Page 77 of Stop and Seek
“Don’t tell me,” Max continued, her arm around Alyssa’s waist. “Let me guess. You were with your new pet project. Judging by your face? I’d say you fucked up something.”
Why wouldn't she go there.
“Don’t call him that.” Noah plugged in the phone and scooted up to the headboard, as close to the charger as possible.
Max’s rolled her eyes, clicking her tongue. “I get he’s your flavor of the week, but couldn’t you pick something that’s not so… pistachio?”
Noah smirked. “I like how pistachio tastes, thank you. Plus, it’sreallyunderrated.”
Alyssa gasped like she’d just learned Santa was real. “Golden Boy’s got aboy crush~”She sang. “Is he, like, totes adorbs?”
“Mega adorbs. Twelve out of ten.”
“If you enjoy looking at a tortoise,” Max mumbled.
“I didn’t know you hated wildlife that much.”
“Are you two, like,actuallyfighting?” Alyssa asked. “Okay, clue me in. What’s the big problem? Is he not allowed to have fun, Maxie?”
Noah looked up. “That’s a great question,Maxie. Am I not allowed to fall head over heels for a sarcastic gremlin? He’s got good cheekbones.”
“Piss off.” The chair creaked when Max grabbed her shirt off the ground, covering her sports bra. “You want to come out with me, Alyssa? I’ve been cooped up all day long. I can still smell gym socks.”
“Um, yes? Heck yes. Sweep me off into the sunrise, princess charming.”
“You’re picking up Kyran’s speech patterns,” Max laughed. “Social distance, girl.”
Noah shook his head, returning his attention to his phone.
Nothing from Theo.
No texts.
Not to mention, the guy hadzeroonline presence.
Kyran wasn’t lying.
Noah had found Rachel, and Evan or Elliot—whatever the hell the scruffy, mechanic’s name was.
Alyssa’s feed was the most detailed. Theo’snamecame up in the posts, and from the captions? A huge amount of them originally had photos. But they were all scrubbed clean. Like Theo was trying to erase himself from existence.
Majorly fucking frustration.
At least the cameras still worked.
It wasn’t as if Noah was spying—he’d explained everything to the landlord. House sitting. Totally chill. Two little cameras: one in the bedroom, one in the living room. For peace of mind.
And yeah, maybe he’d spent a fewtoo manyhours looking at them—but watching Theo sit on the couch, eyes locked on the TV, fingers twitching against a bottle of vodka? That was the only thing keeping him from combusting.
Theo was damn cute. Even pissed off. Even when ignoring him like he didn’t mean a damn thing.
Jesus…
A text would be nice.
He yawned, resting the phone on his chest. His body was too heavy now. He could barely keep his eyes open.
The door shut.
