Page 81 of The Friend Zone

“There’s only one way to find out. Let’s go.”

Ryker and I follow Bay upstairs. I’m right behind her and I can’t help checking out her ass in those obscenely short PJs. They’re the same ones she had on that night right after the rush fair, when I bumped into her in the kitchen and I almost kissed her again. I wish I had a time machine to go back to that night. I would warn my past self to make sure Topher doesn’t find out about me and Bay. I would do everything differently and not fuck this up.

Topher moved to Cash’s old room after we made him give up the presidential suite to Bay.

“Bingo,” she grins, opening the door. “Let’s see what my ex is hiding.”

I’ve been in Topher’s room just a handful of times when he was in the presidential suite. I’ve never seen anyone neater than our frat president. I’m no slob by any means, but for someone used to having a maid, the guy’s surprisingly meticulous in keeping everything tidy and spotless.

A sleek, black laptop is sitting on Topher’s desk. Bay makes a beeline for it and opens it.

“Shit,” Ryker sighs. “Of course it’s password protected.”

Bay doesn’t look deterred. “I think I can guess his password.” She says, flexing her fingers and sitting on the chair at her ex’s desk. “Yup, we’re in.”

“Password1234? Are you shitting me?” I snort.

Bay rolls her eyes but for once tonight it isn’t directed at me. “Topher is obsessed with being cunning. He thinks he’s smarter than anyone else and told me more than once that sometimes the smartest thing is to be obvious. Something like people don’t expect you to do the easiest thing. He’s big on hiding in plain sight. Hence, the stupidest most common password you can possibly think of.”

Ryker leans forward, moving Bay’s long blonde hair away from her shoulder and dropping a lingering kiss on her bare skin. “Good job, Cinnamon.”

She turns around, offering him her lips to kiss.

Jealousy makes it hard to breathe as I watch them. I’m not jealous of the kiss in itself, that’s just hot as fuck. What I can’t take is that Ryker has the right to kiss her, the confidence to do it without fear of being kicked in the nuts.

I was in his position a few weeks ago and I would give anything to get back there.

“Nothing,” Bay frowns after opening every single file in the device, including Topher’s emails.”

We looked at everything that comes from an account we don’t recognize and that has an attachment. It’s a bust.

“Where else could he keep something like that?” Bay frowns.

“If he likes to hide things in plain sight,” Ryker suggests. “Maybe he really has it in his phone.”

Bay isn’t convinced. “I seriously doubt it. It would be too risky. He wouldn’t want sensitive information in the cloud. If anyone reported him to the Gamma central chapter, he would get kicked out of the fraternity for keeping something like that. And there are two things Topher cares about above all else. His trust fund and Gamma Delta Tau, especially the presidency. The hockey team was a distant third. So if it isn’t in some file saved directly into his laptop and not in the cloud, he has to keep it in an external drive.”

It makes sense. “Where do you think he would keep that?” I ask, happy to be talking to her even if it’s just to find the video.

“It would be somewhere obvious, where people wouldn’t think about looking. Is there a safe in this house? We had one behind a painting in the living room at the Zeta house.”

I snap my fingers, feeling hopeful that not everything is lost. “There’s a safe in the basement.”

Bay stands up. “Let’s go.”

Ryker and I follow her down the stairs that lead to the Gamma house finished basement. The space serves as a bit of a game room, with a pool table, a dart board and some arcade style video games that were donated by an alumnus right before Topher and I moved in.

We have parties in here when we decide not to invite everyone on campus or if the weather isn’t good enough to use our huge backyard.

“Do you know where is it?” Bay asks, looking around as if she saw this familiar space for the first time. “I’ve been down here somany times and it never occurred to me that you guys could have a safe.”

“Well technically,” I say opening a small, metal door hidden behind a fake wooden panel. “It’s not in here. The basement is much bigger than the finished part.”

A narrow corridor with unfinished concrete walls opens in front of us. A few metal doors are on either side.

“What’s this place?” Ryker asks.

“Creepy,” Bay shudders, stepping away from the wall to avoid brushing against a cobweb.

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