Page 13 of Space Crush
Dylan messaged you about your upcoming date.
Alex marked interest in another date.
For a moment,I just stand there, stunned, re-reading the notifications stacked up like file folders on the phone screen. Then, on the third read, I drop ungracefully into Evan’s desk chair.
Wow. Okay. Wow.
I hadn’t realized how much harder the stab of disappointment would hit me in comparison to seeing him with another woman just after one orgasm.
As I sit there, trying to absorb this turn of events, I’m surprised when, instead of dissolving into despair, like my mother would have, my disappointment turns into rage. The lying, fucking bastard.
Standing to leave, I remember his desire to communicate better.
I grab his phone on my way out.
SIX
GROSS NEGLIGENCE & MITIGATION
Evan
Please be dressed.
Once more jogging back to Building Ten, I decide to skip the gym tomorrow. I’ve had more than enough exercise for the day.
Hopping a curb, I race down the sidewalk.
Please be dressed.
Not the prayer I thought I’d want answered in regard to Kaley, but it’s one that will keep her from being embarrassed—again. Because Lord knows what she’ll do if she gets caught with her coveralls down. Especially after Ijustgot her to stop avoiding me.
Please be dressed.
After tossing kids astronaut ice cream packets like a krewe member throwing beads at Mardi Gras, Andy reminded me that the EVA Tools group was scheduled to use our milling machine to continue working on developing prototype LTV contingency tools and will be opening up the two-story garage door at the front of the building.
I didn’t have a way to warn Kaley of their imminent arrival, having left my phone on my desk. So with another apology to Andy—one which I’m pretty sure the middle finger he covertly threw me means he didn’t accept—I’m once more running across NASA.
Looking both ways, I pass the quad and cross over 4th St., noting the EVA Tools team a block away, already heading in my direction. Luckily Ian isn’t a part of that project.
Fuck.
I throw them a token wave but don’t stop, jogging past the large front doors of Building Ten and toward the back.
Please be?—
Coming around the corner, I skid to a stop. “Whoa.”
Prayer answered, Kaley is dressed. She’s also wearing the gray coveralls, not the blue. But that isn’t what’s so concerning. It’s that she’s outside, and even more so, the expression on her face—or lack of one.
“Kaley?” I brush back the hair clinging to my sweaty forehead.
Rolled sleeves crossed over her chest, her eyes deadpan into mine. “Alex and Dylan?” Her voice is level—toolevel—like she’s trying to control her temper.
“Who?”
Nostrils flare. “Alex and Dylan.” She waves my phone in the air.
I’m a smart man. I mean, I may make some poor decisions every once in a while, like wearing a SAFER jet pack in a bouncy house, but I’m usually quick on the uptake and fast to learn from my mistakes.
