He cut off his thoughts there. No, they weren’t in a relationship. They were keeping things casual, nothing serious.
Except it hadn’t felt that way to him lately. Max wasn’t sure it ever felt that way to him.
Rashid waved a hand in Max’s face, disrupting his thoughts.
“You look like you need another beer,” Rashid said.
“No, I think I should call it,” he said, pushing back from the bar. He reached into his pocket for his wallet and dropped two twenties on the bar.
“There’s no way these beers cost that much,” Rashid said, looking up at him.
“Get yourself another,” Max said, clapping his friend on the back. “You earned it.”
“Wow, an extra beer for my hard work? Is that all?”
Max rolled his eyes. “I pay you way over the market rate,but if this is your way of pushing for a raise, write down a number on a piece of paper and slide it across my desk tomorrow like a real adult.”
Rashid barked out a laugh and waved as Max left the bar, his head still filled with thoughts of Stella.
Twenty-Nine
Although Stella was even more committed to not using Sparky, thanks to Effie’s high praise, Stella also didn’t actually want to be stuck in the office all week.
So on Tuesday, Stella switched her methodology. Instead of second-guessing herself, she started posting every idea she had, without hesitation. These ideas included:
“Tell Us Your Favorite Color, and We’ll Tell You What K-Drama You Need to Watch”
“Child Protective Services Should’ve Been Called on the Parents inThe Parent Trap—Here’s Why”
“Twelve Song Lyrics That Make No Sense but Kind of Also Do”
“Ten Zodiac Sign Pairings That Should Totally Be Together—and Ten That Absolutely Should Not”
That last one was her favorite because she knew next to nothing about astrology so she made arbitrary guesses that probably made no sense. She was confident she’d get a lot of hate from that one, but clicks were clicks.
By Wednesday Stella was zooming, and she surprised herself by getting her twentieth post up right before five.
“Done?” Effie asked.
She’d finished her last post around noon but had stuck around to keep Stella company. Stella supposed she didn’t need to get new friends after all.
“Yes,” Stella said.
She shut down her computer and pushed away from her desk, the feeling of sweet freedom finally settling upon her. Stella had earned herself a four-day weekend, and she couldn’t even begin to decide what she wanted to do first.
Okay, that was a lie. She was going to text Max, obviously.
He had respected her need to focus and had only texted her a few times to wish her luck in the form of ridiculous motivational memes that made her laugh. They also inspired one of her posts, “Fifteen Memes to Get You Through the Week.”
“So shall we go celebrate?” Effie asked as they made their way out of the building. “Or are you going to ditch me for your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Stella said flatly. “At least, I don’t think so.”
Effie turned to her. “You don’t think so?”
“We haven’t exactly put a label on things.”
Effie took Stella’s arm, pulling her back into the lobby.
