Page 90 of Loved

“In my defense, the girl at the library did know about that party. And also in my defense…you didn’t tell me the party would be fun. Or that it was tops optional.”

“It was a fun time.”

Rob smiled. “One of the best.”

Well, until it wasn’t. But it was a lot more fun not to think about the bad times.

“So what exactly are the two of you planning?” Ian asked and slid into the bar stool next to mine.

“There’s this really sick professor we’re going to beat up,” Rob said.

“Wait, he’s sick?” Ian looked at me.

“In the head. He’s not actually ill.”

“Oh. Okay,” Ian said. “So your plan it to go to his house at…” he glanced at his watch “…almost midnight and beat him up?”

“Yup,” Rob said.

“What if he’s sleeping?” Ian asked.

“Then we’ll break through his window and then break his nose.”

“And what if there’s an alarm and the cops show up?”

“We’ll beat them up too,” Rob said.

“Solid plan,” said Ian.

“Right?” Rob smiled.

“No, Rob. I was joking. You’re going to get arrested. You’re both lucky I’m here.” Ian slid back off his stool.

Rob and I both stared at him.

“Aren’t you coming?” he asked. “We have a professor to beat up.”

“You’re not going to talk us out of it?” Rob asked.

“My job is to protect James. That extends to Penny now. And no one messes with her.”

I stood up and clapped him on the back. “Told you he liked her,” I said to Rob.

“Oh I bet he does,” Rob said. “Ian, where exactly can I see this super hot footage that James has been talking about?”

“He deleted it,” I said.

“Yeah.” Ian nodded. “I deleted it.”

Well, that didn’t sound sincere. Now I was a little concerned that Ian hadn’t deleted the footage.

Rob looked back and forth between us. “You’re both so full of shit. Luckily I have the rest of the night to convince Ian to give me whatever hard drive all those video files are on. I wasn’t allowed to flirt with that beautiful bookworm, so you owe me.”

I definitely did not owe him. And especially not that. We were about to go beat someone up for touching Penny. Did he seriously think I was about to let him watch her? That was basically the same thing.

We all climbed into Ian’s new Tesla.

“And you thought my plan was bad?” Rob said and slammed the door closed. “This car is very conspicuous.”

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