Page 13 of Siren's Game

"Proof enough?" He raises his eyebrow, half amused, half annoyed.

"Hello to you too. A selfie would have done," I say with a sigh. Two words from him and I can already feel a headache approaching.

"No time for pleasantries. Luca will be here soon.” I roll my eyes, but he’s busy hearing the sound of his own voice and doesn’t notice. “That dude is head over heels for your little friend, but I'm pretty sure he's so up in his head about it nothing will happen if we don't step in. And let’s be real, your friend is definitely into him as well."

"Her name is Millie,” I point out, and now it’s his time to roll his eyes. “I fear you might have a point, though," I grumble, remembering Millie’s and my conversation from today where she mentioned that she's not actively looking to date.

Then I remember how three seconds later she had that faraway look in her eyes, that told me clearer than her mouth ever could, that she's thinking about Luca. Knowing each other for half our lives, I just know.

"Do you have an idea?" he asks, hastily looking around, as he seems to be waiting for Luca to turn up somewhere like a jump scare.

"You called me, don't you have any idea?" My whole face scrunches up. Do I look like the kind of person who would be able to come up with agoodplan in the few seconds that passed between his message and call?

"Of course I don't." He rolls his eyesagain,and oh my God, the audacity makes my blood boil. "What do you girls usually do to get friends together?"

Oh God, this man is infuriating on so many levels. I hope ‘girls’ is just a poor word choice. I haven’t been a ‘girl’ in like ten years. After taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I take a second to think. And another one.

It's not like I have that many friends, besides Millie. Well, Josh, but I'm not exactly trying to set him up now, am I? The only thing I can think of is . . .

"A double date?" I think out loud. Then I shake my head. Millie is shy; I don’t think that would be such a good setting. "No, never mind."

"Why, that's a great idea, Kayla," Asher says way too enthusiastically and starts to chuckle as a flash of what I can only call mischief twinkles in his eyes. I don’t like where this is going. "Looks like you, me and those two are going on a double date."

"No," I tell him firmly and glare at him through my phone, but he’s not even looking at the screen anymore.

"Day after tomorrow, I can get a table at Fantasia. Five pm. See you then."

And suddenly, I'm looking at my home screen.

That fucker just hung up on me, I can't believe it. I don't even know if I can get Millie to come along. I don’t even know if she has time the day after tomorrow. I’m not even sure if dating Luca is something she likes to daydream or actually do something about.

My phone buzzes with a message and I realize I’m about to squish it with how tight I’m grasping it.

Unknown number: Looking forward to our date <3

What an infuriating dick.

I can't bring up the nerve to ask Millie until the next day, when we're warming up for our training.

I spent the whole night tossing and turning, trying to find a way for the two of them to get together without having to pretend to go on a date with Asher as well, but I couldn’t come up with a better idea.

I meant it when I said I'm only holding a petty grudge towards Asher. There’s no hate, but for some reason, I even find the sound of him breathing infuriating. So I would very much prefer to hold onto this grudge from afar. Because talking to him? Not a good idea.

The call yesterday did absolutely nothing to extinguish that grudge. Not at all. Quite the opposite, it was like a bucket of grease thrown into a fire.

"A double date?" Millie looks at me with eyes narrowed in confusion, her eyebrows shooting upwards, and the question ‘since when do you date?’ written all over her face.

We're at the studio, waiting for Mike, our dance instructor, to turn up. Millie is on the ground, leaning over her leg to stretch her hamstrings as I'm pacing the wooden floor, nervously biting the skin around my thumb nail.

"Please?" I look at her with big eyes and gulp. This just has to work out.

I can't gauge her reaction. She doesn't seem too pleased with the prospect of a double date but her saying no is just not an option.

My thoughts race and I don’t know how to convince her—usually she’d be the person I’d ask for advice. Maybe it's better to not bring up who it's with? She’s so apprehensive about dating, telling her it’s Luca could either make her jump at the chance or curse me out.

"I can't really say 'no' to the guy who asked me and I could really,reallyuse your moral support.” My eyelashes flutter as I give her the biggest puppy-eyes I’m capable of.

For a moment, she gets that faraway look in her eyes again.

---