Page 53 of The End of Summer

“Depends.” She cocks an eyebrow. “Is this a date?”

“I would like it to be, yes.”

“Okay. Then, yes. I would like that too.”

“I mean, just for clarification, I don’t dance like that for just anybody.”

“Really?” she laughs. “Because I’m pretty sure that’sexactlywhat you do.”

“Touché,” I reply. I shoot her a wink before leaving. “Tomorrow, then.”

“Can’t wait,” she says.

“Same here,” I reply.

I’m pretty sure she means it.

Lord knows I do.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

GRETCHEN

When I return home after my shift that night, I see a folded note taped to my door.Here’s my number,it reads, so we can communicate more efficiently during daylight hours. -B.

The rest of my day – meaning the space between Brady’s impromptu dance lesson at the studio and the end of the night when I find his note – quickly unraveled into a disaster. Still, seeing his scrawl on a piece of paper with my name on it teleports me back to our afternoon together, and the past eight, messy hours at Cosmo somehow evaporate. All that remains are memories of his smile, his touch, his breath on my neck – and suddenly, I’m giddy all over again.

Thatdance.

After Brady high-tailed it out of there, Miranda came to tow lot to pick up her car, and (other than asking if he was there), we didn’t say much to each other. I closed up shop once she left and grabbed a few things at the supermarket for a quick dinner, headed back home, ate, and got ready for my night shift.

When I got back to the studio later on, I was surprised to find a very different kind of note inside my locker. It was a Post-It note.From Arrow.

Had to go to Tucson,it read.Not sure how long I’ll be gone. Since Cherry’s out, I need you to be in charge of bookings and any office business. All the info is on my laptop. Password is kitten414. Call Cherry if you need anything. You guys can operate without me for a few days until I return. xx, Arrow

Tucson?

Really?

And she was leavingmein charge? Via directions on a Post-It?

Huh.

I called Arrow in an attempt to get actual intel, but it went straight to voicemail. I hung up before leaving a message, hoping someone else would know what this was all about.

When the girls arrived, I showed them the little yellow square of paper. I tried not to panic at the thought of being down to three girls running an entire party.

“Does anyone know why Arrow would go to Tucson?” I asked.

“I think she has family there,” Saffron said.

“If anyone would know, it’s Cherry,” Indigo added. “She’s known her the longest.”

I debated calling Cherry, since I wasn’t sure when she was getting out of the hospital. I shot her a text instead asking her to call me when she had a free second. No sense in worrying her, since she really couldn’t do anything to help us in her present state.

“Okay, well, in the meantime, we need to figure out how we’re going to get through today.” I pulled out the laptop, pressed the power button to turn it on, and waited for the welcome screen to load. Indigo andSaffron sat down by the locker bank seemingly unfazed and before long, became engrossed in something on one of their phones. When prompted, I entered the password as instructed. A bunch of windows opened up, and there was a pop-up that read, “Google Chrome did not shut down properly. Restore all pages?” I automatically hit “yes” because that was my brain’s knee-jerk reaction, but I was not prepared for the e-mail that appeared on the screen.

And, because I’m human and the subject line was in caps… I couldn’t help but read it.

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