Page 121 of Offside Devil

I snatch it out of her hands with a sigh. “Fine. But I’m going to be back home and in bed by 11:00 PM. Not a minute later!”

“Sure, sure.” She waves me towards the bathroom. “Run a brush through your hair while you’re in there. Also, don’t bother with your makeup. I’ll do it.”

“Do you want to brush my teeth for me, too?” I drawl.

“Sure, but I draw the line at wiping your ass. You’re the one with the kid, not me.”

“Aiden isn’t mine,” I mumble as I close the door.

But it doesn’t feel nearly as true as it should.

“See?” Taylor bumps my hip, almost knocking me out of the high bar stool it took me five minutes and several accidental moonings to climb into. “Isn’t this more fun than being alone in your terrible flannels?”

“Define ‘fun.’” I take a sip of my drink and wince. “God, what even is this? I asked for lemonade.”

“And I tipped the bartender to put some vodka in it.” She presses a finger to the corner of my mouth and manually turns my frown upside down. “We’re having a night out, Mira! You have to drink with me. Don’t worry; I’ll pay for your ride home. It’ll be fine.”

Coincidentally, that’s exactly what Taylor said when we pulled up to the newest cocktail lounge in the city on its opening weekend and I saw the line wrapping around the block.

It’ll be fine.

What about when I checked the menu and saw prices that would make a Kardashian-Jenner blush? You guessed it.

It’ll be fine.

I slide my drink away. “I’m not worried about driving; I’m worried about going home drunk.”

“Since when?” she snorts. “I swear I’m still hungover from that time we went to that sports bar for apps and a college baseball team came in. Do you remember that? I’ve never been sent so many free drinks in my life.”

I smile. “It’s only because you kept walking over and kissing them on the cheek to thank them for the drinks. You were egging them on.”

Taylor drank through half the bar that night, but I started discreetly getting rid of mine well before I was wasted. I can’t afford to lose control of myself. Life taught me a long time ago that no one is going to watch my back the way I will.

But that was in the days when my only worry was who might be creeping up behind me. Now, one of my worries sleeps right down the hall. I’m vulnerable enough to Zane as it is; I don’t need to add alcohol to the equation.

“Do you think we can score some free drinks tonight?” Taylor glances around the dimly-lit room like a serial killer looking for her next victim.

I wave her off. “I didn’t even want this first one. Plus, being around other humans is already too much on a night I planned to spend alone. I can’t actually talk to other people.”

“If you’re doing it right, you don’t need to talk.” She locks eyes with a man across the room and waggles her fingers. His eyes go wide and he waves back… just as the woman he’s with comes back from the bathroom and scowls at us. Taylor chokes on a laugh. “See? A lot can be said without saying a word.”

“How do I say, ‘Don’t talk to me. I’m in a complicated non-relationship and I want to be left alone’?’”

Taylor swivels in her chair to face me. “What did Zane do?”

“I was just kidding, Tay. He didn’t do?—”

She grabs my hand out of the air. “The homely pajamas, Olivia Rodrigo, and now, the ‘complicated non-relationship’ talk. Whatever is going on, I need you to spill or else.”

“Or else what?”

She smiles wickedly. “Or else our next stop will be a karaoke bar.”

Oh, the humanity.

“You’re an emotional terrorist.” But I sigh and raise my hands in surrender. “I might like my fake boyfriend in a real way, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Taylor frowns. “And?”

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