Page 6 of Undeniable

“I may not have time this weekend to do any brainstorming. Connor’s party’s tonight and then there’s a bonfire on Saturday.”

“I’m sure you can make time between drinks to rub your last two brain cells together and come up with at least one name.”

He rose from where he was still seated across the room and slung his backpack over his shoulder. His long legs quickly carried him to where I stood beside the door. He stopped in front of me and peered down.

“One name?” He clarified. I nodded, and he opened the door, waving his hand in invitation to go first.

When we stepped out into the hallway, he said, “I can do that.” And as he began walking toward the boys’ locker room on the opposite side of the school, he called over his shoulder, “See you Sunday, Killer!”

THREE

Ivy

“Shelby!”I yelled the moment I swung our apartment door open. Since I only worked the Murphy’s Law reopening party, I was home by ten and I knew Shelby wasn’t asleep yet.

“I swear to God, Shelby, if you do not come out here right now and drink with me, I’m going to—”

Standing in the all-white kitchen and looking toward her bedroom door over the small island, my eyes connected with a man’s. The tall, Black man with a decent amount of stubble dusted over his chiseled jaw appeared as surprised as I was. He was shirtless, his sculpted abs on display, and before I could stop, my eyes panned lower. Thankfully, he was at least wearing a pair of dark dress pants, although they were unbuttoned and mostly unzipped.

“Umm—” I stuttered, the bottle of tequila nearly slipping from my hand and falling to the kitchen floor.

“What are you—” I heard Shelby’s voice only a second before she appeared in the small space between the man and the doorframe. Her face was utterly priceless as she hurriedly looked between us and began tugging the man back into her room.

“I told you it wasn’t the TV,” she muttered angrily before the door slammed shut.

Broken from my shocked trance, I laughed and unscrewed the bottle of tequila, drinking directly from it because it was the only thing to do after the day I’d had. The burn from the liquor down my throat was only a momentary reprieve from the chaos in my head.

Of all the places in the huge city I’d moved to, I had to find a job in the one barhefrequented. Thathisfriends owned.

I knew our past was never going to leave me, but I didn’t expect it to smack me in the damn face.

After I’d finished my second long swig of tequila and my stomach was slightly burning, Shelby’s bedroom door opened again.

I didn’t look up from the floor out of an abundance of caution, but I finally raised my eyes when a pair of brown dress shoes appeared in my line of sight. I tilted my head up and found myself face to face with the man once again. And damn, he looked even better close up.

His blue eyes were apologetic.

“I’m sorry,” he began, but I stopped him with a raised hand.

“Please don’t apologize. There’s no reason to. Especially since Shelby may not have told me about you otherwise. Now, I have the perfect opening to accost her about it.” I laughed, and he cracked a small smile.

“I’m—”

“Ivy,” he finished for me. “Shelby talks about you all the time. I’m Will, and I wish I could stay and join you.” He motioned to the tequila bottle, still dangling from my fingers. “But I have to get going.”

“It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you again soon.”

He grabbed his jacket that was slung over a barstool and that I’d completely missed on the way in. Before he opened the door, he turned back to me and, with a confident smile, said, “You absolutely will.”

The second the front door clicked closed, Shelby’s door opened again. Sheepishly, she slinked out into the living room and crossed to the kitchen. She sat at the island on the barstool where Will’s jacket had been hanging.

She propped her elbows on the light-granite countertop and eyed the tequila. We’d been friends for so damn long I could read her mind. I slid the bottle across to her and she immediately lifted it to her lips and took a long pull.

She slid it back to me, and for a few minutes, we continued that way, silently passing the bottle back and forth.

“Do you want to go first, or should I?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.

“You should. I feel like yours is going to be a shorter and way more enjoyable story.”

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