“Stop it!” Bennie’s eyes flashed, and for once he stopped grinning or joking.
Instead, he placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. Hard. Until I felt the rage slowly ebb away enough for my vision to return to normal. Huh. I hadn’t even noticed it’d turned red.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
I was spiraling.
And Finn would be here in a couple of minutes.
“No, I’m sorry. I can literally feel how anxious you are, so goading you wasn’t nice. When is Finn gonna be here?”
I bit my lip, trying to calculate how long it’d take him to get from his apartment to our house.
“That depends. If he’s walking, he’s gonna need about half an hour. If he’s taking an Uber… probably fifteen minutes?”
Bennie groaned. “That’s not a lot of time. Can’t you meet at his place?”
I grimaced.
“What did you do?”
“Why do you think it’s something I did?”
Bennie raised an eyebrow at me. “Because a minute ago you just told me you’d fucked up. So… what did you do?”
“I might’ve left another note.”
“Might have?”
I threw my hands up, then walked around the kitchen island.
“Fine. I did leave another note, okay? And it freaked him out badly. Likesobadly. And now he’s coming over because he’s afraid to stay in his apartment.”
Bennie let out a laugh, but quieted as I gave him another dirty look.
“You have to admit, it’s quite funny thatyouscared him so much that he’s running toyoufor comfort.”
“It sounds like I’m a fucking psychopath.”
Bennie shrugged. “It sounds more like you’re a manipulative, stalking lunatic, but again, what’s new?”
I sighed, turning around and heading out of the kitchen into the living room. At least this room looked like someone actually lived here. There was the big, brown leather couch, the huge smart TV with all kinds of consoles hooked up to it, and a ton of fake plants that looked surprisingly real. But, you know, with having to have the whole thing blacked out during the day, no plants would get enough light to actually survive at our place.
Shit.
Would Finn expect to spend the night?
Considering it was already past six p.m., I’d think so. Which meant… I had to explain to him that he could not, under any circumstances, open the curtains during the day.
Easy peasy.
It’s not like he’d ever question that.
“You’re spiraling again,” Bennie commented. He dropped onto the couch and patted the spot next to him. “Sit down.”
“I can’t. I need to go and buy groceries, and…”
“Sit. Down.”
