Page 63 of Please Open Me
His voice did that weird, robotic thing Mason’s did when she recited some garbage she’d read on the internet about consent and power dynamics or whatever.
Then a thought dawned.
“Is this about your ex?”
He paled.
Bingo.
“Alex doesn’t bother me anymore,” he said, with all the confidence of a man buying tampons for the first time.
Okay, so I had a first name. Now I just needed a last name, an address, place of employment, and a list of potentially fatal allergies.
Usually, I preferred to poison my victims, but if Alex was a handsy little bugger, it was only fitting that I cut his off.
Ooh! Maybe I could sever Alex’s hands, put them in a jar, and give them to Sebastian as a token of:
Hey, I know you’re a little crazy, but me too! Let’s be crazy together.
That way, he’d see.
He’d finally get it, that I understood him better than anyone else in our house ever could, and I could be his girlfriend just like Mason was. Not that I didn’t love being friends with benefits, but not having that title when I was practically saving his life felt a littlerude.
So, I stepped a little closer and placed a hand on his chest. My mind ran in circles, trying to find something empathetic that could also get me more of the information I craved, but Sebby and I were very rudely interrupted.
A short girl with sharp features and arms full of patchwork tattoos came up behind Seb. Her dark eyes narrowed as she puffed her chest. Was she trying to be intimidating? Because, if so, this attempt was laughable at best.
“Where’s Pipsqueak?” Her voice was low and husky, and admittedly very nice to listen to.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and rubbed his temple, then held up a finger as he glanced over his shoulder.
“Can you leave us alone?” he asked, matter-of-fact.
The woman didn’t take kindly to that.
“Not until you tell me where Mason is! She’s blown off two separate sessions, which isn’t like her.”
I pressed a finger to my lips, watching her. I knew Mason had been seeing a personal trainer, but Ireallydidn’t like that level of possessiveness toward my girl. I mean, yeah, sure, seeing her beautiful face was enough to brightenanyone’sday, but that didn’t mean her trainer wasentitledto it.
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said, his tone clipped. “As a professional, do you think she should come to the gym afterpassing out?”
“Well, no,” the woman replied, folding her arms. “But I don’t appreciate my girlfriend ghosting me.”
Ah.Thereit was.
This woman was the fabled girlfriend Mason had mentioned having but hadconvenientlynever introduced any of us to.
For weeks, I thought she’d made her up for extra attention. And while it worked, I couldn’t figure out why Masie would lie about something so specific.
Turns out, I should just trust her next time.
The vein in Sebastain’s neck pulsed as he fully turned around, devoting his attention to Mason’s partner.
“She isn’t feeling well, we are allverystressed, so if you could please–”
“Why don’t you come over sometime?” I offered.
Sebastian’s head snapped toward me.
