Page 64 of The Run Back Home

"Oh my God, just text him already!"

Dylan's voice pops out of nowhere. I sit up straighter in my chair, all my blood rushing toward my feet pressed against the vinyl flooring of the break room.

"Who?" I ask, surprised at how calm my voice stays.

Dylan hums. "Hmm, I don't know. Whatever guy's number you've been sitting here staring at for the last five minutes."

"I didn't even know you were in here," I admit.

"Right," she says. "Because you're staring."

"I'm not staring, I'm… contemplating."

"Mhmm, where'd you meet him? Was it out?" She grips the chair across from me and spins it so the back is pressed against the table before straddling the seat. "Len, I swear, if you finally went out and didn't take me with you I'll raid your apartment with bugs so you have no other choice but to ask to live with me for the rest of your contract, and then I'll haunt you in your sleep."

"Wow." I stare at her blankly. "That is… oddly specific."

She shrugs. "I have an active imagination."

I laugh and shake my head. "But the guy with the puppet took things too far…"

"Correct." She pops her gum and leans back in the chair.

"Well…" For the hundredth time, my finger hovers over Jace's name in my phone—Jace H. to be exact, because just "Jace" feels too… close. But Jace Holloway feels uncomfortably formal. "Don't worry—I haven't gone out without you. In fact, I haven't been out once since I got here, so…"

Dylan sits forward, resting her elbows on the table and tapping her fingers together excitedly. "Oh my God, this is perfect. This is literally why I came to find you."

"To discuss my lack of social life?"

"Nope." She wiggles her brows. "To fix it."

"Do I even want to know?"

"I met a new guy."

Now I sit forward, setting my phone on the table. "When?"

"Yesterday."