“Seriously—it’s up in the air.”
Jess eyed me, mouthing ‘Who is it’?
I mouthed back, ‘My manager, Tucker.’
‘What does he want?’
I ended our mime sesh. “He wants to know where we’re going, and I don’t really know.”
“Where do you want to go?” she asked, a raise of her brow letting me know she was open to suggestions.
I eyed her, letting her know I thought her place sounded dope.
“Would you like to come over and hang with us for a while?” she asked.
I glanced at Noah, then back at her. “Are you sure?”
“Sure, I’m sure. Noah, don’t you have a fun game from your aunt Andrea you want to play with Quinn?”
“Yeah! It’s going to be awesome!”
I flinched. By theway tooexcited expression on Jess’s face, I knew it would be the opposite of fun. “I’m not going to like this game, am I?”
“No. You are not.” Jess laughed, taking a glance in the rearview mirror before gently swiping my thigh with her finger, her subtle way of giving me hope that tonight might go my way after all.
“Quinn,” Tucker said my name in the phone.
“Oh, sorry. Forgot you were still there. We’re going to Jess’s.”
“All right. Just do me a favor. If it looks like people are following you, call me, and I’ll send a security guy out there.”
“I really doubt that will be necessary.”
“You’d be surprised, Quinn. After the whole bus Romeo and Juliet thing, you’ve got a target on your back. Don’t get me wrong—from a PR point of view, the entire stunt was pure genius. And it was all caught on film, every adorable cutesy word you two spoke to each other. Hell, I’m the least romantic guy in the world, and even I got a flush. But now that you and your lady friend have entertained a nation, you’ll have to deal with the starry-eyed fallout of your actions.”
“Oh boy, sounds fun,” I reflected.
“Oh yes, it surely does,” he agreed.
“I’ll keep my phone on.”
“Wonderful. That would be the smart thing to do. And, Quinn, as things progress through the evening, if you could just send me a quick text and let me know where you’ll be spending the night, that would be swell.”
Yep. There was no other way to interpret his request. My manager had just asked for a high-tech sock on the door.
“Will do.”
I hung up and then turned to flash her a thumbs-up.
“I don’t know if I like that smile,” Jess said. “You look like an anime cartoon. What did he say?”
If it had just been the two of us, I would have had a frank discussion with her about the spectacle our reunion had caused, but as the uncle of many little human sponges, I’d learned to keep my explanations PG-friendly.
“So, fun news,” I said, raising the excitement to pee-the-pants levels. “It seems that our bus reunion was conveniently recorded by your awesome passengers, Jess. And then, not to be outdone, Noah here, through his very energetic soliciting at the restaurant, has made us all—you, me, and the little man himself—internet stars.”
I shook my fists in the air and cheered. “Yay!”
Noah, instantly picking up on the excitement but not the sarcasm in my words, yelled. “Whoa, cool!” His legs pumped up and down, kicking the back of my seat.
