Page 68 of Just Bromantically Invested

We both know that she’s staring and I’m ignoring, but I don’t know how much longer I can do the seeing-not-seeing thing. It’s getting on my nerves.

“Penn?” she whisper-coughs. “Penn.”

With the patience of a damn saint, I turn to her. “Yes, Lisa?”

“You’ve got a—” She taps her neck like I might have missed the glowing marks Madden left behind.

“A zit?”

“No, it’s a …” She taps faster, like she’s trying to communicate in Morse code.

I keep my expression neutral. “Food? A bug?”

“Penn.” Lisa glances around with a giggle, and for someone I wouldn’t be surprised was raised in a convent, Lisa leans over her desk. “It’s a, umm, alove bite,Penn.”

“A love bite …” I pretend to think it over. “Froma bug?”

Lisa finally catches on that I’m fucking with her and bats a hand playfully my way. “You’re so bad.”

“At my job? Gee, thanks.”

She gasps. “You know that’s not what I mean.”

Honestly, Lisa is too easy.

“So …” Her eyes light up like she’s settling in for gossip. “Who was it? Anyone I know, or did you go out, find some random woman, and …” She sucks in a fast, shaky breath. “You know.”

The more she talks, the more I wonder just how experienced she is with sex. Considering she and Lana are really the only people I talk to outside of Madden these days, the differences between them are stark. Lana wouldn’t have hesitated to saytake them to boner town.

But here I am, already faced with one of the questions I don’t have an answer to. If I tell her it was Madden, will she ask about my sexuality? Will she question me on why now? What got me to this point?

My palm is clammy on my mouse, collared shirt feeling way too tight. “You know the person,” I say, hoping she’ll leave it there. She doesn’t.

She squeals instead. “Oh my goodness,who?”

Considering we don’t know a lot of the same people, I’m not at all surprised that she’s excited. Most of our conversations are surface level, and this gossip might be a first for us. Or at least a third. We definitely haven’t passed five digits.

I’m getting that flushed-face feeling I get before I confront something important, and, trying to keep my voice as level as I can, I say, “Madden.”

There’s a ringing in my ears from somewhere. Lisa takesapproximately seventy-billion years to respond, and I brace myself for the questioning.

“Huh,” she says. “Makes sense.”

Wait …what?

“What do you mean it makes sense?”

Lisa turns back to her computer, apparently unaware that she’s shocked me stupid. “I probably should have guessed it was him, is all. Very cute, Penn. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

And here comes the gay thing. “Hadwhatin me?”

“Game.” Her pretty blue eyes flash to me again. “I hope you know Madden is a real catch.”

“I know …”

“What are we talking about my darling Madden for?” Dryden asks, sweeping into the room. They’re wearing a bedazzled kaftan that hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long.

“Madden gave Penn … well, he gave him a …” Lisa waves her hand at me.

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