“But we are an impossibility,” I promise, even though the words are gutting. Why, I’m not sure. I have two amazing guys in my life, my feelings for them both so strong that I can’t bear even the vaguest idea that I have to choose between them. Adding a third is nuts. This isn’t a reverse harem anime or some crazy romance novel; this is real life. “I love Maxine more than my own life; I would never do anything to intentionally upset her.”
My voice thickens with unshed tears and Maxx’s face softens.
“I know that,” he says, making himself smile. “I could see that the moment the two of you hugged in the coffee shop.” He turns away slightly and chews on his lower lip again. There’s a fresh bruise on his arm that he rubs at before looking back at me. I wonder if he fell off his bike today? He pauses and looks down at the phone on my bed, grabbing both it and the Tess-phone that’s lying beside it. “Give me a minute; I just need to use the bathroom.”
I say nothing as he leaves the room, dumping all the electronics on Parrish’s desk before I hear his footsteps retreat downstairs. When he comes back, he has my book bag on one arm, a shopping bag on the other.
I’m not sure what he’s up to, so I just wait.
Maxx nonchalantly sets the book bag down and then knocks the throw blanket at the end of my bed over the top of it. He puts a finger to his lips, and I nod, watching as he pulls out a small device from the bag. It looks a bit like a walkie-talkie with a long antenna on the top of it and a bunch of colored light indicators on the front and back.
I have no idea what it is, but Maxx seems to.
He starts in one corner of my room, moving slowly and carefully along one wall, aiming the device inside each dresser drawer, under the desk, in each shelf of the bookcases. He continues on until he gets near the book bag, and the device flashes with a red light. He frowns and then looks up at me.
The meaning in his gaze is clear: get rid of the bag.
I fling my body out of bed, snatching my book bag up by the handle and making sure that when the blanket falls off, the heart pin is facing the empty bathroom and not looking at Maxx.
I head into the bathroom, close the door, and very purposefully set a box of tampons in front of the heart pin. I strip my shirt off and chuck it over the camera, turning both the bathroom fan and the shower on for privacy—this is sort of standard operating procedure at this point.
Then I head back out to see Maxx.
It isn’t until I’m standing in front of him and his eyes drop to the lacy black bra—not the one with holes for once, thank god—that I’m wearing.
Oops.
X swallows hard and turns away, acting as if he isn’t affected by the sight while I scramble to find a new shirt. I yank it over my head, and he smiles when he turns around, noticing that it’s another Ashnikko tee.
Like Chasm said, I’m a simp.
“I’m not a huge fan of her music, but she’s a cutie,” he says after I’ve shut the bathroom door behind me, hopefully cutting Justin’s eyes and ears off at the source. “You remind me of her, actually.”
I blink a few times in surprise, but maybe he didn’t mean that quite the way it sounded.
X continues his sweep of the room and the closet, paying extra special attention to nooks and crannies. I still haven’t received my laptop, TV power cord, or PlayStation back from Tess. She hasn’t even returned my Kindle. All I have now is the new phone she gave me, the one Maxine gave me, and my academy-issued iPad. The prior two items are now in Parrish’s room while the latter is in my book bag inside the bathroom.
We are officially tech free now.
“This is a bug detector,” Maxx explains, once he’s confident enough in the fact that we’re safe to talk. “A hundred and fifty bucks. I looked it up online and picked it up while I was out today.” He studies the device in his hands for a minute. “We were right: if there were other cameras or mics in here, they’re gone now. Makes sense, considering the FBI could sweep this place again at any time.” He lets out a dry laugh. “That, or Justin has such advanced tech that it can’t be found with one of these. If so, we’re screwed either way.”
He sits down on the bed with the device in his lap. We don’t have a lot of time. Too long like this and Justin will know what we’re up to. But I love the idea that we might actually be able to have private conversations from time to time.
