Page 49 of Texts From My Exes
“You’re insane.”
I held out my fist. “One… two… three.”
We both threw scissors.
“Again.”
“Cheater,” she hissed, fist pumping.
Second round. She threw paper, I threw rock.
“Yes!” She pointed dramatically. “You kill it.”
“Unbelievable.” I shoved off the couch, muttering under my breath, and grabbed the nearest magazine. One whack and the spider was nothing but a smear.
When I turned, Harper was peeking over the couch arm like a traumatized meerkat.
“All clear, princess,” I said dryly.
She sagged in relief, then smirked. “See? Was that so bad?”
I rolled my eyes, but my pulse was still too fast from the way she’d jumped when I leaned in. From the way she was looking at me now, like maybe she’d wanted me closer before the arachnid apocalypse.
She was still perched on the couch cushions, grinning smugly like she hadn’t just made me risk my life against a nickel-sized spider.
“See?” she said. “Youcantouch things other than your laptop.”
I tossed the magazine onto the table and leaned against the back of the couch, closer than I should have. “Careful. Keep pushing and I might prove it.”
Her smile faltered, just slightly. Our eyes locked.
The air shifted—heavy, charged. She wasn’t laughing anymore. Neither was I.
I reached up, brushed a strand of hair from her face. Her breath caught. She leaned the tiniest bit closer.
God, she was right there.
My mouth was inches from hers when?—
BANG.
A car door slammed outside. Voices carried up through the thin windows, followed by the pop of a camera flash.
Harper jerked back like she’d been burned, clutching a throw pillow to her chest. I scrubbed a hand down my face, biting back a curse.
So close. Too close.
“Spider’s dead,” I muttered, reaching for my laptop like it was armor.
But my pulse was still racing, my skin still buzzing where I’d touched her.
And all I could think was that the spider hadn’t been the real danger at all. I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me, it was expectant and it wasn’t fair, we were in survival mode right now but what happened when it all ended? What happened when she got what she wanted and the cameras died off and it was just us and our Chinese food? Was I hoping for too much?
“Look, Harper, we should?—“
My phone started to buzz from the table.
I didn’t want to look at it. He had been calling multiple times a day and I’d been ignoring as much as possible and answering in very short texts. He said we were boring, the dates weren’t lasting long and that people now thought me and her had been dating all along. Funny, since two days ago they thought we were faking it. Didn’t he know it was impossible to make everyone happy?
