Page 7 of Revelation

“Okay, I’m out,” I say, exiting the folder.

“I’m gonna go,” he says evenly. “Happy reading.”

“No,wait. Please, Josh.Wait.” The angry edge in his voice has made my chest tighten. Clearly, I’ve pushed too hard. “I’m sorry, Josh. Sometimes I take things too far. It’s a major flaw of mine.”

Josh chuckles despite himself.

I bite my lip, smiling into the phone. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean any harm.”

“Says the woman with a bomb strapped to her chest.” He lets out a long exhale. “Just read my goddamned application, okay? I can’t take it anymore. The anticipation’s killing me. Just read it and make your decision already.”

“Mydecision?”

He pauses. “Whether to sleep with me or not,” he finally says.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” I say. “Well, a girl’s gotta know if she’s gonna wake up chained to a goat.”

“No, adonkey.”

“Oh yeah. That’s right. A girl’s gotta know these things.”

“You never know what might happen with me. I’m kind of a sick fuck.”

“According to whom?”

He doesn’t reply.

“The Shy Girl?”

He pauses. “Yeah.”

“That’s Emma?”

“Yup.”

“Well, Josh, I haven’t even read your application yet, and I can already tell you Emma was full of shit.”

He lets out a yelp of surprise.

I clear my throat. “So back to the reason I called in the first place,” I say. “Where are the three photos you submitted with your application?”

“Well, strangely enough, Kat, they’re in a folder marked ‘Club Application Photos.’ Imagine that.”

“Oh. Well, gosh. That makes a whole lot more sense than putting them into a folder called ‘Sick Fuck.’”

Josh sighs. “Hey, can I just come up there? I thought I wanted to stay as far away as possible while you were reading my application, but all of a sudden I’d rather just sit next to you while you read it and watch your facial expressions.”

My heart leaps. “Are you by any chance planning todistractme again, Joshua William Faraday?”

“Maybe.”

I smile broadly into the phone. “Yeah, I think that’s a great idea,” I say. “Get your YOLO’d-ass up here, Playboy. We’ll read the damned thing together, line by perverted line—andmaybe,if you’re extra nice to me, I’ll let you distract me again.”

I can hear his smile again.

“I’ll be right there,” he says.

2

---