Page 25 of Fighting For You

"I'm taking it slowly," I said. "We've only just met. I don't want to come across as a creep."

Andy nodded. "Friends first. That's good. That's respectable."

I turned my glass on the table. "She's looking for a place to stay. For her and her brother."

Andy sat forward. "Barb has a rental. I think she only rents to women, but we can ask her. She might know other renters too."

"That would help. Thank you."

By the third round, the pool game was done and the table was full again. Travis had his chair tilted back. Greene was peeling the label off his bottle. Carl pulled out his phone and opened a new note.

"Alright. Jill wants me to get everyone's birthdays."

"For what?" Travis dropped into the chair next to him, still holding his pool cue.

"She says it's ridiculous that I don't know them."

Andy looked around the table. "Hold on. You all spend almost every day together, and you don't know each other's birthdays?"

"I know all of them," Travis said.

"You do not," Greene said.

"Try me."

He went around the table one by one. Wyatt, Greene, Carl. He got every single one right.

Then he stopped at me.

"I don't know yours." He said it like this was a wound that had never healed. "I have asked you at least four times."

"And I haven't told you."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not a sixteen-year-old girl."

"What does being sixteen have to do with knowing your friends' birthdays?"

Travis held up a finger. "Fine. I'll go through Thompson's personnel files."

I looked at him. "You're going to break into confidential employee records?"

Wyatt was smiling into his beer. Andy had her chin in her hand, watching like this was the best entertainment she'd had in weeks.

"I don't think you're stupid enough to try that," I said.

Travis opened his mouth, closed it, and pointed at me.

"That is the problem, Sullivan. I am exactly that stupid."

The table laughed. He pointed at me again as he stood up.

"I will know your birthday by the end of this year."

I took a drink and didn't give them a thing.

CHAPTER 7