“Um, fine.” I slapped the laptop shut.
“What were you looking at? Cute boys?” he joked, sidling up to me.
I rolled my eyes. The only one of those I needed was right beside me.
“I was organizing that finance spreadsheet,” I said.
“Mm. Math. In the morning. Brings back fond memories of statistics class, doesn’t it?”
I narrowed my gaze. “Are you mocking me?”
“Teasing.” He started playing footsie with me, his toe caressing the inside of my arch.
Oh, no. Tickly, relaxing, and worse, flirty, despite the fact that we weren't having sex this morning.
I gasped and playfully kicked him away. “How’s your studying going?”
“I’ve absorbed all I can by doing it solo. Can you quiz me?” He handed me a study guide.
“Sure. I can even give you a kiss for every right answer at the end of it.”
“You sure know how to motivate a man.” He winked.
“Let’s see how you do, smarty-pants.” I went through a few questions with him.
I…knew this stuff. Some of it, at least, even without studying.
Maybe I just hadn’t been in the right focus before.
At the end, I gave him a smattering of kisses. “I think you’re going to do great on your test.”
“I’ll giveyoua kiss for every answer I get right thanks to your excellent tutelage.” He kissed my warm cheek, then checked his phone. “We’d better get going. Yesterday, the GPS said it’d take about—ah, that’s not good.”
“What?” I peered at his screen.
Angel scrubbed his face with one hand. “I checked the estimated time last night without accounting for morning traffic. I think I’m gonna be late for my test.”
“No.” Every second counted. Sometimes, they wouldn’t let students take the exam at all if they came in too late. “Can you still make it on time if you skip the mall?”
He gave me a pained look. “But I promised I’d drop you off.”
“Go to your exam. I’ll figure out a ride. I promise.” I was a capable girlfriend.
“Okay. I’ll make it up to you, pidge.” He gave me another kiss, then ran out the door with his backpack.
“Scrubs,” I muttered, dialing Kat.
“What’s up, baby sis?” she asked, her voice slightly distant and garbled like she was on speaker phone.
“Hey, Kat. Would you be able to pick me up for my morning shift?”
“I can’t. I’m almost at the mall already. Circling back would make me too late to open the store. I thought Angel was taking you today.”
“We ran into a scheduling conflict.” We seemed to run into a lot of unexpected conflicts.
“I’m sorry, babe. Maybe you can use a rideshare app today?”
“Right, thanks. Bye.” I checked the wait times and gasped at the screen. The going rate for a ride to the mall was worth almost two hours’ work with the tip and rush-hour rate.
