Page 16 of Burning Daylight
“Fuckingisromantic.”
“Is it?” I cock my head.
“It is when I do it.” She grins.
“Tempting,” I say flatly. “But I’ll pass.”
She watches me and then nods like she’s made peace with my decision. “Smart move, honestly. I do this thing with my tongue that would ruin you, and then obviously you’d fall in love.”
“Obviously,” I echo.
“I’d try to let you down easy,” she goes on, undeterred. “But you’d spiral, things would get weird, we’d stop hanging out, and you’d write some tragic novel and dedicate it to me with a passive-aggressive note. So really, it’s better this way. I value our friendship too much.”
I blink. “That was…a lot.”
She shrugs. “Just trying to protect what we have.”
“Right.” I nod. “Wouldn’t wantmeto make things weird.”
She sighs, falling back against the couch. “Exactly.”
“Anyway,” I say, moving my notebook from my lap to the coffee table. “You said it’s an art show? Who’s the artist?”
Felicity must be able to sense the unease in my voice, because she doesn’t miss a beat before saying, “Don’t worry, I know better than to take you somewhere that could tarnish that fancy reputation of yours.”
“I wasn’t worried about that.”
That’s a lie.
Personally, I don’t care, but my family does, and even this far away from Connecticut, if I did something too scandalous, it would inevitably show up inThe Rosebrook Ragback home. My family would have to contact their lawyer Frederick to bury the story, and I’d be cold shouldered until the next big scandal hit the news.
Felicity gives me a look, and I concede, “Okay, maybe I was, but you know how it is.”
She pouts. “Being you is exhausting.”
Tell me about it.
“It’s actually for some street artist.”
“Oh, really?” I don’t particularly care about art, but it sounds interesting enough. “What’s his name?”
She grins and wiggles her eyebrows. “That’s the best part. Nobody knows.”
“What do you mean, ‘nobody knows’? Somebody has to know if he’s got an art show.”
Her lips purse. “Good point. But in general, he’s anonymous. Tags everything with RMO and that’s it. It’s part of his mystique or whatever.”
“How do you know it’s ahe?”
“I don’t, I guess.” She frowns like the thought has genuinely never crossed her mind. “But that doesn’t matter.”
“What does matter, then?”
“Whatmattersis you getting out, breathing some fresh air, you know, living a little.”
“I already said I’ll go, what else do you want from me?”
Felicity beams. “Is it weird if I offer the threesome again?”
