Page 43 of Villainous Summer

“Sure, I’m in. Where at?”

My attention was half on my screen as I pulled up emails.

“Skol House at six?”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you there.”

It took me a minute to realize she was still standing in front of my desk.

“Was there something else?”

Her ears were pink alongside her cheeks.

“No, I’ll see you there.”

I pressed the bent corner of the paper, trying to smooth it down with my thumb but gave up after a minute. I would rip it off, anyway.

Skol House looked the same as it had when I snuck in at eighteen, with its dingy green floor tiles and chipped purple paint on the doors. However, they had since updated the neon signs from hard lemonades to hard seltzers. Vinyl posters of local sports teams had changed to a new roster, but the same black light menu hung behind the bar.

Savvy stood from her chair, waving to flag me down despite the bar being half full. “Van, over here.”

On the other side of the empty chair was a thin man from research and development.

What was his name? We had been introduced a few times, but it was always in a group setting. Nathan? Nolan?

He was looking at the seat and back at Savvy with a pained expression she didn’t notice.

“I saved you a seat. You can sit with me and Eldon.” When I hesitated, her smile dropped a little. “Unless you have someone else coming? People said you brought someone to the parade party.”

The gleam in her eye told me she wanted me to be single. Office romances were on my no-go list. If seeing the boss’s granddaughter was a slight risk, dating someone you had to see every day was a huge mistake.

Savvy was a cute gal, with her short brown hair and green eyes, but I didn’t feel enough attraction to commit career suicide over. Best to end any aspirations now.

Settling on a high stool across from the table, I leaned against the tabletop. “My girlfriend might join us. She works just down the road at the hotel.”

I hadn’t planned on inviting Summer, but I needed her to meet me.

In the days since I had last seen Summer, we had been talking more and more. At first, she would check up on my foot, telling me to rest it, followed by me reminding her to put on the wiper blades I had dropped off at her door. She sent me pictures of her car with a thumbs-up, and I sent her a picture of a teacup with pink roses.

It was innocent enough. Without having her in front of me, I could almost convince myself she wasn’t as beautiful as I thought.

Then she tagged me in one of the pictures she took the night of the parade party, and I was back to fantasizing about her rose-scented skin near mine.

Focus. Keep it together. She could play her part, and I would keep my dick in my pants. I had thirty-two years on this earth without letting lust swallow reason. Not even Summer could shake my resolve. Right?

I excused myself to get a drink, bellying up at the bar.

While waiting, I shot a quick text to Summer, asking for her girlfriend services.

By the time my beer was set in front of me, she texted back a car emoji and a saluting face.

Everyone at the table was discussing the trivia competition when I returned. Savvy and some other woman, Gabriella, were talking about how well they had done at the last one.

Back in Seattle, I often went to trivia nights with my friends. It was nice to know I could start over here, too.

The conversation switched from defeat over the name of the small piece at the end of shoelaces to complaints about work, the ordinary pain-in-the-ass managers, and that one coworker who was always late.

“Whoa. Check her out,” one of the guys at the table murmured, nudging the guy beside him.

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