Page 8 of Neighbors With Benefits

I shook my head. A plan formed in my head, and my fingers trembled as I typed out a response.

Me: I don’t know who Aiden is. You have the wrong number.

The three little dots appeared, indicating that she was typing a response. They disappeared, then appeared again. This happened over and over for the next few minutes, before finally she sent a one-word response:

Jazz: Sorry

I sighed with relief. That would work. She would believe I had given her the wrong number, and would assume it was some random guy with a Philadelphia area code who had responded.

I repeated Bash’s mantra out loud to myself until I believed it: “Everything will work out. Everything will work out.Everythingwill work out.”

“You look paler than a hard-boiled egg,” Bash said when I went back inside. “You didn’t kill one of Dante’s plants, did you? Because he might literally stab you.”

“No, the plants are fine. I just…”

Bash paused the movie and twisted on the couch to give me his full attention. “Carmen replied, didn’t she?”

“I…”

With divine timing, my phone vibrated in my pocket at that exact moment. And sure enough, it was the woman we had been waiting to hear from.

UNKNOWN: Hi Aiden, this is Carmen, from the polyamorous dating app. I have to say that your offer is REALLY appealing, but I don’t think it’s what I’m looking for right now. I hope you understand.

I held out the phone for Bash to read. He grimaced, then shrugged.

“Damn. The search continues. You’d better tell Dante.”

“Right.” I took a screenshot of the message and texted it to the third member of our house. Within ten seconds, he replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

“Always a man of few words,” I muttered.

Carmen’s text made me sad—I really thought she might be a good candidate for what the three of us wanted. But I was more relieved that I’d managed to fix the situation with Jazz. It would’ve sucked to destroy our chance to be friends with our new neighbor.

Now I just had to act normal around her.

My first opportunity came the next night when I was rolling the trash cans to the curb. Jazz suddenly called out my name, and came running over like she was excited to see me.

Be cool, Aiden. She doesn’t know anything. If you act normal, she’ll never suspect anything.

Except I wasn’t cool. I was bad at lying. And after a few attempts to ask for my number, I could tell she was getting suspicious.

“Are you hiding something?” she finally asked.

Defeated, I turned around and gave her my number. And since she was suspicious, she immediately dialed it.

The phone rang in my pocket.

4

Jazz

He was hiding something. I was certain of it.

But when I dialed the number he gave me, his phone immediately rang. He lifted the phone to his ear and said, “Yep, you got the right number.”

I heard his voice through the receiver. That was him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but why were you so weird about giving me your number?”

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