Page 120 of Offside Devil

I drag my pillow over my face and barely resist screaming into it because: one, there is no camera in my room, but the cameras in the hallway might pick up the sound. The last thing I need right now is Zane calling me to see if I’m okay. His concern would prickle the soft, delicate place where I’ve stashed my feelings for both him and Aiden.

And two, because I’m not the main character in a teenage comedy who just got grounded and can’t go to prom.

I throw my pillow off of my face. “I’m a grown woman,” I announce to the empty, water-stainless ceiling.

It does not give a shit.

So I do what any grown woman would do when she’s suffering the consequences of her own actions because she might be a tiny bit in love with a man she can never have and who does not love her in return.

I listen to Olivia Rodrigo and clean my makeup brushes.

I’m almost done when Olivia getting her driver’s license is interrupted by loud, persistent knocking on the front door.

I pad barefoot into the hallway to answer, and I’m halfway there when I realize… I’m not scared.

For years, anyone knocking on my door unexpectedly sent me diving for a kitchen knife. But I feel safe in Zane’s condo.

Yet another thing I’m going to lose when it’s time to tuck tail and run: a sense of security.

I peek through the peephole and find Taylor is standing in the hallway, arms loaded down with her purse and two duffel bags exploding with fur and sequins.

Turns out, I should have been scared.

“Put down the dresses and step away from the door!” I call out like a SWAT lieutenant.

She cackles. “Let me in.”

“Not unless you promise me I don’t have to wear anything restrictive. Or anything with glitter.”

“Mira,” she moans, “this stuff is heavy. Let me in!”

She’ll break down the door if I don’t open it, which is the only reason I unlock it.

Taylor practically falls through the door, simultaneously shoving a duffel bag in my hands. “This one is for you. I was clearing out my closet and these are more your style anyway. Put one on and you and I are going—” She looks at me for the first time and loses her train of thought. “Why do you look like that?”

I glance down at myself. Sure, my old flannel pajama bottoms have seen better days and my big t-shirt could double as a family-sized tent, but it’s not that bad.

“‘Not that bad’?” Taylor spits back at me, which confirms that I accidentally said that part out loud. “You do realize other people live in this house, right? They could see you like this, Mira. Actually, forget other people—You could see yourself like this.” She squeezes my bicep. “Your poor eyes.”

I shake her off. “I was having a night in. Alone.”

“I know. Daniel told me. Owen is babysitting Aiden tonight so Daniel and Zane can go out. I figured, if the boys get to go out and have some fun, that we should have fun, too!” She pushes past me, charging down the hall to my bedroom.

“I was having fun.”

But Taylor slams to a stop outside my door, her ear cocked like a hunting dog on the scent. Suddenly, she whips around to face me. “You’re wearing ratty clothes and listening to Olivia Rodrigo. What did Zane do to you?!”

“He didn’t do anything. I told you: I’m enjoying my own company tonight.”

She wrinkles her nose. “If that is a euphemism for personal sexy time, then we’ve got to get you better pajamas. This look can’t be turning you on.”

“Tay!” I shove her into my room and slam the door. I don’t need this conversation archived forever in Zane’s security footage. “I was cleaning my makeup brushes. And some of us don’t think about sex twenty-four-seven. Some of us exist outside the male gaze and like wearing comfortable pajamas that don’t end up in wedgies that need to be surgically removed.”

“You’re on a feminist power trip,” she says with a nod and a fist pump of solidarity. “Got it. I’m with you, sister. But I do kindly request that you exist inside my gaze, which means wearing something that doesn’t make my eyes burn.”

I sag forward. “Is there any point in arguing?”

“Only if you want to delay the inevitable.” She digs in a duffel bag and comes back up with a silver minidress. “I vote you wear this one.”

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