Page 32 of Sparks Fly
“My mother says I’m a wild child,” Jackie said with a shrug. “Regardless, my love life is still as dry as the California desert, so I must live vicariously through you. Plus, this guy sounds hot! And you deserve to get properly laid. One of us should.”
“I do deserve that, don’t I?”
Jackie nodded. “You do. Time to pop that cherry.”
“Christ,” Stella said, laughing. “Your lack of decorum is astounding. Never change.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Jackie said, smiling.
Their waiter came by then, and despite the fact that Stella had work in the morning, they ordered another round of drinks and kept chatting. All the while, Stella couldn’t stop thinking about her upcoming plans with Max and what she should wear.
Sixteen
Max was unsurprised when Miles appeared in his office on Tuesday.
“You’re dumping me on one of your employees?”
Max threw a sidelong glance at his friend Skyler, who was sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, before turning his attention to his little brother.
“Hello, Miles, and how are you today?”
“Why are you no longer working on Sparky?” Miles asked in response.
As he’d promised Stella, first thing on Monday he’d told Rashid that he was taking himself off Sparky and Rashid would be taking lead. Rashid was surprised but excited to head such a major project and pulled up his favorite engineers to join him for the office hours at Yellow Sparks that afternoon.
Max had expected to hear from Miles that day because surely Miles would’ve noticed his brother not showing up orwould’ve seen Max’s email informing those involved of the change, but there was nothing. Not until today.
Skyler raised one of their perfectly manicured brows to Max. “Sparky, like the dog?”
Miles finally took in Skyler, apparently noticing their presence for the first time. Max found this amusing, seeing as Skyler was sitting in the chair sideways, their legs hanging over the armrest and their feet dangling precariously in front of Miles’ groin.
“Oh, hello, Sky,” Miles said, barely giving them a glance.
“I prefer Skyler, actually.”
They swung their legs around so their feet were back on the floor and stood.
“Imma head out and let you two discuss whatever this is,” they said, waving a hand between the brothers. They pointed at Max. “Don’t forget we’re doing drinks tonight. No bailing on me again.”
Skyler and Max had been trying to make plans to catch up for weeks now, but between their two busy schedules, it almost never worked out. Finally, they were going to get drinks, and Max was looking forward to catching Skyler up on the chaos that had become his life recently.
“Got it,” Max said. “I’ll see you at seven.”
“Good, now I’m out.”
They patted Miles on the shoulder, leaving Miles looking confused, before they made their way out the door.
“Would you like to sit, or do you really enjoy towering over me that much?” Max asked dryly.
Miles glared at him but sat in the seat Skyler had just vacated.
“When were you planning to tell me you shoved me off to one of your employees?” Miles asked.
Max rolled his eyes. “I did tell you. I emailed you yesterday.”
Miles rolled his eyes right back. “I have a thousand emails. You could’ve called.”
“Didn’t you say the only people who still made phone calls were Gen Xers and boomers?”
