Page 17 of My Secret Bandit

“Wait! He plays football? Like he’s a professional athlete?”

I nodded.

“Should’ve known. A body like that does not happen to regular people.” She shook her head.

“Right. Now all those phones pointed toward us that night make sense.We, apparently, are the only two people in Tampa who didn’t know who Mateo Linx was. Even Derek and John knew.”

Sierra snorted. “Shitheads, I swear.”

I filled her in on the rest, let her listen to my recordings, told her about practice. How he came to me after the first and asked if I’d be at the next one. The way he was with the high school kids, the small kiss he left on my cheek. I told her about our moment that took place earlier.

She choked on her drink when I told her about having dinner with him later.

“Damn! Your first date in how long!? And it’s with a drool-worthy giant of a football star. Talk about a major turnaround.”

It’d been years since I’d been on a date, and none of those guys would ever come close to Mateo.

“Lemme see your phone. I need to know what he sent. Was it a basic ‘Jamie’s phone’ or a smiley face? Oo, Oo! An eggplant emoji!” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.

I got up from the couch, shaking my head at her and rummaged through my bag to find my phone. “Uh, no. Definitely no eggplants.”

I had three messages. One from Jeffrey and two others.

Jeffrey: Hey Flynn, got any hot gossip? I’d love to know what possessed Kyle to flip me the bird when he got back to the office this afternoon. Anyway, I have some things I need to take care of tomorrow and obviously Kyle’s not doing practice until his hissy fits are under control. You’re not expected to go, but if you do, you’ll be solo. Just a heads up.

“Jeffrey benched Kyle for practices.”

“Oof. That’s rough,” Sierra shook her head in disappointment. “Guess that ‘fuck you’ wasn’t my imagination.”

I know Kyle is still upset with me. I’d be stupid to think he’d just magically get over it. Maybe I should have done a better job keeping Mateo a secret.

“No. Stop that,” Sierra said with a direct line to my thoughts. “We all told Kyle not to ask you out.Weknew you weren’t interested. But he’s so used to getting his way, he never stopped to think you’d actually turn him down. So don’t feel sorry for him. He should have listened to the advice we gave him. Protected his ego and his knuckles. Now, what does the message say?”

She was right. I never showed interest in Kyle or led him on. I wasonlyever his friend. So, his hurt feelings weren’t really on me. I pushed my guilt aside and focused on my phone.

The other messages were from Mateo, saved as “Mattie.“ One he sent to himself on the field, and the others time stamped after I’d already left. Forgetting how to multitask, I stopped in my tracks and read Sierra the message he sent to himself first.

Mateo:I hope you’re as curious as I think you are. Screenshot this. Save it. Print it out. I want you to have a constant reminder that I think you are the most beautifully intriguing woman I’ve ever met. Please don’t forget it.

Mateo:You have no idea how hard it was to pull myself away from you. I was serious about you being the most beautiful woman in a room, with or without clothes. But seeing how this is our first date, I’ll be on my best behavior. Promise.

“Could he be more perfect?” Sierra gushed.

Mateo: And my passcode is 0312 btw.

“He sent the code to his phone.” I pushed the phone into Sierra’s face.

“Damn! Y’all are likeofficialofficial, huh? Just a warning, I’ll be living vicariously through you now.”

“Oh, how things have changed,” I said, and we shared a laugh.

The sun sank lower, casting shadows in the room as we finished up the first season of some prison documentary when I finally thought to look at the clock.

“Shit!” I sprung from the couch. “It’s after eight. I don’t even know what to wear. Sierra! What am I going to wear?”

“Relax, Crazy! I got you. If I leave it up to you, it’ll take you until tomorrow to narrow it down.” She pushed past me to my room, making quick work of the lock.

My annoyed groan quickly forgotten as my phone rang andMattielit up the screen.

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