Page 151 of Meet Me at the Metro

Evie cackles. “She’s driving a hard bargain here, mate.”

I narrow my eyes at him, but he returns the same menacing stare, and I’m confident he’s not going to back down from this that easily.

The thing is, neither am I.

“You’re about to turn this game into a war, soldier.”

Theo cocks his head to the side and smugly smiles. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’m promising you.”

His eyes turn feral as he starts to rise to his feet. “Give me that camera, Nora.”

Connor chuckles. “Ellie, you better run.”

Theo lunges for me, and I roll, dodging him quickly as I tightly grip the camera and do what my friend advises. I leap over shreds of wrapping paper scattered along the floor and race toward the kitchen.

Theo’s feet are stomping so loud and swiftly behind me that I can’t help but squeal. “It’s mine, babe!”

“Not anymore, it’s not!”

He stretches his arm out to grab me by the bottom hem of my shirt, but I lurch away from his hand and scramble around the kitchen table, granting myself a momentary barricade.

I’m heaving for air as Theo faces me from the other side. He doesn’t seem to have broken a lick of sweat. He places his large palms flush against the wooden table and leans his tall, massive body toward me with a wicked grin.

He’s so close, I can feel his hot breaths, and suddenly, I realize I’ve done something very, very stupid.

I’ve cornered myself.

“Give it up, Nora.”

“I won’t!”

“Oh, but you will.”

I assess my surroundings, debating my next move, but Theo’s body isn’t budging an inch, and I can’t find an out. That is until I see the small space beneath the table beckoning me.

“Like hell, I will!”

Theo lunges for me again, but this time, I duck, moving as swiftly as a snake as I slither my way underneath the table and crawl for the living room.

“Grab her!” Theo commands.

The flat is filled with boisterous laughter as Evie, Connor, and Harvey charge for me.

“We play fair and square, Ellie,” Harvey giggles, tackling me to the ground. I squirm beneath his arms as they swaddle me in an inescapable hold.

Connor and Evie share a menacing glance between one another before they work in tandem, grabbing hold of my legs and stealing away my ability to kick—to move at all—as Theo happily steps over my restrained body.

“I’m never forgiving you guys!” I cry out, face hot as embers from laughing so hard.

Connor snickers. “Sure you will.”

I glare at Theo’s towering figure as it reaches down and pries the Polaroid camera from my hands. “You’re going to regret this.”

“I don’t think I will,” he counters, reaching for his gift on the floor.

With a press of a button and a fling of his wrist, he tosses the vibrating garment onto my chest. Then, he’s peering at me through the camera’s lens and blinding me with its bright flash. A humming fills the air as a polaroid film reels out of the pretty, yellow present I once called mine.

---