Page 97 of Snowed Inn

So here I am, seated behind the front desk with a coffee in my hand, pretending I belong here. Pumpkin snores beside me, completely oblivious to my personal crisis, while Argos watches everything with alert eyes. If he can sense my panic, he doesn’t show it.

I haven’t seen Jesse yet. Thank God.

I am praying he’ll wake up, get ready, and leave for the food barn without stopping by the front desk. Because the last thing I need is for El to see the two of us in the same room and immediately figure out that we—

“Did you have fun last night, Maria?”

I choke on my coffee. It’s El. She sounds far too chipper for the amount of sleep I’ve had.

“What? Oh. Yes. Yes, I did.”

I feel the heat creep up my neck because oh God, I am sure we are talking about two entirely different things.

El gives me a slow, narrow-eyed stare. She suspects something.

“Is your flight on time?” she asks next, voice casual, eyes anything but.

“Yep,” I say, my voice an octave too high. “Leaving from JFK at two.”

El sips her coffee, considering. “Donny should be able to get your bags and drive you to the train station.”

“Counting on it,” I say, giving her an awkward thumbs-up.

I know she’s on to me, because I don’t think I have ever given anyone a real-life thumbs-up ever.

She tilts her head. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

I gulp. “Uh sure, yeah.”

She drags me into her parents’ apartment, away from Charlotte, and shuts the door. And before I even have a chance to breathe, she’s standing in front of me, arms crossed, in full interrogation mode.

“Spill it,” she demands.

I widen my eyes, feigning innocence. “Spill what?”

“Something happened last night between you and Jesse, didn’t it?”

I avoid her eyes. “Why would you think that?”

A sly little grin curls the corner of her mouth—knife sharp and knowing. “Charlotte told me she saw you two making out on the dance floor at midnight.”

I fight the urge to groan. Charlotte is a traitor. After the secrets I’ve kept for her. Well, to be fair, there’s just the one . . . and Jesse and I weren’t exactly hiding anything . . . but still.

I shrug, playing it cool. “It was midnight. You have to kiss the person next to you at midnight, don’t you?”

El arches a brow. “Is that all that happened? A kiss?”

Damn. She knows me too well.

If I say yes, it’s an outright lie, and I cannot lie to El because she will see right through it.

I take a deep breath. “Okay. Fine. We may have ended up sleeping together.”

Ellie’s entire face lights up. “OH MY GOD,” she whisper-yells. “I knew it.”

“Lower your voice!” I plead, glancing toward the door.

El clasps her hands under her chin, eyes gleaming like she’s watching a proposal video. “How was it?”