’s just…he was…” Echoing my concerns about them? I shook my head. “I thought we had a nice night. I even made plans to start a server for all of us so we could play games.” I spun my phone toward him for the proof on GameUp.
He frowned at the screen. “Sal invited you?”
“Yes.”
“The toy guy with the girlfriend? He’s messaging you at two in the morning?”
“He’s not…” I snatched my phone back. “It’s not like that.” Not yet, a jagged voice warned in the back of my head.
“You two seemed awfully friendly,” he said.
“Because we are. In a platonic sense.” I pinched my bagel, tearing it into bite-size pieces.
