Page 67 of Alive At Night

“I’m going to buy out their entire stock so you can’t torture me with it anymore.”

“I regret saying that you were being too nice.” She sniffed, pursing her lips. “Why did you even volunteer to be my date?”

“Because I didn’t want anyone else to.”

The words were out before I could stop them, but I wasn’t sure how much I cared.

Noah taking her to this wedding was a ridiculous idea, and I didn’t know why we had ever run with it. He barely knew Juniper, had probably only wanted to see if he could sleep with her, and likely wouldn’t have stuck around afterward. It had been a shit idea. And setting her up with anyone else would have been a shit idea, too.

Whilethisidea was still absolutely a bad one, it was better than all the others that didn’t involve, well, me.

“Anyone else?” Juni questioned. “You mean any of your other friends, right?” When I failed to answer that question, she added, “I think you’re just afraid they’re going to get to know me and realize they like me better than you.”

“No, Rosie,” I grunted. “That’s not it.”

“No? Then maybe I should have asked Cameron.” She paused. “Although the professional boundaries would have been a definite concern.”

My grip on the wheel tightened at the mention of Cameron. “Professional boundaries?Weshare an office. And here I am.”

But she hit the nail on the head on the second reason I shouldn’t be doing this. Whatever happened this weekend, I still had to share an office with Juni for the foreseeable future. And I liked working at Gardner Law. Despite how often I perused job ads these days, I didn’t really want to get a new one.

“Our boundaries aren’t the same, and you know it.”

I did know. I fucking knew it all too well, and I doubted it was a good thing.

“Why is it important that you bring a date anyway?” I asked, changing the subject. “I obviously understand not wanting to go alone, but why do you want Sofia to think you’re in a relationship?”

Juniper snuggled lower into her seat, crossing one leg over the other. “Different question, please,” she said.

After quick consideration, I didn’t ask a different question. I really wanted to know the answer to this one. So I waited, tapping my finger on the steering wheel and keeping my eyes on the road.

Eventually, Juniper sighed. “Look, I’m well aware that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being a single woman. There are many, many impressive single people in this world.”

“Yes.” I side-eyed her purposefully. “Yes, there are.”

“But…”

Juni hesitated. Meanwhile, I trained my eyes back on the road, hoping it would make it easier for her to find words. But then a booming male voice broke through the silence in the car, cutting off whatever Juni might have said. And shocking the hell out of me.

“Georgia leaned back on the bed, spreading her legs wide. I sat back on my knees, taking in her glistening pussy, wet and waiting for me. Fuck, she was gorgeous. And she looked at me with those eyes—”

“Shit, shit, shit,” Juni muttered as she fumbled with her phone. “That was not what I—”

“By all means,” I half yelled, half laughed over the man telling me exactly how he planned to fuck some lady named Georgia, “don’t turn it off on my account.”

“I’mtrying—ah, there.”

The car abruptly fell quiet again—quiet enough that I could hear the tires spinning on the highway beneath us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Juniper glance sheepishly toward me.

“That was, uh, supposed to be a diversion,” she admitted before that familiar twinkle brightened in her eye. “Plus, I know how much you were looking forward to listening to my audiobooks.”

The ridiculousness of it all made me laugh again, harder this time. I’d known she spent her lunch hours listening to audiobooks; the cadence of the narration was just loud enough to make out. And while her reaction yesterday made me wonder exactly what she thought I overheard, I hadn’t imagined it would bethat.

“Well planned,” I said. Except it wasn’t, of course. Juni looked slightly mortified that the book had picked up in that spot, and meanwhile, it diverted me to my next line of wondering, one I knew she wouldn’t like anymore. “I think you should let the scene finish. Ya know, to give me a better idea.”

“A better idea?”

“Of what my fake girlfriend likes.”

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