Page 64 of The Nanny Game Plan
I’m not sure I share his certainty, but I love the enthusiasm.Amazing! Should I swing by your place?
Plato: No can do. My parents are hosting their swingers’ group this weekend. The house is full of old people fucking. I’ve been hiding in the pool house with my noise-canceling headphones, but I can still hear them. Pretty sure I’d be scarred for life, if I weren’t already scarred from growing up with perverts for parents.
Clover:Gross. No offense, but gross.
Plato:No offense taken. It IS gross. To be fair, as an asexual human, I find all fucking gross, but the fact that it’s my parents and their super old friends makes it especially gnarly.
Clover:You have to move out. ASAP.
Plato:Can’t.
Clover:Why not? You’re twenty-one and have a great job.
Plato:I like saving money too much. If I keep investing what I would be spending on rent, I’ll be a millionaire by the time I’m twenty-eight.
Clover:Wow. Go, you. That’s incredible! Congratulations!
Plato:Thanks, but I don’t deserve congrats. I’m just a nepo baby.
Clover:But a nepo baby with the sense to invest and save. That’s impressive. And you go out of your way to help the less fortunate, which is also pretty special. I certainly appreciate it. I never could have followed this trail alone.
Plato:My pleasure. Seriously. I love this kind of stuff. And I’d love to host you here for another hacker sleepover, but these perverts are going to be at it all night. These things always run late. But I could come to yours. Where’s your new place again?
I hesitate for a beat.
Dean assured me it was fine for me to have guests over to my apartment, as long as they’re people who are safe to know where he and the kids live, but I haven’t taken him up on the offer yet. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time for socializing, and my best friends have a newborn at home. It’s way easier for me to pop over to visit Blue and Beatrice at their place than for them to pack up Charlie and all her baby things to visit me.
But I’ve known Plato for over a year, and I know he’s a great guy. We met at a digital music mastering workshop, bonded over our love of 1990s techno and vintage fashion, and became instant flea market, bargain-hunting friends.
It wasn’t until after the accident, when he saw how deeply depressed I was about the lack of justice being served, that I found out he’s also a master-level hacker. I’m sure Dean wouldn’t be thrilled to learn that I’m hunting down the man who hit my car on the dark web, but it’s not like we’ll be using his IP address—Plato has his own, deeply protected hotspot—and I’m not thrilled aboutDean’sbehavior right now, either.
Looks like I won’t be his problem for much longer, anyway…
Besides, it’s already nearly eleven. By the time Plato gets to my place, it will be midnight, and Dean and the girls will have been asleep for hours. Dean will never even know I had a friend over unless Plato decides to sleep over, and if he does, well…Dean can just deal with it.
And if he thinks I’m hooking up with my completely asexual, but undeniably gorgeous friend, that’s not my problem, either. In fact, it might be just the petty revenge this situation demands!
Ignoring the voice in my head that says it’s tacky to use a friend to make your boss jealous, I text Plato the address and directions, warning him to come straight in the side door by the garage and up the stairs in the back, and that I’ll be waiting for him with popcorn and peanuts, his preferred hacking snacks.
On the way home, I swing into the gas station for energy drinks with bull semen in them, the kind that keep me sharp for hours, but I still have plenty of time to get changed into my PJs before Plato taps at my door.
I open it, revealing my friend in his usual GQ apparel, the stuff that makes him look like a model leaving a photo shoot, and smile. “No one would ever suspect that you’re a dark web mastermind.”
He grins, his brown eyes flashing. “You don’t know the half of it. Wait until I show you what I found on Sunday after you left my place. I think we’ve got a name.” He glances around. “Aw, cute crib. I like the wallpaper.”
My eyes go wide. “A name? What? You’re kidding me!” I thump his shoulder as he moves past me to the couch. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
He laughs as he settles in. “I’m telling you now. And I know you don’t have time to work on this kind of stuff during the week. I didn’t want to get you all excited and leave you hanging.”
“Probably wise,” I say as I close the door, doing my best not to think about Dean, who has zero problems getting me excited and leaving me hanging.
For the next few hours, I’m determined to forget about Dean.
To forget about everything except tracking down the man who hit my car and wrecked my body. Closing this shitty chapter with some much-needed justice would feel so good. Beatrice andI deserve an apology from this jerk, if nothing else. And I, for one, would like to see Blue compensated for the medical bills he insisted on paying. My insurance covered everything after my five thousand dollar deductible, but Blue took care of the initial expenses and the copays for extra physical therapy.
Hoping that a man who stole the truck he used in a hit-and-run has the cash to cover the damage he caused is probably a long shot, but a girl can dream.
About things like that, at least.
