Page 27 of Rebel Romeo

“Curt’s band is playing tonight.”

I gasp. “Jill, no! We are not going to see Creepy Curt play in his greasy, weird band!”

“Creepy Curt?” Nolan repeats, a touch of concern in his voice.

Jill sighs. “He’s our manager at the coffee shop and admittedly, he does tend to stare at our boobs from time to time?—”

“From time to time?” I repeat her incredulously. “I once caught him wiping drool from his chin as he stared down my top. Literal drool, Jill!”

“You’re being dramatic. He’s not that bad.”

Nolan has the decency to look concerned. “Maybe we shouldn’t go to this show of his. There’s like hundreds of bands playing gigs in this city every night. I’m sure we can find?—”

“No,” Jill interrupts. “I told Curt we were coming already. Did you know he writes his own music? He took poetry classes in college.”

My jaw falls open. Oh no. No, no, no. Jill’s always been a sucker for a poet. The amount of deadbeat hipster assholes she’s fallen for through the years all because they can rhyme some stupid words and recite Whitman.“Wait. Wait. Was Creepy Curt your date the other night?”

“Stop calling him that. And … yeah. We hung out once. He’s a nice guy when you get to know him?—”

“Nice guys don’t date their employees,” Nolan snaps and turns to look out the window, his jaw tight with his grinding teeth.

“Hey!” I lean over and smack Nolan’s arm. “I’m currently trying to date my boss.”

Nolan’s brows lift. “Yeah. And I’ll repeat it for the cheap seats in the back… nice guys don’t date their employees.”

“Okay, Judgy Judgerson,” Jill adds. “I wouldn’t have invited you tonight if I’d known you were going to get all holier than thou.”

Nolan slinks down in his seat, his head falling back against the headrest. “Fine. But don’t come running to me when both your ‘nice guys’ turn out to be the biggest assholes ever who crush your little hearts to dust.”

“Jesus,” Jill mutters. “Buzzkill.”

I point my finger in the air. “For the record, I never said Holden was a nice guy.”

Nolan’s entire mood has shifted and he stares out the window, suddenly grumpy.

Oh, Jill. I shake my head at her and while Nolan’s attention is out the window, I widen my eyes, trying to signal that Nolan likes her.

Her expression twists in confusion and she silently mouths what?

Rolling my eyes, I take out my phone and text her.

Kate:

Nolan thinks you're hot. I think he likes you.

She reads my message and immediately rolls her eyes, texting back.

Jill:

He definitely does not. Guys like Nolan don’t think nerds like me are hot.

Oh, Jill.

My sweet, beautiful friend who doesn’t realize she’s only a geek girl at heart, not on the outside. Something tells me she’s going to learn real soon how wrong she is.

An hour and a half later, I have to eat my words. Creepy Curt’s band is actually pretty damn good. The small dive bar is packed with people and the dance floor is even more crowded than the bar area. I ache to dance, but Nolan is grumpy as hell, sitting at a booth, cradling his sweating pint in his hands and glaring at Jill across the room as she dances at the edge of the stage.

“Hey,” I nudge Nolan’s elbow with mine, twirling my fingers around the stem of my untouched cosmo. “You know she believes a guy like you could never like her, right? That’s why she’s slumming it with Creepy Curt.”

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