Page 130 of The Charlie Method

I shrug. “There’s a possibility I might’ve been.”

“And you read the story I’m editing for my old lab partner?”

Another shrug.

“And you sent it to Darcy?”

This time, I defend myself. “Hey, she requested the link. I didn’t offer it.” I glare at Nick. “And that was the end of my involvement in it, mate. So don’t blame me for being in the doghouse.”

“What does Lourdes’s fanfic have to do with your girlfriend being pissed at you?” Will asks our teammate.

Nick sets his jaw. “It doesn’t matter. It just does, okay?”

“What did you do?” Shane pushes, unable to contain his amusement. He’s openly grinning.

“Nothing.”

“C’mon, what’d you do?”

“She’s trying to get you to read it, and you don’t want to?” Case guesses from his seat.

“I said it doesn’t matter,” Nick replies through clenched teeth.

“Fine, don’t tell us. I have Darcy’s number,” Shane says. “I’ll ask her myself.”

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

“Fine. Solve the mystery for us then.”

Nick curses under his breath. “Whatever. It’s not a big deal. She just, uh, you know…” He shrugs. “Caught me.”

I furrow my brow. “Caught you doing what—” I give a sharp intake of breath. “Mate. No. Don’t say it.”

His look of sheer misery is all the confirmation I need.

I double over. “Jesus,” I wheeze between waves of uncontrollable laughter. “Which chapter?”

“What am I missing here?” Shane asks.

It’s hard to speak through the stitch in my side. I’m panting from the exertion. “She caught him wanking it to historical fan fiction.”

There’s a beat of silence before everyone in our vicinity joins me in the land of shuddering, side-splitting laughter.

“What chapter?” Will echoes my question as the only other person on this bus who’s read Lourdes’s masterpiece.

Nick looks like he wants to crawl into a hole and die. He drops his face in his hands. “Fuck off.”

“Hey, judgment-free zone here,” I assure him, my lips twitching from the restraint of not doubling over again.

He lifts his head. His face is that of a man defeated. “Chapter twelve.”

I nod. “The deflowering. Nice.”

Shane sounds perplexed as he says, “Wait, your girl’s actually pissed about this? Are you not allowed to jerk off?”

“What? No, of course I am. She’s angry because I lost track of time and was an hour late for her birthday dinner. Now she thinks I ‘don’t value her time or the fact that she was born’—that’s an exact quote.”

This time, everyone manages not to bust out in hysterics.

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