Mikey looked at him. “I’m justsaying,you don’t have to worry about my feelings. It won’t be weird—I told you about Janine.”
“I’m not...” Cary shook his head. “Shiloh and I aren’t... that.”
Mikey curled his top lip and looked confused. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Where are you even getting this? We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, but you’re, you know...” Mikey bugged out his eyes. He could be just as dramatic as Shiloh sometimes. “Verrry focused on each other.”
“We’re good friends.”
“She’s verytactilewith you, Carold.”
“That’s just Shiloh,” Cary said. Mikey knew that was just Shiloh.
“She’s not like that with me,” Mikey said.
Cary shook his head again. “I’m like her dog or something. I’m her security blanket.”
“So you don’t have...feelings?”
“For Shiloh?”
Mikey rolled his eyes. “Obviously for Shiloh. I know you’re not a robot.”
Cary shrugged. “She’s just messing with me because I let her.”
“Why do you let her?”
Cary frowned at him. “Why do I letyouhassle me? Because we’re friends.”
Mikey turned away, scratching his ear. “Yeah, okay. I hear you. I’ll let it go. I mean, I am disappointed. I really wanted there to be anundercover romance...”
“You’ve got your own undercover romance.”
He grinned. “I know. Don’t tell anybody. Janine and I aresecret luuuu-vahs.” He sang the last two words, like the Atlantic Starr song.
“Stop.”
“Before I let this drop, like I said I would”—Mikey squinted like this next thing was painful for him to say—“Shiloh-is-crazy-about-you-and-that-is-my-professional-objective-opinion-that-I-would-bet-a-million-dollars-on.”
Cary jerked his head toward Mikey, then back toward the road. “That’s not true. She likes that guy—Kurt.”
Mikey shrugged. “Eh. Kurt’s nothing.”
“She doesn’t like me like that,” Cary said. “And if she did, she’d lose interest as soon as I liked her back. She just likes to mess with me. She thinks it’s funny.”
“Onemilliondollars,” Mikey said.
Cary made a growling noise. “Okay, you can drop it now. For real. You’re making it weird with her, and she’s not even here.”
“I’m dropping it, I’m dropping it.”
Cary drove for a second, and then he slapped the steering wheel. “Also? I have a girlfriend!”
“I was wondering when you were going to remember...”
“Screw you, Mikey.”
