Page 33 of Stop and Seek
“I never said that,” Theo mumbled.
He patted her head and she pulled back enough to stare at his face, her shiny, purple-painted lips curled into a frown.
“Tell me you got like, a cab or something. You look like shit,” she whispered.
“I’m fine, Alyssa, I swear. The hell did you bring these assholes here for?”
Another thing Theo immediately regretted as soon as it was out of his mouth.
Strike two.
“Okay, yeah, you didnotsay that.” She slid down from her tip-toes, platforms clattering on the tile. “You promised to be good, remember?”
“I’m doing my best.”
“You better. Come socialize with me.”
“I don’t want to.”
But, did she listen? No.
Alyssa grabbed his drink from the bar, his wrist in her other hand.
Theo barely had time to flash an apologetic grimace over his shoulder before wrestling the drink away from her, throwing it back in one go. He’d need the liquid courage to deal with the insanity.
She made a big deal of showing him to the tiny table near the loading dock.
His table.
“I know I introduced you to Max earlier,” Alyssa said with a flourish of her long nails. “But like, say hi to Golden Boy. Have you two—”
“We met. Couple times already,” Noah interrupted.
That was all it took for Alyssa to gasp and throw herself next to Max.
“Spill the deets, like pronto,” Alyssa demanded, folding her arms on the table.
Theo slid his chair a little further over—away from Noah, hell even the whole table—when he sat.
“We ran into each other during the game. He tried to strangle me.”
Hindsight and all that,maybehe should have left the last part out.
Strike three.
Max choked on her drink.
Alyssa’s over-the-top gasping continued, and Theo shot her a look.
“It was all in good fun!” Noah said. “Wasn’t it?”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Alyssa held up a hand. “You both are totes cool throwing down duringthequietest game ever? You know what that looks like to me.”
“Alyssa, shut up,” Theo mumbled.
The way Noah was looking at him—steady, amused, like Theo was some giant bug—was uncomfortable as hell.
His phone buzzed against his thigh. Thank fuck.
