Immediately after the words were out of his mouth, Dylan regretted them. His blush came back full force, and Annie’s grin looked positively demonic.
“Tall, huh?” She took a long sip of her soda. “I get that. Tall can be fun.”
Dylan sat up straight, putting his hands down on the table. “Okay, I don’t want to talk about that anymore. Let’s move on. What did you do last night after you ditched your date?”
Annie studied him, gauging whether she could wheedle more details out of him, but then she sighed and accepted defeat.
“I got McDonalds and went home and watched TV. Blake – that’s the guy’s name – sent me a bunch of messages telling me what a heinous bitch I am, so I friended his mom on Facebook and forwarded screenshots of the messages to her and then blocked them both.”
Of course she did. Dylan didn’t feel bad for the guy.
“I’m sorry your date was a disaster.” He nudged her ankle with his foot. She was making light, but he could tell she was actually quite upset.
Annie sighed. “It’s fine.”
Shortly after that, their food arrived. Dylan had a chicken sandwich – his usual – while Annie had opted for soup.
“Did you get a notice for the rent increase after the new year?” Annie asked after a while, grabbing her bread and dipping it. “You’re subletting, right?”
They both lived in the same building, though Annie was two floors above him. She was the one who’d clued him in on the available unit on the second floor.
“No.” Dylan was disappointed. “How much is it going up?”
“A hundred something dollars a month.” Annie grimaced. “I know. It sucks.”
Dylan took a bite of his sandwich, doing the math in his head. He could handle a one hundred dollar increase in rent, but it would cut into his café and take-out budget.
He really should get better at making his own food.
“Are they at least going to fix the elevator?”
Annie gave him a look, and Dylan grimaced. Of course they wouldn’t.
He took another bite of his sandwich.
6
STEVE
It was a windy day with heavy clouds in the sky and the threat of rain permeating the air. Steve crossed his arms to guard against the chill, his face set in a thunderous scowl as he leaned back against the wall outside the coffee shop and surveyed the crowd.
He drained the last dregs of coffee from his cup and wished he’d be put back on traffic duty – at least then he’d be able to ride his motorcycle.
Pulling away from the wall, Steve walked over to the trashcan on the curb and threw away his empty cup, resuming his patrol down the street.
He was in a foul mood.
It was just, people were suchassholes. He’d spent the morning directing traffic at a busted stoplight, trying to manage the rush hour chaos as best he could, and he couldn’t count how many people had shouted at him or given him the finger.
The light had been fixed a little before lunch, and Steve now had the glamourous task of walking around the financial district and beingvisible.
It was a joke.
The fact that it was Wednesday didn’t help matters. Tonight was the night Dylan was going on his date, and even just thinking about it made Steve feel like wolfing out.
He couldn’t stand August and Ryker.
The two alphas were older than him by about a decade, annoyingly handsome, and every full moon they hogged the whole north part of the preserve like a pair of giant assholes. The preserve was supposed to be neutral territory, but every time Steve tried to exercise his right to roam free, August and Ryker chased him off and beat him up when he tried to cross into their area.
