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I found a short woman standing there with globe eyes and the kind of smile that made my own smile turn genuine. Shesquealed and shook her hands in front of her, before diving at me and squeezing me.
I’d stopped being startled by uninvited physical contact from random strangers about a month afterWhat the What?had ended. I gave her a pat on the shoulder and pulled away.
“You were my favorite,” she said.“Aremy favorite. You should have won the whole thing. Glitter Galore was so fake.”
I’d heard this a billion times, too. “Actually, Glitter’s a lovely person, and a good friend. I’m over the moon for her.”
“Oh.”
I nodded.
“Well, I still think you should have won,” she said.
“Thank you.”
She stared at me, visibly trembling with excitement, and clearly at a loss for words.
“Would you like a selfie?” I asked.
“Of you?Yes.”She fumbled to pull her phone from her pocket, and aimed the camera at me.
I sidled up next to her, tilting my hips and chin for a good angle.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she said as the flash blinded us both.
“It’s nice to meet you…” I waited for her to offer her name.
“Sarah.”
“Sarah,” I repeated. “Tag me on Socialface when you post, all right?”
She nodded emphatically.
I gave her a small wave and turned to go. As I did, I caught a streak of gray and yellow from the corner of my eye. I centered my attention fully on Running Man as he zoomed past under the street lamps, using the sidewalk on the other side of the street.
It seemed he didn’t want a repeat of our last encounter, either. Perfect. That’s exactly how I wanted it. Detesting him asa person didn’t stop me from taking a moment to appreciate his toned calves, his thick thighs, or the delectable shape of his tight butt before continuing on my way.
Back at my apartment building, I slipped into the alley and around back. With a massive yawn and a roll of my shoulders, I flipped on my phone flashlight. I stopped beneath the awning outside my second-story window.
My tired brain wasn’t moving at top speed, but it was working well enough to realize something was off. It still took me a full two minutes to figure out what that something was.
Duh. The fixed metal ladder wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Had it…broken? It wasn’t even all that rusty.
I scanned the area in case it had somehow fallen.
It wasn’t on the ground. It wasn’t anywhere. It was simply gone.
The only thing in the alley beside a couple of crumpled boxes and a spilled bag of trash was the dumpster. Could the ladder be in there? I was ninety percent sure it was too big for that. For the extra ten percent of certainty, I took a quick peek inside. I found a gag-worthy stench, but no ladder.
Confusion sharpened into anger.
Maximhad removed the ladder to thwart me.
I wouldn’t let him win. No, I would thwart his thwarting.
There was only one course of action to take. I held my breath and climbed onto the lid of the dumpster. I reached for the awning, careful not to lose my footing.
I was about five feet off the ground, but the metal awning outside my window was still almost another me in height from my head, at least three feet from my grasp.
