Page 71 of A Million To Fall

When the door shuts behind us, it clicks like a cell door.

twenty-five

Skye

“Actually, I think his name was Dillan. Or maybe Derek.”

I wedge my phone between my shoulder and ear while flipping through a stack of intake packets in search of a transportation waiver Valentina asked me for ten minutes ago.

“How do you not know his name?” I laugh, skimming the various forms held together by a pink paperclip.

“Because unfortunately for him, Boston Rawlings exists, and my brain apparently refuses to take up storage space for names of guys who are… not Boston Rawlings.”

I snort.

Somewhere to my left, chaos erupts—or erupts more—followed by a sharp blast of Boston’s whistle. Miraculously, the volume lowers by maybe three percent.

Progress.

“No, seriously,” Lily laments. “The guy was objectively hot. Tall. Tattoos—dumb ones, but still. Smelled really nice, which, you know, bonus. We even had a good convo going on. Everything was going great at dinner…”

“Until?”

“Until Boss walked by with a tray of mozzarella sticks.”

I blink. “What?”

“I’m telling you, the second I saw Boston, it was over for Mr. Smells-Nice. Like immediately over. Well, almost immediately. We did hook up after dinner.”

I laugh harder now, finally locating the missing paper.

“You’re telling me you knew at dinner that your date was a lost cause and you still hooked up with the guy? That’s actually insane.”

“No, what’s insane is that Boston somehow made carrying fried cheese look sexy.”

I believe that. I lean away from the counter and peek through the propped-open door into the belly of the gym, immediately spotting Boston. Not that he’s hard to find in the sea of people who are like half his height, but still. It’s almost alarming how instantly my eyes navigate to him.

“That sounds like a you problem,” I mutter.

“It is a me problem,” Lily groans. “I seriously can’t stop thinking about him. Guess I gotta just bite the bullet, pull on my big-girl panties, and finally ask him out.”

Something in my chest tightens strangely.

Annoyingly.

“Okay, well, did you at least let Darren know that he smells nice but not nice enough?”

Lily giggles. “See? Even you don’t know his name.”

“That’s because you’ve changed it four times.”

“I texted him this morning,” she says. “Told him I had a really good time, but I wanted to keep my options open.”

I nearly choke. “Lily!”

“What? I’m being honest. Plus, when I finally work up the courage to ask Boss out, I need to be emotionally available.”

Emotionally available.