“Tell you what,” I laughed. “Let’s order pizza and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Sophie sat up, eyes wide. "A girls’ night?"
“Absolutely,” I agreed. “We’re way past due for a girls’ night, aren’t we?”
Since I’d started atSinsational Sweets, I hadn’t done much with her other than go back and forth to class and occasionally see her at the apartment. We needed some time together. She was my best friend, the only real friend I had, and I was determined to do all the best friend things with her.
“Did you tell him about your superpowers?" Sophie wiggled her fingers at me.
“They kind of told on themselves. I may have lit a bunch of candles around us.”
Sophie fell back against the couch and cackled, kicking her feet. “Girl, you have got to get that under control. So, how did he react?”
I didn’t want to tell her Sam also had powers. It wasn't my secret to tell. "He actually didn't. Apparently, he knew from the start and didn't say anything."
“He’s not, like, some undercover government agent who’s gonna kidnap you for experiments, right?” Sophie gave me her serious face—chin tilted down, raised eyebrow, pursed lips.
“No, Sophiemy.” Although, it might explain his house. I shook the thought away. “My mom faked it well, but she didn’t like him much. She warned me to be careful around him.”
Sophie gasped and grabbed her chest like she'd been shot. "Lexi! You haven't even let me meet your witchy mom after two years and you took this hot, super-spy guy you've only known for three weeks?"
“It was an accident!” I ran my hands over my head. “I kinda blurted out the invitation without thinking, then there was no taking it back.”
“And he said yes?” Her raised eyebrow came back. “Honey, you’ve got trust issues. And by that, I mean you trust people way too easily.”
I screwed my face up and sagged back against the cushions. “Yeah, I know.”
When the pizza arrived and Sophie flirted with the driver, proving unsuccessful in her attempt to talk the poor woman into joining our girls’ night, we put on a cheesy romance and vegged out. I filled her in on every relevant detail, skipping the more private details of our sexcapades. We stayed up way too late, and it felt amazing for once.
Monday classes are going to be brutal.
Chapter 13
Sam
Wednesday used to be the lightest workload of the week. That was before Lexi. In the past week, I’d interviewed about twenty students looking for part-time work. Only three were on the “maybe” list because, surprisingly, they had a touch of power. Not much, but enough to make me wonder if Lexi was unconsciously drawing them there. Before her, I hadn’t had any powers come through my shop.
I’d been putting off the actual hiring part, though. The two of us had such a good routine down I didn’t want to screw up. Plus, they weren’t immune to my natural charm like she was. Their interviews were as much a bumbling mess as the rest. It was one thing to flirt with customers for the minute or two I was taking their orders, another to have someone drooling on my shoulder for hours.
It would get old fast.
I got a batch of hand pies in the oven and started prepping later ones in the lull before the next rush. Lexi didn’t come in until after noon on Wednesdays, so I was on my own until then. Which wasn’t so bad. It gave me time to think without being distracted by her, and I was ready to admit she was a damn good distraction.
There were times I would go hours, even a day or two, without thinking about my situation with Abaddon. Before, it would’ve made me paranoid and suspicious of her, but we’d cleared a lot of the air around us after our trip to Salem a week and a half ago. My ability to detect lies was the only thing unaffected when it came to her, I’d discovered, but it hadn’t helped much in discovering what she was.
I’d even asked her outright the other day what her father did and she told me he traded stocks. It wasn’t entirely a lie, but I felt the half-truth like static on my skin. Whatever she was hiding about her father, it was an even tighter secret than her having magic. That only served to egg on my curiosity.
The puzzle that was Lexi Sutton confounded me to the point of frustration and delight.
About ten minutes before she was due for her shift, a stocky young man approached my counter. Another power, this one bigger than the small fries I’d interviewed for jobs, though he kept his aura reined in tight. So it was odd to see someone like him, who could likely snap my metal dining chairs in two, looking so nervous. He was a good soul whose temper flared uncontrollably when he saw people being taken advantage of. Not an uncommon problem for his kind.
He—Nathan, I pulled from his thoughts—slid a folded piece of paper across the counter as I handed him his order. I’d expected a phone number, but he kept his enormous hand pressed to it when I tried to take it.
“Could you possibly see that Alexis gets this when she comes in?” His voice was strong with barely a hint of the nervousness his roaming eyes showed.
I’d taken phone numbers on her behalf before, but this was different. There was something about this guy that I both respected and hated at the Sophiee time. I mean, aside from the fact that he looked like a bulkier version of Captain America with green eyes, which would’ve been very attractive otherwise.
“Lexiwill be here in a few minutes, if you’d like to give it to her yourself.” I smiled and poured on the charm liberally. I didn’t really want him anywhere near her, even if I wasn’t sure why. Something about the way he was acting didn’t sit right with me.
