MADDIE
“It’s getting late,” Piper said, yawning. “I gotta go, or my dad will be pissed.”
“Already?” Vera sighed. “It’s only eight.”
“She’s going to meet her man,” I added with a wink. “Give him a quickie under his desk.”
She playfully rolled her eyes and threw a smirk my way. “I am not.”
After grabbing her belongings, she slipped out my bedroom door. A couple of moments later, I watched her walk down the front walkway to her car parked in the driveway, and I turned on my desktop computer.
Vera rolled onto her stomach on my bed and put in her earbuds. Vera and I were best friends, but we didn’t need to do everything with each other while we were together. It was a certain kinda ease I had with her compared to everyone else.
I opened Vapor, an online marketplace for video games, and scrolled through the games I had bought but hadn’t played much yet. When I spotted Alec Wolfe online in my friends list, I clicked on the game he was playing.
“So,” Vera asked, turning down the pop-punk music blasting through her headphones that bad-boy Blaise Harleen must’ve turned her on to the past couple of months that they’d been a thing, “I kinda wanna open a bookstore one day.”
“What’re you gonna call it?” I giggled. “The Smut Shoppe?”
“Um, excuse me!” Vera said, her hand over her heart, as if she were offended. A smile crossed her face, and then she continued typing on her laptop. “You know, maybe. That’s a good one.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, loading into the game Raid of Durnbone with my half-succubus, half-wolf avatar. “Now, I’d like fifty-one percent of the business for coming up with such a stellar name for you.”
“How about no?” Vera said, laughing. “But I’m serious though. I would love to open a bookstore and write all day long. I just don’t think I would be able to do it alone. Do you think Sakura would want to join me?”
I paused my game and scoffed. “What about me?”
She waved dismissively in my direction. “You’ll be off in new cities every night with your future husband, Mads. You won’t have time to run an entire bookshop with me. I was thinking of Sakura because she likes literature and is probably going to stay in the New England area because … Mr. Avery works here.”
“Yeah, but does she like smut though?” I asked.
“Who doesn’t?”
“True.”
“You know, it’s funny that you didn’t comment on the fact that you’re going to marry Alec.”
“What?”
She giggled. “I said that you’ll be at hockey games with your future husband, and it completely passed over your head, like you expect that to be in your future too, Miss Maddie Weber-Wolfe. MWW.”
I rolled my eyes, cheeks tinting red, and returned to my game. “I just misheard you.”
I didn’t even want anyone to know about Alec and me. How the hell would we ever marry? Besides, I liked him, but this was more of a high school crush, a fling that probably wouldn’t last through college. Not many relationships did.
But the mere thought of that made my stomach turn.
Once Vera turned on her music and continued typing out her latest smutty novel on her laptop, I invited Alec to join my party in Raid of Durnbone, hoping that I didn’t look too desperate. I hadn’t talked to him much today, mainly because I didn’t want anyone to become suspicious that I liked him after my episode at hockey practice.
He sent me an invite to join his Discord call.
“Hey,” he said, his deep voice drifting through my headset.
“Hi,” I said softly so Vera wouldn’t hear me.
Because if she did … God, I wouldn’t hear the end of it. She’d be gushing to me all damn night about how I was now playing video games with Alec Wolfe. How I was destined to marry him and have his babies.
“Uh, I just wanted to let you know that my test results came back a couple of hours ago,” he said, nervousness building in his voice. “And I’m negative for everything that they tested me for. So …”
“So we can have sex.” I giggled. “Is that why you called me?”
“No, it wasn’t. I was just …” He paused. “I thought you might want to know.”
“Well, thank you.”
“And I wanted to ask you something else … about hockey.”
“What is it?” I asked, running around the map with my avatar.
“You coming to the game tomorrow night?”
“I don’t think I’ve missed a hockey game for the past five years, Wolfe. I’ll be there.” I followed his avatar through the creature-filled town to the trinket shop to buy goods. “Are you going to play?”
“Probably.”
I paused. “Are you okay enough to play?”
“I think so.”
“Nobody is pressuring you, are they?”
“Damn, you sound like my mom.”
“Sorry,” I whispered. “I just …” Care about you.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said quickly. “I know that you …”
We were the most awkward couple—were we a couple? I still wasn’t clear on that—in existence. We both stayed silent for a few moments until he cleared his throat.
“I, um, talked to my coach today.”
“You did?”
“He said that you … talked to the guys during practice yesterday.”
My cheeks warmed, my words catching in the back of my throat. “Oh, um, about that …” I chewed on the inside of my cheek, attempting to find an excuse that I could use to get me out of this one.
I mean, I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I couldn’t hold myself back last night. I was fuming with anger that every one of those assholes had laughed at him and taken a damn video of that shit, then leaked it!
“Listen, I didn’t mean to flip out on them,” I said, chest tightening. “I’m sorry if I got you in trouble. I just … God, I care about you so much, Alec. I don’t want anyone hurting you right now. It’s hard after … something like that happens.”
He stayed quiet for a long time, and then I could hear the smile on his face. “Why are you apologizing to me, Cupcake? That was … the most caring thing anyone has ever done for me. I don’t know how to repay you.”
“How to repay me?” I repeated. “You don’t have to do that.”
“What if I take you out on a date this weekend?”
“A date?” I whispered, heart racing at the thought.
“A date.”