Alice eventually links her arm through mine and urges me to start walking. “It should be illegal for someone to exude that much sex and pheromones.” She sounds a little disgruntled. “It will be hours before Wes is off.” I chuckle, and she jabs me lightly in the ribs with her elbow. “Not funny, I’m going to be walking weird until my undies dry.”
“Alice!” I admonish.
“Like yours are any better?” She snorts. A few heads turn our way when I really start laughing in response. She’s not lying. Even my quick trip to the bathroom before going to the lunchroom to clean up didn’t help matters much, not to mention that little stunt Griffin just pulled.
We finally make it up to the third floor, and I unloop my arm from Alice’s so I can unlock the door. “I’ve never been in here before. What’s it like? No, wait, don’t tell me.”
I push the door open and wave my hand for her to enter ahead of me. Her eyes are wide as she looks around, she even spins to take everything in as I remove my shoes. “Huh, I thought it would be…bigger.” She cocks her hip out. “Please don’t tell me everything has beenunderwhelming?” Alice’s smile is out in full force as she waggles her pinky finger at me.
“Oh Lord.” I cover my flaming cheeks with my hands, but I can’t help but shake my head in denial. “Nothing about either of them is even close to underwhelming. Quite the opposite in fact.” I wiggle my eyebrows in return once I drop my hands. This is fun, I’ve missed having a girlfriend to chat with.
“Lucky bitch.” Alice sighs with absolutely no heat. I nod, agreeing easily.
“Want something to drink?” I’m already halfway to the kitchen when I ask.
Alice follows behind me, her eyes still zooming around, taking everything in. “Sure, whatever is fine.”
I fill the new kettle that appeared several days ago and place it on the stove to heat. Next, I drag the huge wooden box filled with more teas than I’ve ever tried over for Alice to look through. “There’s coffee and water too,” I offer.
“No, this is good. What do you like?” Her fingers are sorting through the little envelopes quickly.
“This is my favorite.” I take one from the largest section, and she grabs one of the same.
Alice leans her butt against the counter and looks me over. “I heard Stone apologize to you, so he really did screw up?”
I end up mirroring her posture, but my arms are crossed over my chest. “Sometimes his mouth gets him into trouble. It’s like he doesn’t think about what he’s going to say or how it’s going to sound.”
“Considering he barely even speaks to most people, I can see that,” Alice agrees. “What kind of stuff does he say?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s probably going to sound dumb that it even pissed me off, but that man has a way of getting under my skin.”
“No, really?”Alice retorts teasingly. “Just tell me. It will make you feel better to get it off your chest.”
“I said something about working, and he was like” —I deepen my voice to sound more like Griffin— “you’re not working, we’re working, you’re just here.”Alice scrunches up her nose in distaste. “Believe it or not, Ithinkhe was actually trying to make me feel better when he said it, he just doesn’t think about how it’s going to sound.”
“How would that have made you feel better?” I push my hair away from my face at her question. “Oh, that face. Now I have to know.” I can hear the smile on Alice’s lips.
“We were fooling around…” I start.
“Fooling around. What are you, like eighty?” Alice snickers.
I plant my hand on my hip. “I got all hot and bothered, and Evan pretty much told me he needed to take care of me,” I blurt, feeling a little affronted that she just called me an old biddy.
Alice rolls her wrist, gesturing for me to get on with it. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“Well, we were going over surveillance footage. I’m not even sure I’m supposed to be talking about this. Anyway, we were in the security office.”
“Wait, was it just Evan? Paint me a picture.” Alice laughs at my expression. The kettle whistles, offering me a few moments of reprieve. “Don’t leave me hanging, Quinn,” she whines jokingly.
“No, it wasn’t just Evan,” I admit.
Alice starts clapping her hands and looking up toward the ceiling. “Oh, I knew I wanted to be your friend the first time I saw your big blue eyes and beat-up Chucks, but thank you, moon goddess, for making it the right decision. Go on,” she urges quickly after looking back at me.
I chuckle. “My shoes are what made you want to befriend me?”
“Hell yes, you showed up here real. No pretenses. Now don’t change the subject.”
Can a friend make you swoon? I think I just swooned for my girl. I smile and pour the hot water into our mugs. “Where was I? Oh yes, in the security office. Griffin was being a jerk, and I called him one.”
