Page 72 of The System

“I think I scared the shit out of him, so he shouldn’t do anything that stupid.”

Dylan had laughed and asked, “How did you scare him?”

“I told him I’m a software engineer, and I could hack into his computer and find all the porn he watches and share it with the world.”

Dylan had laughed again and asked, “Can you really do that?”

“Why? Worried I’ll do it to you?”

“No. My wife and I watch porn together, and she’s the only one I care about finding out anything about me.” Dylan had shrugged. “And Carina is okay, I think. Her boss talked to her, but from what she told me, you made a statement to help clear her of any wrongdoing.”

“She said I shouldn’t, but I just emailed it to him and hoped he’d relax about this whole thing because she really didn’t do anything wrong.”

Dylan had nodded, and for a second, it had looked to Kieran like she’d wanted to say something, but she’d kept it to herself.

“I should go,” Kieran had said.

“Yes, you should. To the party. Come on. It’ll be fun. Just drinks with some people you could meet. You’re still new in town, and you could use a few friends, I’m sure.”

“I thought I’d found one,” she’d said.

“She’s still your friend, Kieran. She just asked for a little space for the whole work thing. But that seems okay now, so since she’ll be at the party, and you clearly want to see her, I’d suggest you stop by and say hello. If she says that she still needs more space, you can tell her that I insisted you come to the party, so it’s my fault.”

“She’ll be there?”

“Yes. And maybe you can talk to her about the thing you’re not saying.”

“Huh?”

“The fact that you miss her,” Dylan had stated. “It’s written all over your face. Not to mention, the instant you saw me in there, you said hello and immediately proceeded to ask if Carina was with me.” She’d laughed. “Not telling you what to do, exactly, but maybe just talk to her about whatever it is you’ve got going on in there.” She’d pointed to her own temple. “Now, I have to go. Ada’s waiting on me to go shopping for party supplies.”

“Okay. I don’t know if I’ll go.”

“I’ll text you the info anyway. No pressure.”

???

It was the day of the party now, or, as Kieran had been referring to it, day nine without seeing Carina and wishing she could. She still wasn’t entirely sure where she stood on the whole being-interested-in-a-woman-for-the-first-time thing, but she found herself dressing up for this party, wearing one of the two pairs of black slacks she owned and selecting the ones that she thought made her ass look the best. She threw on a green sweater, and while she couldn’t do much with her short hair, she actually used the blow-dryer to make it look a little more together than usual and added just a little product to still keep it soft and shiny but also keep it in place tonight. Kieran wasn’t one for makeup, and since she couldn’t remember wearing it around Carina before, she decided against putting any on tonight because that would make it look like she’d tried. Of course, she had tried. She was trying, but Carina didn’t need to know that. Grabbing her phone off of her bed, she slid it into a small purse and put on some lip balm because she’d been licking her lips in nervousness for the past several hours now, and her lips needed it.

Dylan had mentioned in her text that the party started at seven, but Kieran wanted to arrive just a little late and join the party in full swing so there would be plenty of people around for her to talk to if Carina still wanted that space. She parked down the block, since there were cars lining the street, and walked toward the address Dylan had texted her, holding a bottle of red wine in one hand because she’d forgotten to ask what to bring.

“Hi,” a woman said when she opened the door to Kieran.

“Um… Hi. I’m Kieran.”

“Oh. I thought you were a neighbor complaining about the noise or something. Come on in. Dylan said you might be coming by. I’m Ada, her wife.”

“Oh, hi. It’s nice to meet you,” she replied as she walked inside the modest ranch-style home.

“You’ll probably take that back later. I’m kind of a pain in the ass. Did you bring wine?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know what to bring, and I forgot to ask Dylan what you needed, so I hope this is okay.”

“This is great.” Ada took the bottle Kieran held out and looked up at her curiously. “I see.”

“Sorry?”

“Dylan, Kieran’s here, babe,” Ada said loudly.

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