AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hadn’t liked him invading my personal space, physically or mentally, so I’d done what I had to do. I had other friends. I didn’t need more. Especially not guy friends that I might hypothetically, possibly, maybe, be attracted to. It was a short road to misery, one I wasn’t eager to repeat.
Chapter 16 – Denver
The best villains are those who make you think you can trust them… right before they stab you in the back. That was Sadie last week. For a second there, I’d almost liked spending time with her. That was a gross error on my part, emphasis on gross.
Okay, that was juvenile of me. And untrue. Sadie was not gross. Oh, how I wished she was. More than a week had gone by being desk mates and we still were barely talking, but she caught me looking at her more often than I would have liked. Her laugh, though rare, sent a shiver of butterflies down my spine. And she had a set of dimples that would only appear if she smiled big enough to make her eyes crinkle. I was never the cause of one of those kinds of smiles.
Thankfully, work was getting more interesting. I had finally been given my first secret BFF assignment. The only bad part was Sadie being assigned as my partner for that, too. We’d both stared at Marcel and wondered what universe he lived in where that seemed like a good idea. But Sadie didn’t protest, so I didn’t either.
I had to admit, having a second perspective was helpful. Most of the time. Except, Sadie’s feedback was almost always followed up with warnings about not being myself. As if my personality wasn’t half the reason they’d hired me for this.
Ha. If anyone had defects in their personality, it was no-friends Sadie.
My assignment’s name was Hector. We’d chatted a little bit about his hopes and fears, what kind of women he usually dated (none) and what kind of woman he’d like to meet. Short and curvy was his type. Someone talkative, but okay with him being a little more reserved. And someone who liked cooking as much as he did.
Hector had been placed in the newsraider chat group, and it suddenly made sense why we’d been asked to keep tabs on them. I already knew every profile picture in there, and I had a few ideas about who he might like.
But first, I had to introduce myself to the group. I’d been instructed to use my real name in person in case I ran into someone I knew in real life, but I needed a generic username for the thread. Something utterly forgettable. I was a ghost. Jumping in and out as needed.
“What should my username be?” I asked, more to myself than Sadie.
“Good question. Let’s write down some options.” She grabbed a sticky pad and a pen and bit on the end of it thoughtfully.
“Nah, I got this. I’ll just be Denny.”
“Wait.”
“Nope, I’m going in.” Ignoring her frustrated pout, I typed out a goofy greeting, and immediately five users said hello in response. I started answering questions about myself like I was flying through a typing test, all while Sadie looked on in horror.
“I had no idea how torturous this was going to be for me.”
“Which part?”
“The... you part.”
“You mean the not-having-control part?”
“You’re shining too much, Denver.” She ran her hand in a circle in my general direction. “Shiny. You’re not supposed to be the star of the show. You’re supposed to be a sidekick. Where is Hector?”
“He said hello, too. Look, I’m about to throw him into this. But I can’t be obvious about it.”
After responding to everyone else, I typed out a response to Hector’s hello, mentioning that I’d never done any newsraiding either, and how we needed to ease ourselves into it. Perhaps that very weekend. Bingo. Suddenly, he was in the middle of plans to meet up in front of the Arizona Morning Show and then get breakfast together.
I stayed neutral on whether or not I would come. That was up to Hector. I’m sure money was a factor, since the more I helped him, the more add-ons it required for his account, but I wasn’t allowed to persuade him one way or another. My job wasn’t to upsell. Whatever Hector wanted was what he got, from a slight nudge, all the way up to in-person wingman help.
I jumped back into the discussion when it turned to what everyone should wear in order to recognize each other. One woman suggested bell bottoms and another one said she’d never pull it off. Oh, yes, she could.
Sadie groaned. “You can’t tell a woman she’d look good in anything! Flirting is not a good idea.”
“It’s not flirting. It’s you-go-girling.” I snapped my fingers in a Z, a move that had Sadie practically dying from second-hand embarrassment. Sending her over the edge was so easy. Most of the time I didn’t even have to think about it. “Besides, some women never hear how beautiful they are.”
“Yes, they do. Dudes on Instagram tell them all the time.”
“Very funny. This is not remotely like that.”
“Oh yeah, Denny? You’re exactly who you say you are?”
“Shh.” There was a stream of messages going back and forth, and I was trying to keep up. The guys didn’t want to wear bell bottoms. Hector messaged me, concerned about where he would even find them. I promised to steer the group in another direction and was about to do so when the woman I’d complimented tagged me and asked if I wanted to be her date for the weekend. She said I’d look excellent in a pair of bell bottoms if my profile picture was anything to go off of.
