Page 45 of Play With Me

“Are we seriously fighting right now over iconic TV moments?” she asked, hands on her hips, lips twitching.

“No! Christ! Do you ever shut up?” She was getting her rocks off by pushing every button I have. There was a pause where she silently fiddled with the cushions, maybe 15 seconds.

“Hey, not to totally PI-VOT but… what is Nathalie’s phone number?”

I snorted and felt my body stiffen at the same time. She looked uncomfortable and quickly shook her head.

“I’m not going to call her about… the thing. Or at all, actually,” she added.

“Okay… It feels weird that you’re asking me this, and I’m not sure why.”

That was a lie. I knew exactly why. She was jealous as fuck and had real potential to be one of those hot chicks who ride the line, like Marisol. Christian explained it best: “You know when you hear about some psycho revenge shit going down, and inna back of your mind you’re thinking of your girl like “ehh… I could see it?”

Maybe Lou had just never awakened her dragon… I wanted to call her on it again, but she needed to come to that conclusion on her own. I doubted it would change anything otherwise, maybe only make it weird between us. And I felt protective of Nathalie. She was totally innocent here and did not need to get caught up in Louisa’s “web of vibes.”

“I got a weird text the morning after the ball, and I haven’t been able to figure out who it’s from.”

The disappointment was brief because blood immediately started rushing to my extremities. My core cooled like my body was readying for action. What are you gonna do, punch out a strongly worded message? She handed me her phone with the text pulled up.

Unknown Number

You have fun last night, bitch?

I scanned it and looked up at her face. Maybe Nathalie was not so innocent?

Lou was nervously biting the skin on the side of her thumb. That cold-drop sensation hit my stomach, snapping me instantly into focus. I opened Nat’s contact on my phone to compare.

Lou peeked over my shoulder, and I had to shake her off—always on the lookout for one of her ruses. God, she would annihilate Nathalie in a girl fight.

“She’s the only person I know who might hate my guts and have hard feelings over me going to the ball with you. I assumed that’s what this is about…”

The numbers didn’t match. It wasn’t her. “It’s not Nathalie’s number,” I said, and her face shifted instantly to relief. Mine, too. “Why didn’t you tell me about this when it happened?”

“Mm. Mostly, I convinced myself it was her and figured if she ended up trying to throttle me in an alley, I’d probably help her. Poetic justice and all.” Her nerves were gone instantaneously, but mine were still twitching. “I bet it’s just a wrong number,” she said.

Hmm. Maybe, but I was on edge. Who else even knew she went to the ball with me? Who would have cared? I recalled a tense moment between Mike and Has at Eilidh’s that night. Mike hightailed it out right after that, too.

I stood up and handed her phone back. She tossed it in her laundry basket.

“You know Mike very well?” I asked her. “Swan Dive Mike?”

“Not really. We’re barely work friends, but he’s a sweetheart.” Kiss of death. No one suspects the sweethearts. “Why?”

“Just thinking of people who might have your number.” I shrugged. “You’ll tell me or Has if anything weird happens, right? Not just another text… anything.”

She nodded, but I didn’t believe her.

22

The Note

Boston, MA

Louisa

Hasan took the trophy for the most violent reaction in the prank war when he went into a nerd rage after discovering that Will had ironed deep creases into every pair of jeans he owned. Has was strangling him a little with one of them, and I had to jump on his back to get him to stop. It was borderline.

“A little gratitude would be nice, Hawkeye. You’ll catch more flies with honey; meanwhile, I’ll be catching shit for years from Has. He is an elephant with a very long memory for betrayal. I should have been holding your arms behind your back.”