Page 42 of Jagged

"Cool." Tati gave him a spoons-up instead of a thumbs-up and I nodded.

Nights like this one weren't unusual by any means, and I enjoyed the time with my friends. When the quiet of emotional burnout shut me down, Tatiana rolled with it as always. Wyatt never asked questions, and simply included me in all of his personal decisions. If he wanted a drink of water, he got me one. If he wanted a sandwich, he made me one. He didn't pressure me to eat and didn't wake me if I fell asleep. Tatiana was similar in that aspect, but she tended to check in with questions that I had trouble answering. She understood when I couldn't though, and that's all that mattered.

By the next morning, and sleeping a solid night, my emotional state returned to baseline. I sat at the kitchen table, frowning at the shattered screen of my phone.

"Still works," I mumbled while poking at it.

"S'what you get for throwing it." Tati smooched the top of my head. "You okay? What got you turnt?"

"One of my coworkers did something weird and I don't understand why." I pulled the screen protector off the phone and realized it was mostly the tempered glass.

"You're lucky." She pointed at my phone. "Just the corner. What did the coworker do?"

"Tricked me."

"How?"

"Had me look at pictures on her phone so that I would find a QR code with my name on it. When I scanned it, it was some kind of like internet quiz."

Tatiana's brows lifted. "Show me."

I obliged and showed her the quiz questions, still without answering the last one.

Tatiana smiled while she held my phone, a soft chuckle escaping her after the latest swipe. Her reaction did not match mine, and it made me feel worse about it.

"Aw, love. She likes you. Are you gonna say yes?"

"She doesn't like me. She tricked me. She wanted me to find that QR code."

Tatiana sat down beside me, her expression soft but serious and accompanied by a smile. She took my hand after setting my phone on the table. "Maybe a surprise rather than a trick?"

My lips pressed together when I thought about it. "No."

"Maybe?" She lifted a brow at me.

"No." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Talvez?"

"Não." I answered her in one of maybe forty Portuguese words I'd picked up over the years that stuck with me. To be fair, they were both very close to Spanish which helped.

"Sim." She nodded and flicked my chin with her finger. "Maybe she's shy and didn't know a better way to ask you out, Jags. Do you like her?"

"No. I don't like people like that. It's ridiculous." Anger tangled with frustration, and I glared at my phone. "It annoys me."

"I know." She gave my hand a squeeze. "Look at me, please."

I did, but it only made me frown more. "Why?"

"Because you're still a little meltdowny, and it's okay. To me…" She pressed her hand to her chest. "It feels like this person likes you and she wanted to surprise you by asking you out this way. It upset you because she profiled you accurately, didn't she? Knowing you'd keep swiping through the pictures, you'd eventually find the QR code with your name and use it. Right?"

"No." Yes. All the fucking stupid yes.

"Your nose just grew like two feet." She flicked it and I huffed. "Am I right? C'mon. I'm your bestie. I know you."

"Hrmph." I slouched in my chair and held onto my frown.

"See? I'm right. Now." She patted my knee. "Tell me about the girl. Is she cute?"

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