Page 109 of So That Happened

I glance in Barb’s direction. She’s swaying dangerously as she talks to Jamal. “Yeah, no. I’ll call Barb an Uber.”

Annie follows my gaze from under her hair knot and chuckles. “Good call. I guess I can get an Uber, too? Or the bus?”

I love how she makes these sentences questions… like she knows we can come up with a better plan.

“I’ll drive you.”

“Don’t you have to get home to Legs?”

I smile. “Lana Mae’s home, remember? I’m back at my place.”

Annie’s mouth pops open. “I just realized I have no idea where you live.”

I try to hold back a smile. “Is that surprising? People don’t often know where their bosses live.”

“You know whereIlive.”

Touché.I nod, eyes on hers. “True. I live in Midtown.”

“But that’s, like, the opposite direction.”

“I like to take the scenic route.”

Annie’s lips twitch. “There is no scenic route.”

I run my eyes over her pink cheeks and glittering eyes. “There most definitely is.”

Behind her head, Luke points at Annie, then points at me, and makes an obscene gesture.

I flip him off before unhooking the last strand of Annie’s hair from her harness. In the process, my fingers accidentally brush her cheek, and she sucks in a breath. The sound makes my insides flip.

“Annie and I can Uber together,” Vanessa says brightly, popping up beside us with her heels in her hand.

“Nah, I’ll take her.” I try my best to sound casual.

“But I…”

“I’ll take her,” I repeat, this time in my boss voice. The one that says “that’s final.”

Vanessa stops arguing.

Luke mimes giving himself a high-five. I swear, who agreed to marry this idiot?

“Let’s get out of here,” Annie says as she shakes out her hair and tosses her harness in the returns bin.

It’s cold out this evening, and when we get to my car, I crank the heat. We sit for a moment while the air circulates, blowing her sweet ocean scent around the vehicle.

Great. I’ll just refrain from breathing for the foreseeable future. No big deal.

We pull onto the main road and sit in silence for a few minutes. Not a comfortable silence, but the tense, almost electrical silence you can physically feel.

“Annie, I—” I say at the exact same moment as she says “Liam.”

We look at each other.

“You first,” I offer.

She nods. Swallows. “About what happened…”