Page 12 of The Mating Game
“Oh my God. He’s hot, isn’t he?”
“I guess,” I mumble. “Objectively.”
“Howinteresting,” she practically purrs.
I roll my eyes. “Well, given that—like you said—I look like aWalking Deadextra and I made an axe-murderer joke right after meeting him—your fault, by the way—he’s probably going to do his best to avoid me.”
I don’t mention that at this point, I’m hoping he does, given that our first meeting went as disastrously as possible.
“Shut up. A shower and some good sleep and you’ll get back to being the fresh-faced hottie I know and love.”
“Actually, I get the sense he doesn’t like that I’m here. Apparently this entire job was Jeannie’s venture. I don’t even know what their connection is yet. Hunter wasn’t very…forthcoming.”
On all sorts of things, I don’t say, trying not to think about the way he sniffed me.
Fuckingsniffedme.
That’s going to take some getting used to.
“Hunter,” Ada snorts. “How appropriate.”
“I thought the same thing.”
“Seriously, though. Do you have any questions?”
“I don’t know…I still don’t know what to think of it. I don’tfeeldifferent yet, you know?” I consider everything for a moment. “What was it like when you found out?”
“I mean, I was thirteen, so it was sort of a nonissue. I didn’t have my first heat till I was nineteen, so until then, it was just this thing about myself that I knew was going to be a big deal one day.”
“Were you scared? Knowing you were different?”
“I don’t know. My entire family are shifters, so I knew that was likely in the cards for me, but I’m the first omega in a couple of generations, according to my mom. Have you thought about asking your mom about where this might have come from?”
I wince. “She has enough going on.”
“I’m sure she’d want to support you, babe.”
“I know that. I do. But she’s so tired all the time, being the only one working, and with everything going on with Dad…”
“You’re not a burden, Tess,” Ada stresses. “I know you think that anytime you have problems, you have to keep them to yourself, but peoplewantto help you.”
Deep down I know she’s right, but it’s hard to shake off literal years of trying to make myself as little of a problem as possible to the people I love. They have enough to deal with.
“Maybe,” I mumble. I check the time on my phone. “I’d better go find my new boss, who might hate me.”
“Mm.” Her serious expression gives way to mischief. “Well. I’m sure you could make himcome around.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“One of us should be getting some action.”
“You could get plenty if you stopped swiping left all the time.”
She rolls her eyes. “The last guy on that app who lookedpromising said in his bio that his anthem was a G-Eazy song. Didn’t exactly spark confidence. I think I’m going to delete it altogether. It’s not like I use it for anything more than entertainment purposes.”
“One of these days you’re going to have to givesomeonea chance.”
“I’ve done just fine without penis so far, thank you very much. Artificial works as well as the real thing.” Her expression falls then. “Besides, you know why I don’t date.”
