Page 27 of Revelation

I sigh. Oh, Josh. I really can’t let him twist in the wind for hours while I sleep.Iknow his application doesn’t change a goddamned thing between us, buthedoesn’t know that. I don’t want to talk about all this in detail just yet, but I certainly don’t want him to feel anxiety, either.

I pick up my phone and call him.

“Hi,” Josh says, picking up my call after one ring.

“Hi.”

There’s a long beat as Josh waits for me to say whatever I’m calling to say. I can hear him holding his breath on his end of the line.

“All I wanna do is sleep,” I say evenly. “That’s all.”

He still doesn’t say anything.

“I don’t wanna talk just yet. I really need to process exactly what I wanna say to you. Okay?”

“Okay,” he says softly.

“But... I was thinking... will you come to my room and sleep with me tonight? I don’t wanna be alone—I want to be with you.”

He lets out a loud puff of air. “Hell yeah. I’ll be right there.”

10

JOSH

I’m jolted awake by a banging at the door. My eyes spring open.

I’m tangled up with Kat in her bed, in my briefs, and I’ve got a gigantic woody. I was having an awesome dream—a totally awesome dream about Kat. It was so blatantly symbolic, soobvious, I feel like slapping my subconscious for being so lacking in imagination. In my dream, Kat was giving me an incredible blowjob and Emma walked into the room. But rather than jerk out of Kat’s mouth and rush to smooth things over with Emma, I just said, “Oh, hey, Emma. I’m kinda busy right now.” And then I looked down at Kat, at her blue eyes looking up at me, and I smiled.

There’s another loud bang at the door. “Hey, are you guys in there?”

Kat lifts her head, bleary-eyed. She looks at the clock and rubs her eyes. “Oh crap. My alarm didn’t go off.”

I leap out of bed and bound to the door. “Yeah, we’re here,” I call out.

I open the door to find Henn standing there. His eyes immediately train on my gigantic boner. “Well, good morning,” Henn says cheerily, staring at my crotch. His eyes snap up to my face. “Dude,” he says. “We’ve gotta be on-call to save the world today, remember?”

“Sorry,” I mumble. “Our alarm didn’t go off.”

He motions to my dick. “Mmm hmm. Time to get your other head in the game, Faraday.” He peeks past me into the room. “Kat?”

“Yep,” she calls from inside the room. “Come on in, Henny.”

I open the door wide and Henn strolls past me. He’s definitely got his swagger on today—which makes sense: I suppose Henn’s playing in some sort of Hacker Super Bowl today.

“Hey, Kitty Kat,” Henn says. “Sorry to intrude on your optometry appointmentagain, but Jonas texted ten minutes ago, asking me to confirm all the money’s still in place and we’re ready to move at his signal. I told him we’re good to go any time, boss, of course—and then I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for you two losers. Jesus, guys. You’re gonna give me gray hair, and I’m much too young and pretty for gray hair.”

“Sorry,” Kat and I say in unison.

“I know you guys are busy falling in love and all—”

My eyes instantly dart to Kat’s face, my cheeks bursting with color, and she looks like Henn just stuck her finger into an electrical socket.

“—but we’ve gotta keep our eye on the job,” Henn continues. “Jonas and Sarah went into their meeting with the feds a few hours ago and we’ve got to be ready, just in case. Once we’ve delivered the money, then you two can go off and do whatever the hell kind of eye exam you want, all night and day, but right now I need both of you to keep your eyes on the prize and your heads in the game.”

I look down. This is exactly why I’ve stayed friends with Henn for so long: he’s one of the few people in my life that calls me on my shit. He’s right. I’ve been letting myself get hopelessly distracted from what we’re here in Las Vegas to do.

“To be honest, the odds are low we’ll be asked to make the transfers today,” Henn continues, his tone much softer, “so I’m sure we’re okay—Jonas is ninety-nine percent sure his meeting’s gonna go ’til the end of the banking day today—but he wants us to stand by just in case. No room for error.”

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