Page 47 of Kiss Me, Maybe

What time should I be there?

Don’t feel you need to come in costume, it’s mainly just to get the kids excited. But if you want to, you can dress as whoever you want! We start at seven

“How long have you been hanging out?” Marcela asks me now. “Did she ask you out? You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for it to be your turn to talk romance.”

“Probably about as long as you’ve known me.” I grimace. “We’ve been hanging out… awhile.”

Marcela slaps a hand on her desk. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Because it’s not a big deal,” I say. “And no, she didn’t ask me out. We’re just friends.”

She visibly deflates.If only she knew.Krystal asking me out seems tame compared to what we did instead.

“Okay, so what happened, then?”

“We…” I glance around the office. There’s one other assistant back here, Andrew Thomas. He has headphones in, but he’s been known to wear them to eavesdrop on conversations. My voice lowers to a whisper. “It’s not exactly safe-for-work conversation.”

Her eyes practically bug out of her skull.

“But you’re just friends?” Her smile is smug. “I’ve heard this story before, you know.”

“When are you taking your lunch break?” I glance at the clock on her desk, which reads a minute to noon. We both stare at it, willing the digit to move. When Erika emerges from her office and finds us having a staring contest with the clock, she practically shoos us out of the office.

Fifteen minutes later, Marcela pulls into a parking space from the drive-through and turns the car off.

“Just like old times,” I say as I hand over her order. “Feels like just yesterday we were here talking about you and Theo.”

“And your accidental adventures in thirst trapping.” She laughs. “By the way, I finally got ahold of the new library assistant at the school.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask. “Is she cool? What was her name again?”

I make the mistake of biting into a chicken tender at the same time she says, “Very. Her name’s Leticia Maldonado.” Her eyes glitter. “And guess what? She’s ace-spec.”

Marcela is oblivious to the bombs she just dropped on me. Leticia?Ace-spec?There isn’t a single doubt in my mind she’s talking about Leti. I try to swallow down my food, but my throat is too dry. And then Marcela isn’t so oblivious to my turmoil anymore when I start choking on a particularly thick piece of breading.

“Here!” She hands me her water bottle. “Angela, drink!”

I do, breathing a sigh of relief when nothing is clogging my throat anymore.

“She doesn’t happen to go by Leti, does she?”

“I think so?” She raises a brow. “How did you know?”

“I may have… met her already. Online, at least.”

“Oh, dear.” Marcela lets out a long sigh. “She wouldn’t happen to be one of the many women you’ve been flirting with through TikTok, would she?”

“There aren’t that many.” Not anymore, at least. I stopped responding to a lot of them when the scavenger hunt stalled and Krystal and I started hanging out more. The only reason I keep talking to Leti is because I genuinely like her.

If it weren’t for the Krystal of it all, I could see us being something more. Brunch on Sunday mornings, meeting her family and winning them over with my charming personality, kissing on the couch as a movie we’re clearly not watching plays on. Maybe I’d even develop sexual feelings for her, though it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I didn’t.

“Do you like her?” Marcela asks. “The same way you like Krystal?”

“It feels wrong to compare them,” I say. “Especially because I haven’t met Leti in person yet. But I do like her, a lot. That’s why everything’s so complicated now.”

“I’d be more excited for you if it wasn’t for Krystal. Which brings us back to the reason we’re here.” She gives me a pointed look. “What exactly led you to believe mutual masturbation was a good idea?”

We’d talked through current events on the drive here. She almost ran a red light when I dropped that particular bomb on her, and my life flashed before my eyes.

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