Page 53 of Give Me a Shot

“Hmm…” Jess said.

“If you’re going on a date, I need to picture it. But we don’t even know what he looks like,” Stephanie said.

“Oh yes,” Alice said, leaning forward. “Do tell.”

Jess’s face got a little warm. As sexy as Mo was, describing him to her friends might make her start gushing like an idiot. She was the metered but supportive friend, not the gushing friend. A picture might make things easier, but she wasn’t really a picture-taking person, so she didn’t have one on her phone. Even though she hadn’t seen any photos of him in the blacksmithing sectionof the Folk School website, there might have been instructor information on it with a photo or two.

“Hold on,” she said. She got the website open and found the appropriate page. Mo’s profile was there so she clicked the link. There were a couple of photos of him, but he was looking off to the side or down at something he was working on. She put the link in the meeting chat.

“What. In. The. Actual. Fuck,” Stephanie said after a few moments.

“Jess,” Alice said, eyes wide. “This guy ishot.”

Jittery giddiness passed through Jess as her cheeks warmed. She cleared her throat, stuffing that silliness away. A warm tenderness surged in its place as she realized that he seemed to be hiding a little in the photos.

I bet he’s shy about having his picture taken.

“Um, yeah,” she said in answer to her friends. “You can’t tell from the photos, but he has really dark eyes. They’re…kind.”

“ ‘Kind,’ ” Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. “Sounds like you’re playing it down a little bit.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jess said, rolling her eyes back.

“I am digging this beard,” Alice said, her head tilted, smiling a little.

“Yeah,” Jess said again. “He does the cutest thing when he’s nervous or uncomfortable. He strokes it, or scratches at it. It’s like a very charming tic.”

“Steph,” said Alice. “Jess said cute. Jess said, ‘the cutest thing.’ ”

“Where are my smelling salts?” Stephanie asked.

“See, this is why I don’t tell you anything,” Jess said.

“Sorry, sorry,” Stephanie said. “Alice, let’s be supportive friends and listen. We can give her a hard time later.”

“Heissuper-hot, but is he an ass about it?” Alice asked.

“Jess wouldn’t date an ass,” Stephanie said.

“No,” Jess said. “He’s not at all. He’s completely oblivious to his sex appeal. When I told him I thought he was hot, he started hemming and hawing. I was worried I’d scared him at first.”

“What’s wrong with him, then?” Stephanie asked.

“Wrong?” asked Jess.

“Nice, Steph,” Alice said.

Jess ran her fingertips through Steinem’s fur. She knew what was “wrong” with him from the outside world’s perspective. Impaired somehow. He seemed to have internalized that message if he was calling himself weird.

Impaired…

“Huh,” she said. “He is kind of Hephaestus, Alice.”

“Oh?” Alice asked, putting her mug down.

“Hephaestus…anybody wanna catch me up?” Stephanie asked.

“I teased her a while back about Atalanta and Hippomenes. She said Mo’s more Hephaestus,” Alice said.

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