Page 91 of Once Upon a Boyband
A second message follows a few minutes later.
Freddie
Watch out for him for me?
I drop my phone into my lap and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
I would love nothing more than to watch out for Adam.
I just hope he’ll let me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Laney
If I wantedsomething to ground me back in reality after a week hanging out with Midnight Rush, Fifi’s anal glands will definitely do it.
I hold up the tiny chihuahua and look him dead in the eye. “You only exist to torture me,” I say.
Fifi snarls in response and lets out a low growl. Honestly, I feel bad for the little guy. It must be so stressful to be so angry all the time.
“Talk about a rude welcome back to the real world,” Percy says from behind me.
“Says the guy who just gave a cat a flea bath.”
He holds up his arms. “And has the battle scars to prove it. I still wouldn’t trade if it meant dealing with Fifi.”
The rest of my afternoon is blissfully low key. I even get to leave an hour early due to a last-minute cancellation, so I’m home and showered and wearing leggings and my favorite hoodie by six o’clock.
I’m pulling the plastic off a freezer pizza when Percy knocks, then opens my front door. “I’m coming in!” he calls. I have no idea when we transitioned from regular friends to the kind of friends who let themselves into each other’s houses, but here we are. “Don’t put that in the oven,” Percy says as he heaves a to-go bag onto the counter. “I brought Chinese.”
“Have I told you how much I love you, Percy?”
“Not today, so tell me again.”
“What’s the occasion?” I ask as I pull containers out of the bag. “If you’re here to make me talk about Adam, then I’m eating all the egg rollsandthe crab rangoon without sharing.”
Percy rolls his eyes. “Calm down. I have zero Adam-related agenda, though my opinions on the subject haven’t changed.”
I gave Percy a quick debriefing when he stopped by for coffee on the way to work this morning. At the time, I’d texted Adam, letting him know I was back in town, and I hadn’t heard back from him yet.
Twelve hours later, nothing has changed. It’s only been twenty-four hours, which doesn’t seemtooalarming?
Or, I don’t know. Maybe it does. I don’t have enough relationship experience to know one way or the other.
Adam probably just wanted time to regroup. For all I know, he’s camping on the ridge behind the rescue, meditating and doing sunrise yoga every morning and will be in touch next week when he feels like rejoining civilization.
To be fair, I have no idea if Adam camps or does yoga or meditates. Which just goes to show: I barely know this man.
We had an intense week. Anamazingweek. But it’s onlybeen a month since our first date. A month is a very tiny blip of time.
I want to see him. Talk to him. Hug him and ask him if he’s okay.
But unless I’m going to strap on my hiking boots and go find him, I don’t know what else to do butwait.
Percy, on the other hand, thinks I should be camped out on his porch demanding he talk to me.
“It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, Percy.”
