Page 52 of The End of Summer

Gretchen is speechless, likely on account of my wild overtures, so I am left to interact with the loaded Lexus lady. “Yup, be right with you,” I say.

I turn towards the wall to adjust myself so as not to be accused by the Lexus-leaserof any lewd (if unintentional) propositioning. “Where are the keys?” I whisper down at Gretchen, still seated in the chair beside me.

She gulps. “Office. Desk.”

“I love that I just made you incapable of forming multi-word sentences,” I say in her ear.

With a grin, I head to the office, grab the Lexus key off the desk, and bring it to the Interrupter. “Here you go.”

“Hey,” she says. “You’re one of the guys from last night.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Brady, right? OMG. My friend, Miranda, told usallabout you.”

I have no idea what she could have said, but I also don’t care, seeing as how I was just about to show Gretchen the full ability of my mouth when the SUV queen appeared. “Great,” I say.

“So, I guess we’ll be seeing you soon,” she says.

Huh? Nope. Don’t care.“Surething,” I reply.

“Ohmigod, wait! There’s Chloe!” This one waves a hand up in the sky. “Chloe!” she yells. “In here! I’m with Miranda’s dancing fuckboy!”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

“No offense,” the Interrupter winks at me.

Chloe walks in, looking tore up in oversized flannel pajama pants, a sports bra, and the world’s largest sunglasses doing nothing to mask her obvious hangover. “How are you so chipper?” she asks the Interrupter.

“I’m sorry, which car is yours?” I ask.

“I’m the Acura,” she says. I leave to get her keys.

“Look, Chloe! It’s Miranda’s boy,” the Interrupter claps.

I shake my head.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be here soon,” the Interrupter says. “I just texted her. She’s in an Uber.”

“Terrific,” I say. “Well, you two are all set, so feel free to head on out. We need to close up here anyway.”

“M’kay,” the Interrupter replies. “Soexcited we got to see you, though.” She reaches out and traces a finger down my forearm.

I pull back and shoot a finger gun at her, like,hey now, that’ll be a hard pass.“Yup. Same,” I reply, the sarcasm dripping off my words like sweat in a sauna.

Chloe and the Interrupter leave and I look at Gretchen, who is busily putting away the folding chair. “Hey,” I begin. “I’m not trying to end our time here, but I would really rather not run into Miranda if I can avoid it.”

“Ohmigod,” she jokes, flipping her hair. “I can’timagine why not.”

“Exactly,” I reply. “But what are you doing after work tonight?”

“Probably sleeping, Brady. I’m not sure if you know this, but I typically get home pretty late.”

“Yes, I’m aware. Well, what about tomorrow? Do you have work tomorrow, also?”

“No. Tomorrow and Tuesday are our two days off.”

“Want to go to the beach with me?”

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