“Yes, obviously,” I say. “Everyone knows that’s the only thing that works.” I shrug. “Maybe I’ll have the zip with him too.”
“Ooh, who are you unzipping?” Tina asks, appearing out of nowhere and sitting down next to Bryn.
“Why, yes, please join us, Tina,” I say, but I’m only giving her hell because I like her. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible not to like her. Bryn’s even coined a term for it—“the Tina effect.”
“She wants to unzip her internet boyfriend,” Bryn says, looking at me. “Or so she says.”
Tina cocks her head. “You have an internet boyfriend? Why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”
“I wanted to make sure he wasn’t secretly a troll with an addiction to furry porn before I announced our love to the world,” I say.
I’ll be honest, though, Hot Rod isn’t the one who had me using my vibrator last night.
Hot Rod isn’t the one who ties me into knots.
But he could be. It would solve your problems if you could fall for him.
“Solid approach,” Tina says, reaching out for a fist bump. I tap it with my own balled hand.
“When’s your friend coming for the interview with Nana and the producers?” I ask. “I have to warn you, Rowan spent two hours at her office last night, lowering the legs of the interviewees’ chair as an intimidation tactic.”
Bryn snorts. “Classic Nana.”
“Are you sure about this, Tina? There’s still time for him to turn back before he gets caught up in this dumpster fire.”
Tina doesn’t seem put off. She’s either confident in her friend’s ability to ignore passive aggression or in her ability to put Nana in her place if need be. “He already has it all arranged with them. He’s even taken off work on Friday to be here in time for the interview. I’m banking on this happening for him. I saw a clover in my tea leaves yesterday. Or maybe a cloud. That would be less good.” She scrunches her nose. “To be honest, I’m still not great at reading them.”
“I mean, is anyone?” I ask with a laugh.
She reaches a hand to the crystal around her neck. “You take that back. The woman who runs the original Tea of Fortune in Asheville is basically a wizard.”
“Maybe I should askherabout Hot Rod,” I say. “If she saw an animal in my leaves, I’d know I was dealing with a furry. Or a freak in the sheets.”
She laughs and then lowers her gaze to my teacup. “Can I take a look?”
“You just told her you’re no good at it,” Bryn says with an unladylike snort that does me proud.
“How am I going to get good if I don’t have any practice?” Tina asks, making a hand gesture that nearly knocks over the teapot.
I shrug, because I don’t really care, and push my emptyish teacup across the table to her. “Knock yourself out, Merlin.”
“I prefer Tina the Great,” she says with an impish smile. Zach’s coming up behind her, his dark hair stylishly mussed in a way that looks effortless but probably took time and effort to achieve. He’s handsome in a different way from Cole—more polished than raw.
“I’m sure you do,” he tells her, reaching over the top of her chair and mussing her hair.
“Party foul,” I say. “Women don’t like it when you mess with their hair.”
Fuck. As soon as the words leave my mouth, I’m thrown into a memory of Cole spearing a hand into my hair so he could move my head where he wanted it. That man, that man…
Hot Rod. You’re meeting Hot Rod.
“Are we interrupting something?” Tina asks me with a knowing look. “You seem to have gone somewhere just now.”
“I’m just imagining my future bliss with my internet boyfriend.”
Zach lifts his eyebrows, his mouth twitching with amusement. “You have an internet boyfriend?”
“What, you thought you were the only one who could solicit dates online?” I ask.
