Page 43 of Hot Summer

Femi nodded slowly, his gaze going to the kitchen. Cas could just make out Sienna from here. She was still drinking her coffee, and she’d turned on the stool so that her legs were stretched out across the rest of the seats. Tia and Reece were still there, and Sienna was cracking up at something one of them said, slapping the island counter she was laughing so hard.

Neither of them said anything for a long moment, Femi seemingly lost in thought and Cas very content to let him think his way through whatever was going on in his head.

“She told me yesterday that she’d been hoping things would change with Jayden,” Femi said.

“What did she say?”

Femi half shrugged. “That she didn’t mind when he decided to partner up with her last week, but she isn’t sure how he really feels about her. That he doesn’t seem like he’s going out of his way to find her, that he really cares about making time to talk to her every day.”

“That is your relationship with her exactly,” Cas said. She smiled reassuringly, trying desperately to bolster him with a little bit of confidence because he looked like he was caving in on himself. “Everything she’s looking for, you’re already giving her.”

“Maybe.” He turned to look at the pool, his eyes tracing the lines in the water. “While we’re embarrassing each other...” Femi said, his words slow, considered, like he was examining each one before he said it. “I think there’s something between you and Ada.”

The laugh that rocked out of Cas was equal parts hysterical and poorly evasive. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like, the way she looks at you.” A smile curled at the corner of Femi’s lips. “I think she has a thing for you. And I think you have a thing for her, too.”

Cas was half shaking her head, half shrugging in the worst attempt at telling a lie in human history. “I—I mean, yeah, she’s gorgeous, but, I don’t— I mean, we’re friends.”

“Are you saying you aren’t interested in her?”

Cas opened another pastry, crinkling the plastic extra loudly in her palm. “I’m not saying that—”

“Okay, so you admit that you, at least, are interested in her.”

“I— Ugh.” Cas knocked her foot against Femi’s, making him laugh. “I hate you.”

“Liar.”

The bedroom door slid open again and Cas’s eyes snapped to it, hoping, before she even realized she was doing it, that it was Ada, returned from her date. She was profoundly disappointed to see that it was just Brad, finally deciding to grace them all with his presence.

“It’s okay if you like her, you know,” Femi said.

“Yeah, I know.” Cas’s voice was soft, soft enough that she hoped her microphone wouldn’t be able to pick it up. “I just don’t know if she feels that way about me.”

And Ada wanted something serious. Cas... didn’t. How could she get involved with someone knowing that they wanted different things?

She also didn’t know if that was the best move for her game. If following her heart—a phrase that made her want to gag even thinking it—was worth it when she had so much on the line. This job was her chance to get out of nightlife, to move into something stable, predictable. Something that didn’t end with drinking too much and trying to avoid getting “accidentally” groped by strangers.

“How do you feel when you’re with her?”

The question made Cas go a little pink in the cheeks.

She knew she shouldn’t be embarrassed, but the reality of actually talking about her feelings, instead of just stewing on them in her head...

“Embarrassing” wasn’t even the right word.

Cas exhaled and dropped her hand into the water, letting her fingers trail through the ripples the wind was blowing across the surface.

“This is so ridiculous.”

Femi chuckled, the sound deep and resonant and far too amused. “It’s cute.”

Cas nudged him with her elbow. “No, it isn’t. It’s tragic.”

“It’s not!” Femi was grinning. “It’s not,” he said again, more seriously this time, and Cas dropped her hand back into her lap with a sigh.

“I know you said that you think she likes me, but I don’t know if we can be entirely sure that she’s not just, like... my friend? Like, what if this is just how she shows friendship?”

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