Page 30 of Storm Bound
“I don’t buy that,” he sang.
“Well, it’s the damn truth,” I replied.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Luke said, and I grimaced, looking at my brother.
Did he know? How? Had Adam talked? Did the whole town know?
“First day at work. Awkward glances. Flirty chatter. Then boom!” He clapped his hands together and made both of us wince. “Tornado hits. So now they have to stay inside, together. More flirt. A little sexy talk. And boom!” He did the same thing. Only this time I didn’t wince. “They do the deed. And this is how their affair starts. But! They have to keep it secret and pretend they hate each other while they’re banging after hours. The end!”
“Ooh,” Rohan whistles. “Saucy.”
I put down my glass and frowned at my brother.
“You should write fanfiction, brother. You’ve got awildfantasy,” I tell him.
But wouldn’t I love for that to be the truth. However, the last thing I needed was for another doctor to tell me how unworthy and creepy I was. So, no,cherie. I’ll have none of that.
“I should. I really should. Maybe I’ll start tonight. What should I call you? Charvitz?”
“Nah, sounds like a Pokémon,” Rohan said.
“Adamie?” he suggested.
“That’s just weird.”
“You know what’s weirder? My brother joking about writing erotic fan fiction about his brother and his boss.”
Luke froze and slowly turned to stare at me. Then his body jerked, and he gagged.
“Oh God. What have I done?” He shivered.
Rohan laughed and drank his beer as Luke settled down.
“Do you really like that guy?” he asked.
“No,” I said straight away on instinct.
“He does. He just doesn’t want to admit it. You should have seen him salivating over him at the bus station,” Luke said.
“And? That was then, this is now. I. Don’t. Like him.”
Boy, did it feel blasphemous to utter those words, but I had to convince them,and myself, that I didn’t like him. Fake it ‘til you make it. Wasn’t that what people said?
Luke sniffed, turned his head, and grimaced.
“What is that smell?”
Rohan turned toward him and sniffed, too, when Luke’s eyes bulged.
“Oh, that’s right. Bullshit. That’s what I smell.”
Rohan punched his arm again.
“Dickhead. I thought you could smell a dead rat or something,” Rohan said.
“It’s not. I don’t like him,” I said.
Luke crossed his hands and stared.
