Page 20 of Totally Fanatic

“You alright there, Lion?” Levi asks.

I take a sip of my drink, letting the cool liquid coat my throat.

“I’m okay. Great actually. I just can’t believe he said he’ll message me.”

“Believe it.”

***

I checked my phone the second I got up this morning to see if Tim had sent me a message. He hadn’t, and King meows for his breakfast in the other room, so I get dressed and get the boyssorted before heading to the cafe. Surely working will keep me distracted until he messages me.

But it doesn’t. I spend the day checking my phone, and Mary Beth swats my hand away for the billionth time when I go to grab it again from under the counter.

“Don’t make me take that to the back room. You know how I feel about phones at work.”

“I know, but it’s almost four and he hasn’t messaged yet, and if he’s going to come to the bodega, he’ll have to message by six.”

“Wouldn’t he still be practicing right now?”

I check the time again. Yep, one minute past the last time I looked. “Yes, he’ll be practicing.”

“Then leave it. He’ll message when he messages. Come on, afternoon rush is about to start, and I need you to box up the slices left in the display.”

“On it,” I say, collecting the cute triangle single slice boxes from under the counter, one shelf below where my phone sits, taunting me to check my socials for a message from Tim.

I get all the slices boxed, all the cookies divided up into bags of three and have the plates and trays washed down before I hear my phone chime.

“See, that wasn’t such a long wait, was it?” Mary Beth says, and I shake my head.

“It’s a text message. Tim is messaging my socials.”

I grab the phone anyway and find it’s a message from Beau.

BEAU: Sorry, I have to cancel. Have fun with the Funky Monkey.

A split second later, a message comes in from Levi.

LEVI: Sorry, I have to bail, see you in the AM.

“Both Levi and Beau had to cancel. There’s still no message from Tim. I’ll just grab takeaway from the bodega. Unless you want to join?”

“Sorry, I have a date.”

“You do?”

“Yep, with Dakota.”

“The flower guy?”

“Yes, the flower guy. Are you sure Tim hasn’t messaged?”

“I think I would know if he messaged,” I say, turning my app to face her. “Look, nothing.”

“Umm, Lion, that’s not your profile. Did you log out?”

“Huh?” I turn the phone over. Oh crap. I left myself logged in to one of the other accounts I set up to help support Tim. I quickly click the sign-out button and log in as Kittyball100. Immediately, a little two appears in the top right.

TIM: Hey, training was full-on today. But I finally landed another trick play. If I get a nice overhead ball in the next game, I’m going to try it.