Page 37 of Offside Devil

Taylor would die a thousand happy deaths if I told her what happened when Zane showed me to my room. If I was a good friend, I’d let her live vicariously through me and experience the will-they-won’t-they angst.

But Zane and I won’t. We can’t.

So I guess I’m not a good friend because I’m taking that primo spank bank material with me to my grave.

Not before I play and replay it in my head every day for the rest of my life, of course.

“Oh my God!” Taylor squeals. “You’re blushing, Mimi! Your cheeks are red.”

My face is hot. Other parts of me are hot, too.

“Everything looks red to you. Those lights are messing with your eyes.”

“I can see just fine,” she dismisses. “You like him.”

“He’s paying me to be here. This is a job. If hanging out with someone for a paycheck is a sign of true love, then I should run back to Bean & Brew and propose to Brody.”

“Don’t lie to me! Zane and Grody Brody have nothing in common.”

Taylor’s not entirely wrong. Zane and Brody might as well be from two entirely different species. But they have one crucial similarity… “I’m not going to sleep with either of them. That’s something they have in common.”

“So you’re being serious? No enthusiastic thanking occurred?”

This is exactly why I’ve never let Taylor set me up with anyone, despite how many times she’s tried over the years: she gets too invested. I know she loves me for me, but I also know some small part of her wants me to be more normal. She wants me to have furniture that can’t fold in half for easy storage, and a boyfriend, and to let her tag pictures of me on Instagram.

But I can’t do any of that, so there’s no sense getting her hopes up.

“I feel like you’re forgetting the whole reason I’m here. He has a child, Tay. There was a four-year-old in the room with us all afternoon. Plus, Daniel.”

She goes still. “Wait. Daniel Patterson?”

“You know him?”

“Know him. Had his rookie picture taped to the wall of my dorm room.” She shrugs. “Po-tay-toe. Po-tah-toe.”

I latch onto this subject change. “You have a crush on Daniel?”

“I liked the way he looked,” she corrects. “I still do, I guess. But he’s so, like… serious.”

I frown. “Daniel Patterson? You’re talking about the Angels’ equipment manager, right?”

“Is there another Daniel?”

“There must be,” I laugh. “Because that doesn’t sound like the guy I met today.”

“Interesting. Tell me more.”

I happily walk her through my interactions with Daniel, rewriting the afternoon to sidestep any mention of Zane at all. It’s almost like he wasn’t even there. Taylor is weirdly rapt and attentive the whole time.

After she and I hang up, I slide between soft sheets, sink into the world’s most comfortable mattress, and fall asleep convincing myself that it will always be that easy to avoid Zane.

My last thought before I pass out is, Yeah fucking right.

17

MIRA

Too few hours later, I wake up to three loud knocks.

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