Page 86 of Vicious Arrangement
In my head, a little voice whispersbecause you’re acting like this, numbskull.
I know that, but it doesn’t make a difference.
Instead, I hit the screen with my thumb and almost drop her phone as it comes to life. She doesn’t have it locked or Face ID protected? What the hell? That’s dangerous. Any asshole, like me for instance, could get into it.
But I’m suddenly a madman. I go to her texts and scroll through the ones with Asher.
The ‘hey’ is perfectly normal. Apparently, Josh told Asher a joke and asked him to tell it to Aria.
Asher:Josh has a joke for you. What do cool horses eat.
This morning, she responded.I don’t know!
Asher:Hey.
So she must have left her phone behind. It’s innocent, but I keep scrolling like it’s crack and I’m the addict.
All they do is talk about me. Asher slides some questions in about Katie, but it’s mostly me.
Asher tells her not to give up on me. He says I’m a good guy who just finds it hard to trust, and I have walls. He goes on but it infuriates me.
I don’t need anyone, least of all Asher, to talk me up. I don’t want it. I know what I am and how I am. I know I’m no catch, not really, but it’s none of Asher’s fucking business.
I’m so incensed that I shove her phone in my pocket, call one of the Templeton cars, and I’m soon on my way to Brooklyn.
Fuck Asher. Fuck Aria. Fuck them both discussing me like I’m an object they found that, if they polish it, I’ll be worth something.
Fuck all that to hell and back.
Asher gapesat me as we stand in his kitchen, trying to get my breathing under control.
“Dude,” he says, “are you insane as well as being fucking stupid?”
I very well might be. The wordswhat the actual fuck are you doing here?pass through me for not the first time. “No?—”
“Because I’ll tell you something for free, and because I actually do love you like a brother, you’re family, Noah. If you keep this fucking stupid bullshit up, you’ll lose the best thing that’s ever happened to you. And she is. You know it. That’s why you’re being a walking candidate for the psyche ward.”
“Fuck you.” I glare at him. “Maybe if you didn’t keep shoving in where you don’t belong, things would be better.”
Asher starts laughing, goes to his fridge, and pulls out a cold brew, and for once, he doesn’t offer me any of that elixir he makes. It’s strong, rich, and hits just right, and I could go for that now. But he just opens the lid and sips the coffee inside.
“Better?” He shakes his head. “How? You run away leaving her confused. She asks me about you, and it’s getting hard defending you.”
“I’m not asking for you to defend me.”
“At this stage, you need the friend equivalent of a crack legal team to defend you.” He sets the cold brew down on the counter in his kitchen and leans back against it. “You’re fucking her, which seems to mean, without an agreement on what it means, that you’re into her.”
“Look—”
“Which I happen to know is true.”
“It isn’t, I’m just…” I try to find the right words, but it’s hard when Asher’s looking at me like I’m some kind of goddamn liar.
“You’re what? Not into her? Not caught a fucking giant case of the feels?” He crosses his arms. “Because, dude, I’ll tell you something for free. If you didn’t like her, or just wanted to bone her, and that’s it, the Noah I know would be cucumber cool, have a written contract where everything was written out in triplicate, and she knew exactly where she stood.”
“That’s not my point,” I say, but he shakes his head.
“You don’t have one, man.” He takes a breath. “If you didn’t like her, there’d be a prenup, there’d be rules. I think a part of you wanted to see.”
