Page 54 of Wanted

It took him a second to figure out what I was asking him. “Wait,you want me to go behind her back and give you Megan’s information?” He blewout a breath and grabbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know, man. I don’t wanther to think she can’t trust me. What if she finds out?”

“Ifshe finds out, I’lldeal with it. I’ll make it so you’re not to blame at all.”

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Begging wasn’t mystyle and he knew it.My hope was thathe would see the importance of doing the check and agree without any furtherargument.

“I don’t think you’re going to find anything more than Sara did. Meganseems harmless to me.” He downed the rest of his beer and motioned to thebartender for another. Our conversation was going better than I thought itwould. Matt was a pretty good guy after all. “The only issue I had with Megan,”he continued, “was convincing her I wasn’t interested.” He laughed as he took abig swig of his beer.

A couple of minutes passed as we sat in a somewhat-awkwardsilence. I was giving him time to think on it while I enjoyed the new foreignbeer we were trying out. “So…what do you say, Matt? Will you help me?

Thankfully, he didn’t make me wait long for an answer. “Yeah,okay. I’ll text it to you tomorrow.” After exchanging information, I sat backand breathed a sigh of relief.

Leaning over, I bumped his shoulder with mine and asked, “So,Megan was really barking up the wrong tree, wasn’t she?” My laughter causedMatt to relax even more.

“Yeah, she was.” Then all of a sudden, his brow furrowed inconfusion. “Wait. What?”

“You’re not interested in Megan, correct?”Shit!I didn’t mean to call him out. Obviously, he wasn’t ready tomake it known he wasn’t attracted to women.

“No, I’m not,” he answered flatly.

“Well then, she’s barking up the wrong tree, right?” I asked himagain, hopefully that time a little less obvious.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He gulped down the last of his drink and stoodup. “Well, I have to be going. I’ll send you her info tomorrow.”

“Great. Thanks, Matt,” I said, shaking his hand.

My fears were soon going to be laid to rest.

~33~

Sara

A week had gone by. Work was busy, as usual, thank God. Alek andI had been spending all of our free time together. Life was good. But it becameeven better…when Alek proposed.

That we live together.

For good.

It was a no-brainer.

I said yes right away.

I’d been staying at his house almost every night, so the movemade sense.

We were it for each other.

At first, I was hesitant to broach the subject with Alexa, eventhough I was sure she knew it was coming. I still felt bad leaving her allalone in the apartment. As soon as I found enough courage to talk to her aboutit, she shut me down, telling me it was about time.

Figuring it was as good a time as any, she informed me she andBraden were having the same exact conversation, with one minor difference. Shewasn’t quite sure if she wanted to take the leap yet. Braden was pushing for it,but my dear friend was afraid of losing herself in the relationship. She wantedto still keep her independence, something Braden was trying to be understandingabout.

I was lost in thought when a voice startled me.

“Sara? Did you hear me? Did you want to go?”

I turned around to see Megan hovering over my right shoulder,watching me put together an order for a delivery.

“Huh?” I asked, continuing to arrange the gardenias until theywere perfect. “Sorry, Megan. What did you ask me?”

She sighed, almost as if she was annoyed. But her tone when shespoke again was anything but. “I asked if you wanted to go to Throttle tonight.There’s a new band playing I’m dying to check out.” Rocking back and forth onher heels, she asked, “So, what do you say? Are you in?”

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