Page 29 of Alive At Night

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Juniper was arranginga tray of muffins when I walked into our office the following day.

“Let me guess,” I grumbled, “Cameron told you that he was a big fan of the Mighty Muffin or something.”

“No.” Juniper scoffed like it was absolutely ridiculous of me to suggest that. “This ismyfavorite bakery.”

“Dirty Desserts?”

“What? No.”

“Naughty Kneads?”

“Julian.”

“Creative Cream Pies?”

“Oh my God. It’s just called Georgia’s Bakery,” she huffed. “Grow up, Julian.”

“You’re the one who keeps buying breakfast foods as a way to flirt with someone.” I threw my stuff on my chair. “By the way, can you stop flirting with my friends? It’s getting annoying.”

“Oh!” Juniper jumped a little. “That reminds me. I’ve been talking to Noah all morning.”

A knot formed in my stomach as she grabbed her phone, intent on showing me the evidence. But I couldn’t care any fucking less about what she and Noah had been talking about.

“What do you meanall morning?” I glanced at my watch. “It’s eight o’clock.”

I’d been awake for less than an hour.

“Not everyone rolls out of bed at the last minute, Julian.”

Sighing, I dropped into my chair and pulled out my laptop. “I don’t know why they don’t.”

“It’s called productivity,” Juniper chirped, now staring down at her phone as she scrolled through what I assumed were messages with Noah. “Have you heard of it?”

“Have you?” I gave her a pointed look. Which, of course, she didn’t see because she wasn’t paying me any actual attention. “It’s business hours, and you are astonishingly off task.”

Juniper’s eyes found mine as she swiped a curl out of her face to glare properly. “You just walked in the door, and I’ve been here for a half hour already. So I don’t think you’re really one to talk.”

She never fucking gave it up, did she? Never had, either.

Shaking my head, I focused on my computer. Maybe I didn’t come in early or bring in food and drinks to kiss ass, but when I was at work, I got shit done.

Except it was pretty hard to do that when Juniper’s phone went off every three minutes. I considered texting Noah about giving it a goddamn rest, but bugging Juniper was more accessible.

“You’re going to have to put that on silent, Daisy.”

“I’m telling him I can’t talk anymore,” she said, not even looking up from her phone. Rude, if you ask me. Her peach nails kept tap-tap-tapping. “I have a lot to get done today.”

I watched her text Noah for a second before letting my curiosity get the best of me. “So you actually figured out what to say to him, huh?”

Juniper put her phone on the desk and focused on me.Finally. “Well, it was easy after last night. I just texted him this morning and told him it was nice to meet him and he played a great game.”

Yeah, that’d do it. Noah loved any chance to get a fucking compliment. I was sure he was all over that.

I nodded, shoving down the odd itch to ask more. Hopefully, Noah wasn’t acting too forward. He tended to do that, and Juniper had said she wanted the date to befake.Considering Noah’s interest last night, I hoped she led with that.

Maybe I should check.

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