Page 51 of Ring Me

Conner: Are you asking in a life or death sense, or is this an invite to meet your friends?

Me: Aubrey wants to hang out at Max's Game Center tonight. There'll be greasy pizza and cheap beer.

Conner: I love both of those.

Me: I promise it'll be fun.

Conner: If you're there, that's a fact.

His flirting was top shelf, as usual. Kicking my feet under my desk, I put my phone aside and tried to focus on work. But even though I had a ton of things to catch up on, my mind kept wandering back to Conner.

When he rolled up outside my work later that evening, I was ready for him. I always kept a set of workout clothes in my office for the occasional late night gym visit. Those were pretty rare, but I liked being prepared.

He rolled down the passenger window and whistled. “Excuse me, I was looking for my super professional fianceé. You're clearly someone on a mission to kick some ass and I'd hate to get in your way, so if you see her, give me a shout.”

“Ha ha,” I snorted. “I told you, Aubrey wants to play laser tag.”

“She wants to play. You look like you're ready to defend your championship belt.”

Tugging at my soft, dark plum yoga tights, I did a little hop. My sneakers were charcoal in color; I hoped they'd give me an edge in the dark laser tag room. “You look pretty serious yourself, tiger,” I said. “Are you wearing all black?”

He lifted his track jacket so I could see his tight forest green shirt underneath. “Almost. You did say this was going to be fun, and what's more fun than winning?”

“Those are sexy words.” I lunged through the open window to kiss him. Conner's mouth welcomed me, his hands yanking me through the window until I was fully inside his car.

His palm trailed down to where my black racer-back top had lifted, exposing my skin. He left tight bundles of nerves wherever he touched—I shivered.

Suddenly a car honked loudly behind us. I yelped, knocking my head on the inside of his roof. “Hey! Horn dogs!” Aubrey crowed, honking again. Conner and I turned to stare at her where she'd parked behind us. She must have gotten her car from the underground lot, then spotted us by the front entrance. “Let's get a move on!” She was grinning as she pointed to the Fit Bit on her wrist. “Time to drink beer and go pow pow pow with blinding bolts of light!”

Conner laughed, sharing a look with me. “I hope this doesn't count as my first impression.”

“Don't worry, she's just kidding around.” I made a not-so-nice hand gesture at my friend—she winked in response. Clipping my seatbelt on, I gave Conner one more kiss on his cheek. “Let's go show her what we can do.”

****

MAX'S GAME CENTER WASon the edge of the city. It was nearly dark out when we arrived, but the parking lot was flooded by lights coming from tall lamp posts. It was pretty busy—apparently everyone wanted to drink and game on Friday night.

Aubrey joined us inside, giving Conner a slap on the back as she got in arm's reach. “Sorry if I scared you earlier,” she said. “It was too tempting not to honk my horn.”

“No worries,” he shrugged. “Thanks for inviting me out to this. Maya made it sound like a good time.”

“If you're on her team, it is. If you're not, it's terrifying.”

“Hey!” I laughed. “I'm not that bad.”

“You gave me nightmares for a week when we were in college!” she reminded me. I blushed, unable to deny it. “Maya was stalking me around a paintball range,” Aubrey explained, noticing Conner's confused look.

He smirked at me, making me redder. “That's wild.”

“You're making me sound like a monster,” I groaned.

“Because you are,” she giggled. “Don't take offense, you know I adore you, Maya. You're super competitive and that's why you're the boss. Embrace it.”

Before I could respond, more people arrived. They all hugged Aubrey, some of them hugged me, too—the ones I knew pretty well. Aubrey had a ton of friends, she seemed to draw people to her like moths to a flame.

Within minutes we were getting wrist bands for laser tag, then ordering beers to drink as we socialized in the main room with all its arcade games, waiting for our laser tag round to be announced.

I turned to ask Conner something, and though I stopped moving, my brain continued to spin. Conner was gone. Standing behind me was Ben. “What are you doing here?” I asked, not hiding my anger.

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