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— Beta Boyfriends - Episode 23]

Maggie

Maybe running off to my own room and locking the door was the cowardly thing to do.

But I didn’t hear Silas knocking on it, either.

So, clearly, we both had our post-orgasm clarity regarding the whole situation. And we each came to separate, but similar, conclusions.

It was a mistake.

In the moment, it hadn’t felt like that, but that was all hormones. Once they were satisfied, it was easy for us each to see why it shouldn’t have happened.

I knew my reasons.

I didn’t know his.

So I lay awake most of the night wondering why he hadn’t even checked on me.

Did he have his fill of me?

Did he have concerns about our work relationship?

Or was it simply that he was reinforcing his boundary, making sure I didn’t do something stupid and catch feelings.

Too late a little voice whispered.

I went ahead and ignored that as I quietly snuck out of my room in the morning, not wanting to alert Silas that I was heading out without him.

After our little phone call in the bathroom, Tess and Margo had hit the road, driving while I was trying to sleep to catch up to us. Why, I wasn’t sure. Probably just to be in close proximity to the affair she’d been rooting so hard for.

She’d been uncharacteristically staid about me asking her to pick me up and us driving together for the last leg of the trip.

I knew it wouldn’t last. Maybe she and Margo had been distracted by coming up with a plan to attack me the second I got in the car. But I would take their prying interest over Silas’s cool indifference any day.

I left a note with the front desk to give to Silas, telling him that I caught a ride with Tess and Margo and would see him at the con.

Then, as soon as I saw Margo’s sleek vintage convertible pull up, I ran out into the sunshine like a coward, knowing Silas couldn’t follow me even if he knew I was running away.

Not that he would.

Clearly.

“Do you want me to drive?” I asked as Tess wordlessly took my bags and stuck them in the trunk alongside their absurd amount of luggage.

“Nope. I just woke up, so I’m going to take over. Margo might nap in the back, so you’re my passenger princess today.”

Margo was already climbing over the backseat and curling up with a unicorn-shaped pillow.

As for Tess, she contained herself long enough to adjust her seat, put the roof up, and pull away from the curb.

Before we were even out of the parking lot, she reached to turn down the music and shot me a penetrating glance.

“So, why are you pulling a walk of shame?”

“It’s not a walk of shame. It’s just…necessary.”

“What’d he do? Be specific. I need to know if it’s a shoots-under-the-nails kind of torture or a tie-him-to-a-tree-by-the-Styx-and-slather-him-in-meat-for-one-of-the-hellbeasts-to-devour kind.”