Page 87 of Flirting with Forever

“It lets everyone on your entire floor know you’re doing well.”

He laughed again and turned on the shower, laughing harder when she yelped and twisted away from the cold spray. “There are worse things, Mary. There are much worse things.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

JOHNROUNDEDTHEcorner off the elevator and paused when he saw Richie and Crash talking in the hallway outside the office door. The two men cut off their conversation as John approached and a smug, shit-eating grin exploded over Richie’s face.

“Crash,” Richie ordered in a bossy tone. “Do this with me.”

Richie doo-wop stepped to one side, shucking his arms with his feet. And then to the other side. He looked over, saw that Crash was abstaining from the dance move and frowned. “Crash!”

Sighing, Crash joined in the dance step, looking half chagrined at dancing in his place of work and half pleased that Richie was bullying him into goofiness. “Why are we dancing?”

“We’re celebrating John. Who did something very naughty last night. I can see it all over his face.”

John laughed and covered said face with one hand, attempting to step around the dancing men and into his office, but Richie got in the way.

“Am I wrong?” Richie teased. “Just tell me I’m wrong, and I’ll stop dancing.”

“Can I stop dancing anyhow?” Crash asked from behind them.

“Never!” Richie demanded, leaning around John and looking Crash up and down. “I like when you dance.”

John turned in time to see Crash go an immediate electric pink. He stopped dancing and scratched the back of his neck with one hand, looking completely unsure of what to say next and altogether very un-Crash-like.

A thought struck John. The Crash Willis that John had known was not dancing in the halls. He wasn’t blushing or flirting at work. He was a smarmy, smug kiss-ass, hell-bent on needling John at every turn. But that version of this man had apparently exited the building. John wondered if maybe, just maybe, coming to John’s office to be an asshole to John for all those years had been the only reason Crash had been able to invent to come to John’s office in the first place. AKA Richie’s office.

It didn’t make John like Crash any better that years of snide comments and douchebaggery had been an attempt at getting closer to Richie, but at least John could sort of understand the logic of it. People did all sorts of ridiculous things when they wanted someone they weren’t sure they could ever have.

“Can I carry on with my workday?” John asked Richie, who was still barring the open door to the office.

Richie narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to give me any details?”

“Not a one.”

“Which means that things were really serious and you don’t want to disrespect her by gossiping.”

John narrowed his eyes right back at Richie and slightly nodded his head in Crash’s general direction. “Maybe you can sympathize?”

Richie’s eyes narrowed even further and John heard the unmistakable sounds of Crash shuffling from one side to the other.

“Welp,” Richie said, a smile breaking out over his face. “I suppose the public’s not going to defend itself.”

He stepped aside and swept his hands toward the door, waving John into work. John knew that as soon as Crash left, he was going to get an earful for that insinuation. He also knew that he was going to have to come up with the most tepid version of the facts surrounding his relationship with Mary. He didn’t want to actually give up any of the dirt, but Richie was known to steal all of John’s writing utensils and bogart the air-conditioning unit until John told him what he wanted to know.

It was a good nightwas what John decided on.We hooked up. We’re seeing each other again tonight.

There. That would quell Richie’s insatiable curiosity. And then John could get to work.

Richie shooed Crash off to work, whispering something in his ear that made him go electric pink again, and then closed the door to their office, whipping around and narrowing his eyes at John.

“Give it up. I get that you didn’t want to spill in front of Crash. But come on. It’s just you and me now. Gimme every dirty detail before I explode from curiosity.”

It was a good night. We hooked up. We’re seeing each other again tonight.John opened his mouth. “I’m such a goner,” he said instead and pushed his fingers against his forehead. It was just a habit, though, because there was no headache brewing there. No tension. No fear or anxiety. Nope. The only thing rising inside of John at that particular moment was joy.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Richie asked, his arms crossed over his chest and his back against the door.

John dropped his hand and sighed. “It’s a good thing. It’s a freakinggreatthing.”

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