His brows pinch. “I’m your most sensible friend, right?”
I tilt my head back and forth. “You tie with Emil.”
“Fair, but he’s not here. You’ve got me.” He rolls his chair up beside mine. “Tell me what happened, and I’ll try my best to help you fix it.”
I take a deep breath before admitting, “I lied. I don’t have a date tomorrow.”
Micah’s roaring laugh practically shakes the building. He throws his head back and cackles at the ceiling, way longer than is appropriate in this dire situation.
Crossing my arms, I glare at him. “Are you done?”
“We all knew you were lying.” He pats my leg with a sympathetic smile. “You’re the worst liar on this continent.”
I glare harder, giving my best impersonation of Finn’s grumpy scowl. Honestly, I don’t know what’s worse. Everyone believing me or no one believing me?
Micah shakes his head and grins. “But let me tell you the best part. Dr. Finn Ashford did believe you and, honey, he didnotlike it.”
“How do you know that?”
“He had the look of a man going out of his mind thinking about you on a date with someone else.”
My stomach flips uncomfortably. “I... I don’t know...”
Micah is excellent at reading people, and I would usually take his word for things like this. One time, he was giving a tour through the butterfly vivarium, and by the end, he had played matchmaker with two of the guests and they got married therea year later. So we frequently tease him about being able to see a potential couple before anyone else.
But this is different. This is me. And Finn. There’s no way he cared that much.
The room feels a little like it’s spinning.
“Trust me—he may not exactly understand it yet. But he’ll get there. And you will too.” He gives me a cheeky smile and rolls his chair back behind his desk. “Want to take me on a date tomorrow? I’m available, and I happen to love Nacho Mama’s.”
This might be a cheat code, but I’ll take it. I nod.
“Perfect. I’ll tell Emil he’s sharing me for the evening.” He picks up his phone to send a text.
My phone vibrates with a message, and I pull it from my bag, thinking it’ll be a group text from Micah.
But it’s not.
Kyle:I’ve been trying to talk to you, and it’s bullshit that you won’t answer me. If you keep ignoring me, I’ll have to find some other way to get a hold of you.
My hands shake and my heartbeat whooshes through my ears as I read the message again.
His texts have gotten progressively worse over the last few weeks, and I don’t want to know what they might escalate to. But it feels like he wins when I spend so much time thinking about him, so I shove my phone away.
***
A warm breeze blows my hair in my face as I sling the bag of cookie ingredients over my shoulder and trudge up the steps to Finn’s house.
He answers the door with a small, conspiratorial grin. “The girls want you to find them,” he says, pulling the door open wide for me to come inside.
“Oh, okay.”
Taking the bag from my shoulder, he leans in and whispers against my ear, “If you listen for a second, you can probably hear them giggling in anticipation.” Shivers race over my neck and shoulders as his breath tickles my skin.
He pulls back and winks, and I decide it should be illegal for handsome men to wink. It might give an unsuspecting woman a heart attack.
Finn carries the cookie ingredients into the kitchen, while I tiptoe around the living room. I listen for a second, and sure enough, snickering echoes from the dining room.
