Page 6 of Hidden

“Talk to Leif. Leif. Do it,” he mutters just before Callie tosses him out on his ass.

The door closes. Life slams back into me, and I stumble half a step into the wall. The cold of the cinderblock through the silk is the first thing I have felt in a full minute.

He is gone. I want him back. I don’t know which of those sentences scares me more.

Callie walks back to me slowly. “You good?”

“No.”

“Yeah. Clocked thenobefore you said it.” She looks me up and down, and plasters on her diagnosis face. “You almost licked his neck.”

“I know.”

“In front of God and George.”

“I know.”

“You haven’t almost-anything-ed in two years.”

“Two and three months.”

“Counting?”

“Not counting.”

“Sure.” She loops her arm through mine.

“What now?”

“Now?” She tugs me along. “You drink.”

Chapter Two

“You look sick.”Callie jams her finger on the elevator button as she side-eyes me.

I try to just look over her head and pretend what just happeneddidn’t. I’m not that much taller than Callie, but it’s enough to pretend I don’t see her giving me a dirty look.

And I also pretend not to hear her cursing at me as we walk into said elevator.

“It was peculiar,” I finally say to her.

Peculiar. The word arrives in my mouth wrong-sized, like a coat from somebody else’s closet. Peculiar is what you call a missing earring or an off-tasting wine. Peculiar is not what you call a man asking when your last period was while you tried to lick his neck. I know this. I say it anyway. I can’t find the right word and the wrong word is what comes out.

I lean back in the same spot I was in earlier. Only this time I want the guy to come back.

Which makes less sense than kicking him out. That makes sense.

Callie doesn’t answer. She reaches up, she has to reach, I am taller than her and in heels, and she tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear that I did not know had come loose. Her fingersare cool as they linger for a moment. Probably secretly checking for a fever.

“When was the last time you got laid?”

The doors open far too soon.

“Barnaby this morning, five a.m.” My favorite vibrator.

I follow her out and pause. Her security station is nowhere near where I need to go but I also don’t want to just walk away from my bestie yet.

Probably the unhealthy attachment I have to her. I’ll walk away and then text her immediately, or call. Only mildly unhealthy.