Page 54 of Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal
“Are you okay?” Storee asks, reading the confusion all over my face.
“Uh, yeah, sorry.” I shake my head. “Just, uh, just trying to figure out how you two know each other.”
Storee glances at Atlas and then back at me. “The annoying best friend to my husband.”
“Annoying?” Atlas says with a cute raise to his brow. “Just the other night, you were singing praises about how funny I am.”
“Funny looking,” Storee says with a heaping amount of charm.
Motioning between them with my finger, I say, “Oh, so you two are close?”
“Barely,” Storee answers with a huff. “I put up with him.”
I feel Atlas look me up and down, his studying eyes making me feel exposed. “I think she’s worried to have a cup of coffee with you,” he says, “because you have an attachment to me.”
“The attachment is frayed at best, so you don’t need to worry about him. He was just about to stop bothering me anyway.” Storee takes her baby back and then shoos him away. “Don’t scare her away. I need friends of my own in this town.”
“You realize this is my enemy, right?” Atlas says in a lighthearted tone while thumbing toward me. “You can’t make friends with my enemy.”
“Fine, then I dump you as a friend, and I take her on.”
His mouth falls open in shock. “You don’t even know her.”
“Which says a lot about you.”
That makes me chuckle, becausegood comeback.
Atlas clutches his chest. “You wound me, Storee.”
“Yeah, what doesn’t wound you? Now get out of here.”
“You’re just going to kick me out like that? What if Betty wants to get to know me better? She hasn’t seen my charming side yet.”
“Yeah, only your Peeping Tom side,” Storee says with an eye roll that makes me snort.
“Hey!” Atlas points his finger at her. “I was not trying to be a perverted Peeping Tom. I was attempting to find out who the resident was.”
“And knocking on the door was too hard,” I say, arms crossed over my chest.
“As a matter of fact, it was,” he says with a smirk that feels very flirty. “Not to mention I did you a favor.”
“How on earth did you do me a favor?” I ask.
“Well, for one, I’ve given you quite the anecdote. Can’t put a price on that. And also, I helped you prove that soda can be used as a weapon, so... you’re welcome.”
“I didn’t say thank you.”
He winks. “Yeah, but I can tell you’re grateful. Most women I meet are.”
“Ew,” I say while Storee chuckles next to me.
“Anyway, I’ll let you two get to your coffee date.” He lets out a sigh and starts to pull away from us but not before stopping next to me, lining up shoulder to shoulder. With a smirk and a timbre so deep, he says, “Always a pleasure, Betty.”
The sound of his voice, in a tone that I haven’t heard from him before, pulses all the way down my back and buries itself deep in the depths of my being.
I glance up at him, startled at the reaction his voice has given me, and when our eyes meet, he winks one more time before taking off.
What the hell was that?
