Page 80 of See Me

“Whoa, whoa, we didn’t even get the story about you working here yet,” Alex says.

“We don’t have time for that. I only have another twenty minutes on my break. Cassie has permission to fill you in.” I shove a forkful of salad into my mouth. “Okay, so I’m engaged.”

A collectivewhat?rings out and a dropped fork rounds out the reactions.

“It’s fake. An old boyfriend showed up tocollectme andmy boss stepped in to get him to back off. But my parents have people tailing me, so we have to keep up the pretense so they’ll be satisfied and leave me alone.”

“Where did you come from?” Alex says, eyes wide. “Are you an Irish Princess that ran off to America to find true love? This is some movie-type shit.”

Ashley grins. “Or some romance book shit.”

Jen asks. “Was that who just delivered your salad? Causedamn,I would be fake engaged to that any day.”

Cassie turns to look back to the bar. “No, it’s Luca right? Jace does some work for him. Enzo is his brother.”

I nod. Ashley outwardly sighs, her shoulders relax and I make a mental note to ask what the hell happened between those two. I thought maybe they hooked up at the Halloween party and that was it. But Ashley’s favorite quote isI’ll never be jealous of some guy whose face I already sat on. And she doesn’t do return visits, so something happened for her to be wound so tight.

“What do you need from us?” Jess asks.

I stand up to pass out the drinks Tomi left. “Well, so, he gave me an apartment and—”

“What the hell is happening?” Ashley whips her head back and forth.

Alex takes his glass and sucks through his straw as he nods. “You skipped over a whole buncha shit, girl.”

“I know, I know. Cassie can fill you in later. But listen, he practically moved in, we have a cat, we had sex like a week ago, before all this, and he bailed. So, I kinda hate him, but he keeps trying to help and he’s all muscly and growly and—”

“Say no more.” Ashley raises her hand. “You hate him because he fucked you so good your pussy cried and then he pretended you didn’t exist until he saw you in distress. Then swooped in to save the day, so your head and pussy are kinda onthe same page now, but you don’t want them to be, ‘cause you still want to be pissed.”

“Yep.” I nod. “Pretty much.”

“And you think having him in your house will tempt you?”

I point to my crotch. “She’s awakened.”

“And she wants you to be a whore,” Ashley says as she reaches over and high fives me. My face burns and I know it turned seven shades of red.

Jen shakes her head and Jess and Cassie share a look. Of course, now is the perfect time for Luca to make an entrance. I don’t even have to turn around to know. Ashley and Alex perk up in their seats, mouths drop open, they look at each other and turn to me. “Fuck him,” they both say.

I drop my face to my hands. “I know, right. And I already did and the butthole didn’t even say goodbye before the door slammed behind him.”

“Ella, you’re not in school, you can say asshole,” Jess says as she giggles.

“And heisan asshole. But then he does nice stuff. And now I’m confused,” I whine.

“You’re not confused. You’re scared. You’re scared that you might sleep with him again and actually like him. And then he’ll leave again.” Ashley speaks with her eyes cast down.

The table all exchanges glances and looks back to Ashley. I speak up so no one asks her any questions because I feel like that answer came from a very personal place.

I reach across the table and squeeze her hand. “Yeah. I think you may be right.”

Jess claps her hands. “We need a plan.”

“Fucking him would be my plan,” Alex says with a wink.

“What if you make him fall for you first, then you leave his ass,” Ashley says as she stabs the table with herfork.

Alex pries the fork out of her grip. “Easy there, Black Widow. Put down the pointy things, okay?”

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