Page 30 of Bite
For once, Bex doesn’t have a quick answer. Silence stretches between us, filled with bass vibrations and the hum of strangers’ laughter. Then, quietly, she reaches across the table and wraps her fingers around mine.
“Then I’ll come get you,” she declares, smile crooking sideways. “With garlic, if necessary.”
I laugh again, shaking my head. “You’re the worst.”
“I’m thebest, and you love me.”
I really do.
She raises her glass, the reflection of the neon bar lights glittering in her eyes. “To beautiful monsters and stupid-hot contracts.”
I raise mine to meet hers, the ice clinking like a warning bell. “To possibly terrible ideas.”
We drink. My phone vibrates again, rattling faintly on the lacquered surface. I don’t touch it, don’t even glance down, though I notice Bex’s eyes flick toward it before she deliberately looks back up at me.
“So,” she says, voice all casual mischief. “Did you land on a name yet?”
“Huh?”
“The cat,” she clarifies. “Which, by the way, I’m still pissed that you didn’t tell me about immediately. You’ve been holding out on me, Tay.”
I roll my eyes, setting my glass down with a soft clink. “It just kinda happened, okay? And no, he’s still nameless.”
“Not anymore.” Her grin turns downright wicked. “I thought of the perfect name for him.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nods with mock solemnity, like she’s about to announce a royal decree. “Ozzy.”
I blink. “…Ozzy?”
“The Prince of Darkness,” she declares, raising her glass in tribute while I snort a laugh. “You’ve gotta admit, it’s kinda perfect.”
“Ozzy,” I echo, testing the way it rolls off my tongue. It fits more than I want to admit. “I’ll see if he likes it,” I add with a shrug.
Bex smirks like she’s already won– but her look of satisfaction falters when my phone vibrates again. She glares down at it like the device personally offended her, huffing out a breath.
“You check it or I will,” she warns.
“Fine,” I sigh, picking it up. My thumb hesitates a fraction of a second before swiping open the screen.
A bright banner from the Bite app stares back at me.
Congratulations, Marilyn!
You have new engagement requests.
My gut clenches. I frown, flipping my phone toward Bex.
“Well?” she prompts, leaning in. “Aren’t you going to open them?”
“No.”
“C’mon, aren’t you curious if there’s one fromhimin there?”
Dammit. Iam.
With a long-suffering sigh, I tap on the notification, the Bite app opening with a flourish of sleek graphics. I’m greeted with not one, but three new requests blinking at me in a neat list.
