Page 15 of Double Delivery
Tripp tilted his head to the side and studied me for a few seconds. Then he laughed. “I’m not exactly the smartest guy. I didn’t struggle in school, but I didn’t do great either. College seemed like a stretch, and I was kind of done with it all anyway. None of the trades seemed appealing, and I didn’t want to do retail or restaurant work. I needed to work, though. So I started in the warehouse right after high school, saw that a lot of the drivers tended to have stable jobs, and managed to get promoted to driver not long after I turned twenty-one. Been doing it ever since.”
“How long has it been?” I asked, trying to get a better idea of his age.
Tripp hummed. “About eight years.” He then grinned and leaned in. “Which makes me twenty-nine. And how old are you?”
“Busted!” Axel burst into laughter as heat crawled up my face.
“Thirty-one,” I muttered.
“Thirty-two,” Axel stated. “Before you ask.”
I pinched my nose, trying to regain my composure, then righted my glasses again. “And you? What made you want to do deliveries?”
Axel shrugged. “My parents are working class. They always kept food on the table, and we had a few nice things. They tried to take us on a road trip every year or so. But it was always clear that I would have to pay my own way for college. When I was younger, I thought it would be the way out. Then my older sister went. I watched her take out loans, despite several scholarships. She went to a state school and graduated on time. But she still had a lot of debt and struggled to find a job that paid enough.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want that. So I started working out of high school, and I took some community college classes just in case I changed my mind. But… like Tripp, I saw a fairly stable job with decent pay. I applied and got hired as a driver at twenty-two.”
“Do you guys like it?”
Tripp laughed. “It’s a job. There’s good and bad. The pay is ok, and I don’t have to sit in a cubicle all day. I like driving, which helps.”
Axel nodded. “I’ve been doing it for a decade, so I must not hate it.”
I chuckled. “Makes sense.”
“So what do you do, besides make art?” Tripp asked.
I smiled and pushed up my glasses. “I like video games and cheesy old sci-fi movies.”
One of Axel’s eyebrows rose. “What kind of games?”
“Usually RPGs and cozy games. I have a hard time with shooters.”
“Have you playedSilverscribe?”
“The wait for the next chapter is killing me!”
Axel nodded. “Same, but I’d rather they take their time and do it right. I get tired of companies rushing out buggy updates.”
“That’s true,” I sighed.
“At least they get them out quick,” Tripp added. “I’ve played games that take a year or more between chapters.”
Both Axel and I turned.
“You play it too?” Axel asked.
Tripp laughed. “It’s one of the best games of the year! Of course I’m playing.”
I grinned as my alphas started discussing some of their favorite game strategies.
What had started as a covert operation to learn more about them had turned into an actual opportunity to ask directly.
My only regret was wearing a scent blocker.
Chapter 10 - Axel
Itook a gulp of my energy drink, rubbed my eyes, and started my truck.
