Page 14 of Playing Games

“I didn’t,” Blake says slowly and softly, pausing briefly before continuing. “Can’t say I’m loving how big of a deal-breaker it seems it would be if I had.”

I shake my head. “It’s just…complicated. I’m four years older than you. And it’s not like there’s something to actually tell. We’re just celebrating our narrow escape from authority, right?”

“Right.”

I suck my lips into my mouth, and Blake stands abruptly, holding out a hand to help me up. “Come on, Lex. I’ll walk you home.”

I’m surprised he’s the one ending things, given how hard he’s been pursuing me, but I have to admit I’m tired. My adrenaline crashed over an hour ago, and I’ve been relying on the sugar from the ice cream ever since.

“Okay.”

As I stand up, Blake jogs over to the trash can at the side of the entrance to the theater and throws out his ice cream bowl, and then he comes back to me to walk down the stairs together.

I use the solo time to text Ace back with just enough to keep him from sending the police to find me and then tuck my phone away again.

Me: I’m fine.

Blake and I are mostly silent on the way down the steps, but despite my normal introverted tendencies, I find it somewhere inside myself to break the monotony.

“Thanks. For…stepping in tonight. Iwouldhave come up with something, but I do appreciate that I didn’t have to.”

Blake’s laugh is soft and comforting, wielding a weird power over my stomach once again. “You’re welcome. I know how painful it had to be for you to accept help, especially from me, the perpetual thorn in your side.”

“Double C nights are busy. You always linger a little too much.”

He guffaws. “Oh man, so I’m right? I am a thorn in your side?” I shrug, wincing slightly as he continues. “I half expected you’d coddle me a little, you know? Tell me I’m just imagining things. Instead, I’ve just got really poor timing.”

“One thing about me you should know right off the bat is that I don’t tend to coddle. I… Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I’m capable of it.”

Blake’s face is a mask of nothingness in the dark of night, and I wish more than anything I could see it a little better so I could attempt to read it. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but for some reason, I find myself curious what he thinks of me.

Quite frankly, I hate it. It’s much easier to function when you aren’t worried about what other people are doing, thinking, or feeling.Much, much easier.

I lead the way toward my apartment, and Blake stays in step beside me. We don’t speak for nearly two blocks, through the entire journey past Beckley Theater, across Amsterdam Avenue, and all the way to the back of Dickson’s parking garage.

“How’d you end up running Double C?” Blake asks, seemingly out of nowhere. It’s a question I’m duty-bound not to answer, and for that, I’m thankful.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Because you’d have to kill me? Or just because you don’t want to?”

“Closer to the first.”

“Wow. Okay. So, this really is some mob-style, family-secret type shit.”

I roll my eyes. “This isn’tThe Sopranos.”

“It feels like it.”

I laugh and shrug. “It’s not that complicated. But itissecretive. That’s kind of the point, you know?”

“All right, then.” Blake’s mouth tilts into that easy, cocky smile of his. “I guess I’ll just have to be okay with never knowing. But at least I’ll know where you live.”

I stop dead in my tracks, narrowing my eyes at him.

Blake chuckles, holding up his hands like I might call the cops. “Come on, I’m kidding. I swear I’ll never show up uninvited.”

“Maybe we should just say goodbye here.”

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