Page 51 of Last Night Was Fun

“Sorry! I’m just... Are you sure? Likesure, sure?”

Emmy tore her eyes from the quirky little Star Wars parade on her friend’s bookshelf and leveled her with a glare. “Yes, I am sure.”

“And it’s not a prank or something? The guys in your office aren’t, like, ganging up on you for some reason?”

“That would be incredibly mean, even for them. And no, it’s not a prank. He was as genuinely shocked as I was.” She could still see Gabe’s face from the park. The gaping confusion and utter disbelief—an image she was sure he now had burned into his memory too but starring her.

“Wow,” Beth said. “That’s... Wow. Can’t say I saw that one coming. So what happened?”

“We made the discovery, and then I basically ran away.”

“You ran away?”

“What was I supposed to do, stand there feeling naked and wallow in it? I had to get away from him. Ohgod, and I’m going to have to see him at work tomorrow.” She grabbed a fluffy throw pillow and buried her face in it. She felt her friend’s warm hand land on her back and rub.

“Well, at least you’ll be gone for the wedding for a few days after tomorrow,” Beth said.

Emmy groaned and lifted her face. “Don’t remind me! Getting a date was the whole point of this, remember?”

Beth smoothed down Emmy’s hair that had gone wiry from static. “No, the point of this was meeting the guy you’ve been crushing on for weeks. Having a date to the wedding was going to be an added bonus.”

“Well, both of those things are now moot,” Emmy said, and frowned at her.

“Are they?” Beth’s voice was cautious and soft, and Emmy did not like her implication.

“What does that mean?”

Beth stood up from the couch and splayed her hands like Emmy might throw something at her. “Hear me out. I’m just the messenger, so don’t shoot, but do you think maybe... this all means something?”

Emmyreallydidn’t like her implication. “Means something like what?”

Beth hesitated and then spoke cautiously. “Maybe it means you guys have a connection. A real one.”

“No, I have a connection with Axe Murderer, not Gabe Olson.”

“You realize they’re the same person, right?”

“No. They are not the same person. The person I see at work every day isnotthe same person I text all the time.”

Beth sat back down and placed a hand on her knee. “Em, areyouthe same person when you’re texting him?”

“I—”

Her sentence jammed in her throat. She paused because when she stopped to think about it, she realized the answer was yes. She did keep certain things from Gabe because their relationship was primarily professional, but that didn’t mean she was fake around him. More like guarded and mindful of boundaries. With Axe Murderer, however, all her guards were down. If Gabe had gone one level deep, Axe Murderer had been ten levels deep, but both of them were dipping into the same well.

Beth gazed at her like she recognized the conclusion she’d come to. “All I’m saying is, it’s not nothing that you’ve been so open with him all this time. There’s obviously something there, so maybe don’t be so quick to shoot it down.”

Despite herself, Emmy considered it. She would have been lying to deny there was something between her and Axe Murderer. Discounting the past several weeks and pretending none of it had happened would be a disservice to her feelings. But how could she possibly reconcile that fact with the reality of Gabe Olson being the single most infuriating man she knew?

She thought back to the earnestness on Gabe’s face when he’d first arrived at the park. He’d brought Bird Girl flowers, and that was about the sweetest damn thing she could think of. And as long as she was being honest with herself, she could admit there had been instances in the past few weeks where she’d seen unexpected sides of Gabe that had brought out unexpected responses in her. Like how the feel of his body against hers when he carried her off the field sent her blood looping in all sorts of ways. And how pleasantly surprised she’d been to enjoy sharing breakfast with him. And how utterly selfless she’d found his volunteering to help his cousin in the face of certain seasickness.

And then there was the truth she’d never admit to anyone—not even her best friend—about how his annoyingly perfect hair and gorgeous smile and goddamned sculpted arms had always, from day one, put a flutter in her belly and a flame in her blood.

She scoffed aloud, disliking the whole perplexing situation. “You realize what you’re saying, right?” she said to Beth. “You want me to giveGabe Olsona chance.”

Beth shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. “Sure, why not?”

“Why not?” Emmy sputtered. “I can list about ten thousand reasonswhy not. First—” She held up her fingers to start counting, but Beth cut her off and gently pushed her hands down.