Page 73 of In Plain Sight

She shot me a look like she couldn’t believe I’d asked her that. “Because we’re closed, but the sign says we’re open.”

“Right, of course.” I nodded solemnly.

“I’ve got my eye on you, new guy.” She made a menacing face and pointed to her eyes, then at me with two fingers.

“I’m a good boy, I promise.” I held up my hands in mock surrender.

Zander started coughing beside me.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” he croaked, then cleared his throat. “Just choked on nothing.”

“I do that all the time,” I said sympathetically.

When I glanced back at the office and front of the store, Nate and Cass were gone.

Zander cleared his throat again.

“Do you need some water?” I snatched my bottle off my workstation and held it out to him.

He hesitated.

I shook the bottle at him.

“Thanks.” He took it and flipped the top.

The bottle wasn’t a squeeze type, and my stomach tightened when he put the straw to his full lips and took a few sips.

The last time I’d gotten excited about someone drinking from the same vessel as me was back in middle school. How could something so benign be so hot?

He finished drinking and handed me my water back. “Thanks.”

Our eyes locked for a few beats. Something in his gaze was different. The usual intensity was there, but there was something under it. Something dark, almost heated.

I tore my gaze from his and put my water back on my workstation. What the fuck was wrong with me? He wasn’t looking at me any differently. I was only seeing it because I wanted to.

“Better get started on closing.” I pasted on a smile to cover up my weirdness, but that probably only made me look deranged.

He scrutinized me for a second.

Jesus, something about that look did things to me. It was so intense, so focused.

“Yeah, better start.” He gave me a small smile.

We spent the next fifteen or so minutes shutting down for the night. I finished first and pulled out my phone to send Nice a meme I’d seen on my break. For some reason, I felt weird messaging him during the day, so I only messaged him when I was home from work. But we were almost done, and I needed something to distract me so I wouldn’t stare at Zander’s ass as he bent over his workstation to finish filling out a form.

I opened the app and went to our messages. Once I uploaded the photo, I hit send.

Ding.

A notification exactly like the one Kinksters used echoed softly in the near-silent room.

My entire body glitched out. There was no other way to describe it. It was like my body and mind disconnected for a few seconds as everything around me went simultaneously slower and faster.

No.

No fucking way.

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