Page 20 of Miss Belief

“Guess I had some residual questions.”

“How about you? Who was your first time?”

It wasn’t relevant to our whole fake dating scheme, but I thought it was only fair to reciprocate. “Johnny Mills in tenth grade. I was rebelling, and it was nothing worth remembering except that it was my first.”

“Anyone serious for you?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I had a high school boyfriend for, like, three months.” Before I’d realized he was too ashamed of me to tell people we were dating. “Guess I’m not one for commitment.” Because commitment meant trusting someone wouldn’t leave. It meant being vulnerable. And it meant there was a good chance they’d let you down in the end.

“See? One more reason this arrangement is perfect.”

Right. Because he wouldn’t have to worry about me getting attached. My eyes wandered around his apartment, looking for a lifeline, anything to change the subject. “Is that a game controller?” I could see it under his television and was instantly curious. But I was even more surprised by the way he reacted.

He jumped up as if the discovery was offensive and quickly shoved the device into a drawer.

I caught a glimpse of a gaming system before he got the drawer shut again. “Do you have an Xbox?”

He turned, his face red. “Yeah, but I don’t play it. Much.”

“Right. You just leave the controller out.” I was up and pulling the drawer open before he could stop me. In it was an Xbox, a headset, and two controllers. When I opened another drawer, it revealed a number of games.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re extremely nosey?”

I threw a grin over my shoulder. “All the time. Care to revise your earlier statement about not playing much?”

His face was still red. “It’s to kill the solitude, ya know.”

I took out two controllers. “I do know. Now pick your poison. Which game should we play?”

He stared at me. “You want to play?”

“I’d love to.” I’d always wanted a video game system while growing up, but it was a luxury we couldn’t afford. “I may not be very good.”

He seemed to relax. “I’ll teach you.”

I decided to let go of my mission to find a turnoff and just give in to the moment. Getting over my crush would have to wait for another day, because discovering this secret side of Reid was definitely not doing it.

Two hours later we’d gone through all of Mortal Kombat, and currently I was getting my ass kicked in some kind of survival game. We spent the entire afternoon laughing while he taught me all the moves and tricks of the games. “Sure, you hardly play. You’re a gamer, Reid Maxwell.”

His adorable face heated yet again, making me put the controller aside.

“Yet, you’re weirdly embarrassed about it. Why?”