Page 108 of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Tripod

“For what?”

“Raegan got to meet your new lady friend before I did!” she shouts.

“It wasn’t planned,” I assure her. “Sophie was helping me with the girls becauseyoucouldn’t.”

“Still incredibly rude.”

“Yeah, yeah. You want that emergency call or not?”

“I’ll just ask Miles,” she huffs.

“I’ll call you at 6:36.”

“Thank you!” she half-sings before hanging up.

I hear Miles messing around in the kitchen and check my watch, only to see that it’s past noon. No wonder I’m hungry. I walk out to find my roommate pouring milk over a bowl of cereal.

“What, no sandwich?”

“I kind of just got home.” He winces and I realize what he must’ve been doing until now.

“Ah.” I nod and round the island, not sure what I’m going to scrounge up for lunch. “Hey, do all women do that emergency call thing?” I ask, staring into the fridge, willing something to appear that sounds good.

“Pretty sure, yeah,” Miles responds through a mouthful of food. “Why?”

“Isla needs me to do that for her tonight. She’s got a date.”

“You gonna internet stalk him for her?”

“Only if she doesn’t answer my call,” I laugh, closing the fridge empty-handed. I turn to face him.

“Our little sis is growing up,” Miles laughs through another mouthful.

“Yeah, yeah. I think I’m gonna run out for lunch. Text me if you want something.”

When I walk back into the house with a bag full of food because Miles did, in fact, text me his very large order, my stomach is growling so loud I think Sophie might hear it at her place. I set the bag on the counter and grab my burrito bowl just as my phone vibrates in my pocket.

It’s not a text, but a notification of movement outside Sophie’s house. I’ve gotten them when the girls come and go or when they have people over to film. It’s always accompaniedby the sound of the front door opening. But when I open up the app to view footage, I know right away this is not normal.

It’s hard to make out his grainy face, but I think I recognize the build from his photos online. Caleb walks slowly up the driveway between the front two buildings of the four-building property. There’s a folded piece of paper in his hand. I watch as he comes around the cars and slips the paper beneath the windshield wiper before sneaking off.

As he walks away, he pulls a phone from his back pocket, but I can’t tell what he’s doing. I assume it’s a text to his accomplice–the person deleting evidence of his trespassing from the cameras. Not this evidence, though.

Sophie leans against me on the couch, her head on my chest, one hand next to her face. Since September started–spooky season– all she’s wanted to watch are horror movies. Tonight’s feature is As Above So Below, one of her favorites. I’ll admit it’s sufficiently terrifying. The thought of running for my life through the miles of catacombs beneath Paris is enough to scare most people, I assume.

I haven’t wanted to ask her about the note that I know Caleb left on her car today. She doesn’t know how much access I have to her now and I’m not about to scare her off. It’s obviously on her mind, though.

“Hey, did you find anything about- about my ex?” Sophie asks softly during one of the most anxiety-inducing parts yet. The cameraman, whose name I forget, is having a panic attack while stuck trying to crawl through a tight tunnel on top of ancient bones. No thanks.

“I, er,” I swallow, trying to speak around a lump that has formed in my throat that definitely isn’t because of the movie. “I can’t find any deleted footage, but I’m still working on it.”

“Thanks,” she whispers.

I reach down to hook my index finger under her chin and turn her face upward.

“It’s nothing,” I assure her. “I’d do so much more than that for you.”I am. I lean down to kiss her nose and she closes her eyes.

Sophie shifts in my arms, giving her the right angle to press her mouth to mine. When she opens her mouth to moan, I slip my tongue between her lips, exploring and takingwhat I want from her. My hand that had been innocently rubbing her back drifts to her ass, squeezing. She moans again, the sound once more captured by my mouth. Her hand slides down my chest to rub my growing erection through my pants and she smiles against my lips.

---