Page 37 of Paper Hearts & Plot Twists

“So where is the embarrassing part?” Emily asked, pressing the elevator button to take them back to the room on the third floor.

Mason stepped in behind her and continued his story, “Well me and a few of the other guys became bored with simply skating around the rink after a while, so we decided to jazz it up a bit by skating backward. Miles saw Miss Jenny, and noticed that she was watching our antics and giggling, so he decided to join in. Miles jumped in with us, scooting backward, and it went well for all of five seconds until he slammed into one of our buddies, and the two of them went tumbling, taking out two other people in the process.”

“Oh my,” Emily said, bringing a hand to cover her mouth.

“That’s not the best of it, though,” Mason responded with an evil smirk building on his lips.

“What happened next?”

“Jenny was pretty close to the whole fiasco, watching the skating as she moved around the rink. She didn’t have time to dodge the whole disaster, so she slammed into Miles’s foot and landed face first on the ice. It took out one of her front teeth.”

“You have to be making that up,” Emily said, her mouth open in a horrified circle.

“It’s too good for my jock brain to have come up with on my own,” Mason joked. “The kicker is that the skating rink had to close for the day to clean up all the blood, and Jenny was out of school for a week until her parents could get her in to the dentist. She couldn’t even look at Miles for the rest of the year.”

“Poor Miles,” Emily mused. She led the way down the hallway. The two were nearly back to the room now.

“Not poor Jenny?”

“Nah, she had a catch with Miles and she threw him away,” Emily teased. She winked at Mason and then pulled out her keycard, unlocking her hotel room.

Chapter 26

Miles startled when the door beeped and started opening. He glanced at the time and was shocked to realize he’d been writing for about three hours and the signing was finished. His shock further increased when he realized Mason and Emily were entering the room together.

“I take it the two of you met at the book signing?” Miles asked once both were inside.

“We did meet each other at the book signing,” Emily chirped. She set her bag on the floor and bounced onto the bed. “It gave me quite a shock to find an imposter at your table, the table I helped you set up this morning.”

“How long did it take before you caught on to the ruse?” Miles asked. He looked back and forth between the two. They seemed comfortable together. He pushed back a flash of jealousy. He had no claim to Emily and she could become close to whoever she pleased.

“I knew immediately,” Emily said pompously, though her giggle a moment later broke the pompous air she was teasing with.

Miles looked over at Mason, who nodded his head to confirm the statement.

“What gave it away?” he asked, incredulous.

“Just a feeling,” Emily said with a wink. “I can’t reveal all of my secrets.”

While the two of them continued to chat, Mason stepped into the bathroom to change out of Miles’s clothing and back into his own. He came out a moment later, solidifying the differences between them in Emily’s mind. Dressed in their normal clothing they looked similar, but more like two separate people instead of one person from multiple dimensions or something.

“Well, Emily,” Mason said. “It was nice to meet you, and I appreciate all of your help with the fans during the signing. I hope we’re able to meet up with one another again.”

“It was nice to meet you as well,” Emily agreed. “Do you have plans this evening?” Miles tensed. “We could all get dinner together if you don’t have anything going on. I’m sure you two don’t get as much time together as brothers should.” He relaxed his shoulders, realizing he didn’t have anything to worry about.

“We’d love for you to join us for dinner,” Miles confirmed, nodding his head.

“Then I’ll stay a bit longer,” Mason agreed with a grin. “Where are we going?”

“There’s this great little Mexican place if you both are agreeable,” Miles said, looking from Emily to Mason. Both nodded their heads and the group of three gathered their belongings and headed out the door to the restaurant on the first floor.

With Miles’s influence, reservations were an unnecessary afterthought. It took a whisper and a word and Emily was seated across from Mason and Miles, feeling like she was staring at clones. It was a bit eerie just how comfortable she felt with the two of them after no time at all.

“So explain to me how you ended up roommates,” Mason demanded after the waitress took their order, left drinks, and moved on to her next guests.

“It was this stupid tech error,” Emily said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “Miles stole my room because of it.”

“Rude,” Miles butted in. “You have to admit the results haven’t been half bad, but it was originally supposed to be my room. And I got here first. Then Emily came barging in and jumped into the already occupied bed.”

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