Page 28 of Illicit Illustration

I’d completely forgotten that was his usual weekly routine. At least Reid regularly helped him, and he wouldn’t be questioning why his best friend was in the bar this early.

“Why do you look guilty? And weren’t you on until midnight last night? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Normally, I would be. This girl loved her sleep, but I also needed to keep the momentum going on my commissions queue, so I didn’t fall behind. With Reid helping, I wouldn’t have to spend hours combing the internet for reference photos for the poses. We could create them in real time, and I could keep taking on new clients that I’d turned down before and keep up with my online coursework at the same time.

“I’m going somewhere this morning. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming over?”

She smirked, slowly assessing my outfit. “Where are you going dressed like that at eight on a Sunday? There isn’t really anything open for another few hours.”

“Donuts?” I asked, like an idiot, because the bakery was the only place I knew was open this early on a Sunday.

“Okay…and why was it so important for you to get donuts today?”

“Does anyone really need an excuse to need donuts any day? I mean, donuts and potatoes need to be their own food groups in my opinion. But I digress.”

“Haz, are you okay? You’ve been a little jumpy lately. You’re not getting burned out, are you? I can talk to Hudson about cutting your hours if you need me to. He won’t get mad if he knows you need the time for your classes.”

“No! No…” I tried to lower my voice. “It’s fine. I’ve got plenty of time to keep working at the bar while I do my commissions and course work during the day. I promise I’m not getting burned out.”

She nodded, looking around the apartment, probably noticing that since she was gone, it wasn’t quite as neat as it’d once been. Despite her bad girl persona, once she’d started dating Hudson, his neat freak ways had rubbed off on her. “So, how have otherthingsbeen going?”

“Things?” I asked, but we both knew what she was asking about. She wanted to talk about if either of the guys I’d left numbers for had texted me.

“Don’t play coy, Haz. Have either of them messaged you?”

“And thethemyou are referring to are?”

She narrowed her eyes, and I tried not to fidget. While I told her nearly everything, I wasn’t sure I wanted to share anything about Seven with her yet. “I’ll give you points for evasion, but you know I’m gonna keep asking until you give me more details.”

“Ten has not.”

“But…?” she asked, knowing he wasn’t the only person I left my number for.

“Seven has.”

“God, this is like pulling teeth,” she laughed, but I was still trying to figure out what to tell her without making him sound bad. She hadn’t designed the experiment for the singles to start immediately sexting each other, but it wasn’t like I’d even done that with Seven. Things with him were…complicated. They were beyond just innocent flirting, but not quite to R-rated territory. Not that I was opposed to it heading in that direction.

“He’s…nice?” God, now I was making him sound lame.

“Sounds like a dud,” a deep voice coming from the stairwell startled me, and I turned toward my open front door, trying not to gasp as I got an eyeful of Reid wearing the fuck out of a pair of black leather pants.

“Yeah, Haz. He sounds kind of lame,” Charley replied, giving Reid a pointed look over my shoulder. I could tell she was irritated he’d crashed her mission to get intel on my interactions with bachelors’ number seven and ten. “Maybe you need to cut Seven loose and focus on Ten. I can get his number so you can text him if you want. I know it breaks the rules, but we both know I’m not that great at following them, anyway.”

“Hey,” Reid cut in, stepping in behind me and resting his hand on the middle of my back. Even through the lace and my sweater, along with the leather glove covering his palm, it still sent tingles racing up my spine. Tingles I should not be focusing on. “Maybe Seven is still warming up. I wouldn’t count him out yet, and if Ten hasn’t messaged her, that’s his loss and she should chalk it up to him not being interested enough. If he wasn’t eager to send her a message right away, he’s not the right guy for her.”

“Maybe Seven is coming on too strong and Ten is just easing his way into things.”

Charley and Reid were staring at each other like I wasn’t in the room, or the person who these mystery men were supposed to be texting.

“Hey,” I interrupted as they opened their mouths to start another verbal volley. “Seven is holding his own. And I’m not cutting him out of anywhere.”

“See, told you.” Reid shot a satisfied grin at Charley, and she bit her lip as she raised an eyebrow back in response.

“And Ten hasn’t shown any interest at all, so I’ll pass on getting his number. If he couldn’t be bothered to send a text, then I don’t want to talk to him until he does.”

“But…” Charley argued, but Reid cut her off.

“I’m sure Haz is more than capable of running her own dating life. Maybe her best friend should butt out of it, especially when she is suggesting trying to undermine the setup of her own event.”

“Oh, I’m the one undermining the integrity of the event, huh?” she asked Reid, her eyes briefly cutting to mine. I frowned as I tried to gauge what she meant by that. “What about—”

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