Page 50 of Not As Advertised

“Hey. Sorry I’m late.”

We both knew Indie was just making a fuss for the sake of it. While not a sucker for animals the way that we were, Indie did like them deep down.

“I’m just saying, Mew is going to know what a traitor you are when you come home and he smells all this on you.” She waved her hands in a sweeping motion to encompass our surroundings. “I’m glad he won’t be smelling any of his feline competition on me.”

I smiled. “Thank you both for checking on him. Especially for feeding him every day, Indie.”

“You’re lucky I stopped her at one outfit,” Emery replied.

“Listen, just because I downloaded a few patterns off Etsy does not mean I was planning to dress him up all week.” Indie sniffed.

Indie totally would have had an outfit per day for him if I’d had more notice of the trip.

“By the way,” Indie continued, “I taught him my excellent taste in TV shows. He now needs you to stream his nightlyepisode ofThe Bachelorette. He didn’t care forThe Bachelor, so we gave up on that right away. Too much cattiness.” She gave us an exaggerated wink.

That had both Emery and me giggling. Indie had a secret love of reality TV shows where contestants continuously made bad decisions.

“But enough about Mew. Tell us about the trip. I can’t believe Aiden got you tickets to Anime Expoand then went with you. How did you manage that?” Emery’s gaze radiated curiosity.

“He has a thing for her, that’s how,” Indie jumped in before I could form an answer.

“Who wouldn’t? But maybe he did it as a thank-you for all her hard work.” Emery shrugged off Indie’s assumption, more inclined to believe the best in people. I loved that she didn’t assume everyone had a motive for their actions. Emery did things to be kind, so she often thought the people around her were doing the same thing.

“Well, er…” I started.

“Oh my god!” Emery’s eyes widened in shock. “She’s right?”

Taking my stilted attempt to form words as evidence, Emery turned to Indie, her expression in direct contrast to Indie’s smug smile.

“What can I say? I just had a feeling. I love being right.” As her reward, a cat jumped up and sat in Indie’s lap. Rolling her eyes, she patted it lovingly. It was cute to see Indie melt a little bit.

“Tell us what happened.” Emery was not going to be distracted by anything, feline or otherwise.

“I don’t know. We met with his sister and her friend, who were also going to the con. Then later in the evening, I just had these tickets in my inbox. It was so nice of him.”

“But that’s not all, right?” Indie said knowingly.

Emery turned to Indie once more. “How do you know that?”

“See the embarrassed blush coming up on her face? It takes more than playing a little bit of public dress-up to put that look on someone.”

“Excuse me, it’s called cosplay, which you already know. But you are right.” I decided not to keep them in suspense after Indie had called me out so directly. “We, uh, kind of hooked up.” I brought my hands up and buried my face in them.

“Oh mygod!” Emery’s screech of excitement scared the cat right off Indie’s lap.

Indie looked down at the fur her new friend had left behind and sighed.

“Em, you keep saying that. I’m so proud of you, Abs. Look at you being all spontaneous. Keep going,” Indie encouraged.

Parting my fingers, I gauged my friends’ reaction to the news. It was no surprise that they were both watching me carefully. Their expressions remained open and attentive but clearly ready for the juicy details. I brought my hands down to the table again, holding on to my coffee cup for something to fuss with.

“Well, it was just supposed to be one night,” I said, not comfortable getting into specifics in public. “But that one turned into two. And now he asked me to keep seeing each other, but no one at work can know.”

To her credit, Emery’s first reaction wasn’t an opinion. “What do you want to do?”

“I haven’t been able to think of anything else since he asked me. I know Ishouldn’tsay yes, but I really want to.”

“Why shouldn’t you say yes? It’s your life. You can do what you want,” Indie argued.

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