Page 18 of Friend Me

His phone vibrated on his desk. But he didn’t reach for it right away. “Something you needed, Marlee?”

Oh. Right. “Jamila called. She asked that you call her back. Something about a crisis. A small one,” I rushed to add as his eyebrows crashed together.

“Thanks.”

I’d already turned to go when his voice stopped me. “You’ll save me a dance at the wedding? First one after our toast?”

A joyful spark ran through me.Play it cool.Not even turning around, I said, as airily as I could manage, “Sure.”

I may have put an extra swing in my hips as I returned to my desk. It didn’t even bother me when his line lit and I knew he was calling Jamila. He’d asked me to dance. Step One was queued up.

I skimmed through the emails in Jackson’s inbox, flagged a few for his response, and let the senders know he’d be away for the next three weeks. Fiji. Alicia had shown me pictures of turquoise water and sugar-sand beaches. Maybe someday Cooper would take me to that Caribbean hideaway he escaped to whenever he had the time.

His door opened and he emerged, the color back in his cheeks and a secret smile teasing at the corners of his mouth. His laptop bag hung from his shoulder.

“Heading out?” I asked, unnecessarily.

“Jamila asked me to stop by her place and pick something up, but we’ll be leaving soon.” He tipped his chin at my suitcase and dress bag. “Need a ride?”

My pasted-on smile wanted to turn over. He had a key to Jamila’s home. He was familiar enough with it that he could locate her forgotten item. And he’d just asked me to be their third wheel. An image flashed into my mind of sitting not in the front seat but in the back of Cooper’s Tesla while they talked and laughed until they remembered me and Jamila turned, pity in her eyes, to include me in the conversation.

The door to the stairwell thunked shut just before I heard the deliberate drag of a sneaker on the hardwood behind me.

“Hey, Marlee. Cooper.” Tyler waited until I turned my attention to him. “Ready to go?” Instead of his usual T-shirt, he wore a white button-down with his jeans. The sleeves, rolled to the elbow, showed tanned skin and a dusting of golden hair.

My heart skipped at the sight of my savior from third-wheeldom.

“Yep.” I faced Cooper, my smile no longer pasted-on but real. “Tyler’s my ride.”

“Oh?” His eyebrows arched up, and he looked between us.

I stood and plucked the hanging bag from the hook behind my desk. Tyler pulled up the handle of my roller bag.

“Wait!” I scurried to the kitchen and returned with a cold can of Mountain Dew I’d stashed in the fridge. I handed it to Tyler. “For the ride.”

His smile broadened. “Thanks.”

Tyler pulled my emasculatingly pink suitcase behind him to the elevator. The elevator doors opened, and we stepped inside. Tyler put a hand in front of the door. “Going down?”

Cooper frowned. “I’ll catch the next one.”

From inside the elevator, I glimpsed Cooper watching us, his brow lined and his lower lip caught between his teeth. As the door closed, he called, “Don’t forget our dance.”

A giddy shiver ran across my skin.

Then I looked at Tyler out of the corner of my eye. A mirror of Cooper’s frown creased his face for a second before he turned to me. His posture was easy, but his knuckles on my suitcase were white. “You ready for this?”

“Am I ever.” The countdown was complete, and my plan was a go for launch.

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