Page 77 of How To Not Need You

I bite into the shortbread. “You’re worse than Luca.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

Wren calls from across the room. “Can everyone please keep food away from Popcorn? He ate an entire biscuit last time and then spent twenty minutes telling Luca he was a ‘stupid fucker’ in a customer’s voice.”

Luca looks offended. “It was one biscuit.”

“It was enough to make him hyperactive.”

“He was just happy.”

“He spent twenty minutes running along the shelves screaming obscenities at customers.”

Adrian appears at my shoulder, coffee in hand, eyes on Luca and Ben, who are now adding another sticky note to the board.

“Resistance is pointless,” Adrian says. “Luca brings people together.”

I glance at him. “People?”

His eyes drift to Ben, who’s labelling something with a marker, tongue pressed against his teeth in concentration. “Strays, mostly.”

I look around the room. Mismatched chairs. An investigation board that makes us look clinically unwell. Wren trying to steal a hair tie back from Popcorn. Ben and Luca whispering about “phase two” like they're planning a military operation.

Liv is laughing with Harper. Elsie has a hand on Natalie's arm. Noah is drinking his beer beside me like this is all completely normal.

I guess that makes me one of the strays.

I'm surprisingly okay with that.

Harper clears her throat and the room quiets like she’s flipped a switch.

“Alright,” she says. “Let’s start with what we know.”

Ben stands, puffing his chest with pride. “The photograph Jake and I took has been pinned under SURVEILLANCE TEAM ALPHA.” He points to the cork-board, where our blurry windscreen shot of Rebecca and the man now sits in a section labeled in Ben’s aggressive handwriting.

My head turns. “We only did surveillance once!”

“Still makes us Team Alpha,” Ben says, completely unbothered, like the fact is obvious.

“It makes us two people who sat in a truck.”

“Semantics.”

Luca pats Ben’s shoulder. “He’s in denial about his true calling.”

I open my mouth to argue and catch Liv watching me from across the table, one eyebrow raised, the corner of her mouth tugging up. I close my mouth. She wins this one.

Natalie leans forward. Her voice is steadier than I expect, given what’s on the board in front of her.

“I know I said it before but I feel like I need to point out that the photograph isn’t enough.” She says it quietly. “Rebecca can explain away a hug. She’ll say it’s a friend, a coworker, someone having a bad day. Matthew already thinks I don’t like her.” Her fingers twist the edge of her sleeve. “If I go to him with weak evidence, she’ll use it. She’ll say I’m interfering. That I’m jealous. And he’ll believe her again because he wants to.”

I get it. Matthew already chose Rebecca's version more than once. If Natalie goes back with a blurry photo and a bad feeling, Rebecca doesn't even need a good excuse. She just needs one that's easier for him to believe.

They need something she can't explain away.

The room seems to think about it. Harper nods. Freya’s brow furrows. Luca looks like he’s mentally revising every plan he’s ever had.

Across the table, Wren stops scratching beneath Popcorn’s beak.