Page 40 of No, You Hang Up

Stop looking for me. You’re not good at being subtle.

Fuck, I really must not be for him to have caught on so quickly. My heart races, and my head is still clear enough that I can work through this rationally. At least, I hope so. When my eyes go back to Eric, I see he’s finally caught on, and he’s starting to look a little unsure.

“Sorry,” I say, giving him my best, fakest smile. “I was just looking for where my friends are. They, uh, get a little out of control when we go out.”

Immediately his puppy-dog smile is back, and I can’t believe he fell for something so easily. “I’m going to get another one of these,” he tells me, gently shaking the now-empty beer bottle in front of him. “Are you sure you don’t want something?”

When my phone goes off, I almost chuck it across the bar, just to prove a point. Instead, I glance down, seeing that yet another message from Huxley has appeared on my screen.

Have a drink.A real one. I won’t let you do anything stupid.

“My friends,” I lie to Eric, giving him another reassuring look. “They’re just being needy. If you don’t want to put up with it?—”

“No! No, it’s fine!” He’s too eager as he calls the bartender, who comes over and looks at him as Eric taps his bottle. When the man looks at me, I hesitate, then let out a quick, nervous breath.

“Something with vodka that doesn’t taste like vodka?” I ask, and he gives me a quick, knowing grin before getting another bottle of whatever the hell Eric is drinking and setting it in front of him on a napkin.

“I thought you weren’t getting anything else,” Eric remarks cheerfully.

I wasn’t. “Guess I changed my mind. I’m feeling a lot less tipsy than I thought,” I lie, chin on my hand as I smile his way. The bartender doesn’t take long before he’s back, and he smoothly places a napkin on the bar before thumping down a glass with pink liquid in it, along with a healthy amount of cherries littering the top.

To my surprise, Eric reaches out and takes one by the stem. My eyebrows climb toward my bangs when he does, and I share a sympathetic look with the bartender, who looks just as shocked by his audacity as I do.

Naturally, my phone lets me know I have another text message, and I almost snort out loud at Hux’s text.

Wow. Cute. You sure know how to pick them.

Clearly,I whisper silently inside my head. With a less natural smile, I grab a cherry as well, popping it off the stem between my teeth. He has to be somewhere close enough to see, though I don’t think he can hear us. At least, he hasn’t remarked on anything Eric has said yet.

“So, are you from here?” God, we’re back to the small talk phase of this ordeal. “The Lexington area?”

“Nah.” Stirring my drink with a straw, I shake my head before sipping at it, just to see how strong the alcohol is. When I can’t taste anything other than juice and sugar, however, I decide it’s either weak or just so well made that I can’t taste how fast this is going to get me drunk.

I’m really hoping it’s the first one, but something about the confidence of this bartender tells me it might not be. I can sip it slowly, I suppose; plus nothing says I have to drink the whole thing.

Especially if Hux isn’t over here forcing it down my throat. Surely he knows he only has so much power over text, right?

As if sensing my thoughts, my phone goes off again, and I sneak a look at it without Eric noticing.

Lean in. Laugh at whatever joke he’s trying to make. Come on, Kai. You’re not putting on a good act for him.

My stomach flips, and I swear my insides are suddenly filled with butterflies, all trying to take flight at once. I take one breath, then another, and even as I tell myself I don’t have to do what Huxley says…I do.

I grin at Eric, and when he pauses for my reaction, I give a soft snicker, like I really find him entertaining. With my legs crossed, I lean in, one arm still braced on the bar as I do.

His eyes widen, and his next words fall out of his mouth as he stumbles over them, clearly surprised at my reaction to him. “Yeah?” he asks, though I really have no idea what he’s asking. “It was kind of funny, right? I was second-guessing myself in the middle.” His eyes drift down to my phone, then back up at my face. “You really don’t have to go?”

I could always put my phone back in my pocket and use it as a way of flipping off Hux wherever he is in the bar. I even consider it, for all of about two seconds, before I realize I’m absolutely not going to do that.

I can’t.

“So long as you don’t mind my needy friends, I’m all yours right now,” I assure him with the sweetest lie I can manage. I’m not all his. I’m only here because Huxley is telling me to play along, and for some reason, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

God, I have such a damn problem.

When Eric promises it’s fine—that he totally gets what it’s like to have friends like them—I feel the tiniest stab of guilt in my chest at the lie.

He’s sweet and earnest. The exact opposite of Hux, and that’s the whole issue. He’snotHuxley, and yet he’s the one in front of me while Hux texts me, and there’s something about that.

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