Page 28 of The Heat of Us

BTW I didn’t get to ask at my party but how is the COLLABBING going wink wink wink wink

Grinning, I typed back.

Let’s just say RYDER HARD lives up to his name.

Pressed send.

And realised I had texted it to my parents.

Who I had not communicated with for years.

“Fuck. Oh, fuckity fuck fuck.”

“Is everything ok, miss?” my driver asked, catching my eye in the rear view mirror.

“Uh, yes! Sorry!” I answered hurriedly, my voice pitched higher than usual.

No, everything is not ok!

It said delivered underneath but not read. I quickly held my thumb over it and smashed the red trash can icon that popped up. Delete. Deletedeletedelete.

The text whooshed away in a cartoon cloud. If only my sheer mortification and panic went along with it.

I did it so fast, there’s no way they could’ve seen it, right?

I mean, I knew the way my dad used his phone. Flipping open that leather cover, putting on his glasses and peering at it from a distance like he was having difficulty reading the already magnified text.

Trust that your parents are still technological dinosaurs.

I triple checked that I was actually in Juno’s chat window and replied to her properly.

The kindly Father Christmas looking driver dropped me off with a you have yourself a good day now, miss and only pulled away once he saw I’d safely entered the doors of 101 Riverside.

I must’ve still been shaky if it was a relief to see Aleks behind the desk.

“Hey buttface,” I greeted him, because he could not be allowed to know that.

Aleks looked at me like he was regretting every single life decision that had culminated in that moment. “I am not a buttface,” he finally said.

“Sounds like something a buttface would say.”

Instead of rising to my insult, he gave me a forced smile.

“What’s wrong?” I said, instantly serious. No wonder his usually clean-shaven face was sprinkled with stubble today.

“It’s nothing,” he replied quickly.

He was a clam, this one. That jawline might as well have been a steel trap. “Well, I’m sure the idea of it makes you ill but if you ever want to talk I’m here,” I offered. I reached into my bag and fetched a white rabbit candy from the stash I always kept in there. “Here.”

Aleks opened it and started trying to pick off the sheer rice wrapping.

“That’s edible,” I told him. Just in case he thought I was lying, I unwrapped one of the creamy milk candies for myself and popped it into my mouth.

He dutifully followed suit. “It’s all in my teeth,” he said somewhat accusingly.

“Yep,” I beamed.

“But it tastes good,” he added grudgingly.

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