Page 59 of Monsters, Vows, and Growls
“You told everyone I had lice.”
“You called me a Tinker Bell lookalike with bad bangs.”
Thorne huffed.He wasn’t wrong. Her bangs were an abomination.
I coughed into my drink. Ben, still smiling like a Labrador at a dinner party, said, “That’s adorable. Childhood rivals turned friends?”
Carol turned her head so slowly I thought I heard vertebrae crack. “Friends?”
“Well—sure,” Ben said, glancing between them. “I mean, right?”
Gabe raised a brow. “You think we’re friends, man?”
Ben blinked. “Aren’t you?”
Carol made a noise. I don’t know how to describe it. It was feral.Like someone had crossed a jungle cat with a microwave about to explode.
“I once put Icy Hot in his jockstrap,” she said casually, sipping her champagne.
Ben choked on his beer. “What?”
“Right before my first pro game,” Gabe added.
"You didn't." Ben's head swiveled to Carol, torn between admiration and horror.
Curiously, I leaned closer, not wanting to miss this. Thorne snorted.
He’s dead. She's going to eat him. I want a front row seat.
Carol shrugged. “Oh,” she said slowly, “don’t clam up now,McCloud.Tell him what you did. You cracked my login, scrolled througha minimum of twenty chapters, and quoted myfake mafia domcharacter on local television. Why?”
Gabe sipped his drink with the casual air of a man trying not to look like he was drowning. “It was research.”
Carol barked a laugh. “Oh my God. That’s what you’re going with?”
“You were a public figure.”
“I was ateenagerhiding under a pen name called S.J. Flame.”
Ben let out a squeaky sound. “Wait.You’reS.J. Flame?! The one with the mafia chef who?—”
Carol whipped around so fast, he choked on his own voice. “Finish that sentence, Ben, and I swear to God I will file for a restraining order before dessert.”
He held up both hands. “Nope. All good. Love your work.”
Thorne was wheezing inside me now.She’s going to bite someone. Maybe two someones. This is better than cake.
Gabe leaned back with an unreadable expression. “It wasn’t personal. I recognized the dialogue. That’s all.”
Carol narrowed her eyes. “Recognized it from what?”
Silence followed. Gabe, honest to God, looked like a man who was backed into a corner and knew it. Carol noticed it too. Her pointer finger went straight into his face, her eyes squinting. “From what, Gabriel?”
“I don’t remember,” he said too quickly.
“Oh, now you don’t remember?” she said, eyebrows launching into the stratosphere. “Was it the line about a girl getting hot with the mafia boss's son out at the lake?”
Ben leaned toward me and whispered, “I don’t know what’s happening, but I think I need to sit down.”
