Page 25 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

“Duh, of course. And yeah, some of them have totally got cars in them. I bought wine too. Do you want wine?”

“I’ll pass.”

“I’m allowed to drink it legally now, you know. That was my twenty-first birthday dinner the other night.”

“I’m driving.”

“You could get a cab. Or…” She looked me up and down, smiling. “Or you could just stay the night.”

She didn’t mess around, did she? “I’m almost a decade older than you.”

“With age comes experience.” Another giggle. Had she started on the wine already? “That’s what they say, isn’t it?”

“If we could just see the photos…”

“I’ll get you a soda first. And nibbles. Do you like pretzels? I have, like, four different kinds plus two flavours of chips.”

“I’d better lay off the snacks. I’m…” Fuck. “I’m meeting my boyfriend for a late dinner after I’m done here.”

Brittney’s eyes widened so much they were in danger of popping out. “You’re gay?”

“Sorry.”

“Wow. Not even a little bit straight?”

I struggled to keep from laughing.

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“Really? Because my friend Marcia had a three-way with these two guys and—”

Stop. Talking.I held up a hand. “Brittney, the photos? Please?”

“Ohyeah. The photos.”

She hitched her top up and sashayed over to a cheap-looking dining table—chipboard and plastic, not wood—and took a seat in front of her laptop. Another not-quite-legal purchase?

“Here we are when we arrived. Travis drank half a bottle of Jack Daniels before he left home, and he wassotrashed. Monica said he might get kicked out, so we squashed him into the corner out of the way. See?”

“You’re a student?” I asked, even though research had already told me the answer.

“How did you guess?”

I pointed at the pile of study notes on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

“Oh, right, yeah. I’m a student.”

“What are you studying?”

“Communications.”

Heaven help us all.

“A worthy subject. Now, I’m only really interested in the pictures with cars in them. The ones you took down by the Luigi’s sign.”

“Right. You said that yesterday, didn’t you?”

Have a gold star. “I did.”

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