Conrad shook his head. “Like I said, I guarantee we’ve never met.” He had the craziest impulse to touch her, so he stuck out his hand. “I’mConrad.”
She looked down at his hand, shaking her head as she giggled quietly. He was afraid she was going to tell him what a loser he was for trying to shake her hand, but eventually put hers in his outstretched palm. “Lacey.”
“Nice to meet you, Lacey.” He gave a pointed stare at the guy next to her. “I hope you have a good rest of yournight.”
Her smile was brilliant as she said, “Thanks.”
And because Conrad couldn’t resist knowing more about this odd pairing—the sweet girl and the sleaze ball —he asked, “Firstdate?”
Lacey giggled again. It was a sound that usually drove him batty, but was adorable coming from her mouth. “How didyouknow?”
Conrad looked over at the guy. “Luckyguess.”
Lacey made a move to turn and go, but jerked back at the last minute, almost as an afterthought. “Actually, my roommate does this thing called the Date Maker. And we’re on a date she set up. You should checkherout.”
Conrad nodded unsure of what to say considering hehadchecked her out, and it had been atotalbust.
“We really should get going, don’t you think?” her date piped up, bringing both Conrad and Lacey’s attention backtohim.
“What’s gotten into you, Trevor?” she asked, her eyebrows drawingtogether.
Trevor’s eyes darted back and forth. “I’ve got an early morning. I toldyouthat.”
“No, you didn’t.” She worried her bottom lip. Conrad allowed himself the indulgence of thinking what it would feel like tokissit.
“I’m sure I did,” Trevor went on to say, but Conrad had heard enough. After seeing what he’d done to Lacey on what he now knew was their first date, the kid’s voice grated like nails on a chalkboard. Not to mention the three of them were still standing on the stairs, blocking the way for everyone else who was trying to leave thetheater.
He walked around the couple, determined to let it go. It wasn’t his business, he reminded himself as he made his way down the stairs. He’d just passed Lacey, his eyes focused on the front door, when he heard her voice again. “I will figure out where I know you from,Conrad.”
“Good luck with that,” he mumbled under his breath as he waved a hand at her, not even bothering tolookback.
After an uncomfortable encounter like that, there was nothing more he wanted than to blow off some steam with Death Count 2. And that was exactly what he was goingtodo.
“And theseconddate?”
“It would have beennice if you’d done a more thorough job screening everyone in your database,Morgan.”
ChapterFour
Lacey satup in bed and stretched her arms above her head as she gave an exaggerated yawn. She rubbed her eyes and turned to see Morgan sitting with her back super straight at her desk as she pounded keys on herlaptop.
“Good morning,” Lacey said, barely getting a grunt from Morgan in response. Her roommate still had her glasses on and was leaning in closely to the screen, never stopping the insistent tapping on herkeyboard.
“Still working damage control?” Lacey twisted in her bed until her legs dangled over the side of themattress.
“Uh,huh.”
Lacey decided to hazard a guess at what had Morgan so consumed in front of her screen. “Declan?”
Morgan’s fingers stilled, and she swiveled in her chair so quickly, her movements were practically blurred. “Ugh! He’s literally the worst. First he posts that article and now he won’t leave me alone. He keeps messaging me trying to get me to meet up. Well, guess what, pal? I don’t want to meet up with the guy who destroyed my life! What a complete shocker,right?”
Lacey rolled her eyes. “He didn’t destroyyourlife.”
The words were barely out before Morgan was yelling again, her voice too loud for how early it was. “Oh, no? Fine, not my life. Just my reputation, which is so much worse. If I ever want to be taken seriously, in this job or anything else, I need my reputation to be spotless. No one is going to want to have a date planned by someone who can’t freaking put together dates without mixing them up! It was hard enough convincing my best friend todoit.”
“But you did convince me.” The words were meant to peak Morgan’s interest. Since Morgan had been asleep when Lacey got home from her date with Trevor, Lacey hadn’t had a chance to tell her how wellitwent.
Morgan’s eyes narrowed, but Lacey saw the way her fingers tapped against the edge ofherseat.
