Page 12 of Call My Bluff
Noah:Ha! Dream on, sister.
Olivia:I’m not your sister.
Noah:Thank heaven for that.
“Who is thatsmile for?” Lexie asked, a knowing look on her face as she came back into her room that Friday night.
Olivia quickly shoved her phone underneath her thigh. “Mind your own business,” she said, though it was without heat.
Lexie crossed to her dresser and opened the top drawer before pulling out a soft blue sweater and a tank top. “Have you told him about the Harrelson Center?”
“Told who?” Olivia asked innocently.
Lexie met her friend’s eyes in her vanity mirror, clearly seeing through the act. “The guy blowing up your phone at all hours of the night. Every night. For a week,” she replied.
Olivia’s phone chose that moment to buzz loudly against her leg, and she swallowed a sigh. There wasn’t any point trying to downplay the number of times Noah texted her each day.Anything less than twenty would be a lie, and at least one of those was always an attempt to change her mind. “It’s not my fault he doesn’t have an off button,” she grumbled.
Lexie only laughed softly. “You’ve never had a problem telling boys to get lost before,” she observed, and she added a pair of jeans to the growing pile of clothing on her bed.
Olivia pursed her lips and picked at a loose thread on Lexie’s comforter. Her friend was right; she’d never had an issue telling guys to leave her alone—unwanted attention was an unfortunate side effect of good genes, and she’d learned to be proactive about it over the years. And yet, as persistent as Noah was, she simply hadn’t found the right time to send him packing.
“I just think he might be interested to know you’re going to be interning down the street from the grocery store where he works,” Lexie went on, ignoring her friend’s silence.
“Maybe that’s why I haven’t told him,” Olivia replied. “He doesn’t need another way to drive me nuts.” Her phone buzzed again, and Lexie smiled.
“Is he driving you nuts? Could have fooled me,” she murmured, and she shut her last dresser drawer with a bang. “Alright, I think that’s everything,” she added.
“Everything for what?”
“My mystery date!” Lexie answered.
Olivia looked at the pile of items her friend had selected. “For when?” she asked, confused. The clock on Lexie’s bedside table said it was almost 11:00 p.m.
“For tonight. Jake’s created some kind of all-night surprise for our one-month anniversary, and he said to wear extra layers,” Lexie explained. She picked up her phone from the nightstand and unlocked it before turning the screen toward Olivia.
“Extra layers?” Olivia asked skeptically, reading from the text message. “What kind of romantic all-nighter requires extra layers?”
Lexie shrugged and put the phone down before pulling on a pair of jeans over fleece-lined leggings. “No idea. I’ve tried to get it out of him, but he’s holding this pretty close to the vest. The only thing that makes sense is if we’ll be outside.”
“Outside?” Olivia blurted. “It’s November!”
“Which is why winter layers would make sense,” Lexie answered, sliding the sweater over her head.
Olivia’s phone buzzed a third time. Her fingers itched with the need to check it, but she clasped them in her lap instead. She didn’t need to give Lexie any more ammunition.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the front door as Lexie finished brushing her long hair into a ponytail. “That’ll be Jake,” she said, her voice already full of excitement. “Don’t wait up.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Olivia called as her friend walked away. “I’m going to bed and will be sleeping like a baby.”
“Check your messages first!” Lexie shouted back, and Olivia rolled her eyes. She’d check her messages when she was good and ready.
But, as it turned out, Noah was impatient as well as persistent. Her phone started to vibrate in a relentless staccato almost the moment the front door shut behind her friend—a phone call this time, not just a text.
“Has it ever occurred to you that I might be busy?” she asked the moment the line connected.
“Is Jexie still there?”
Olivia blinked, startled by the unexpectedly strange question. “Is what?” she asked.
