AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I freeze, my fork midway to my mouth. Inviting him out with me and Laney was probably a terrible idea. She’s obnoxious at times. But I asked, and he said yes, so we’re in it now.
‘Next week? I sort of invited him to the movie with us to pay him back for last night.’
‘Pay him back for what?’
‘The advice. And pie, drinks, appetizers, and the Uber ride home.’ I shove the halted bite into my mouth so I can’t keep talking. Why is talking about River making me uncomfortable? I don’t want to tell them about our conversations.
Dad clears his throat before sipping his coffee and changes the subject. ‘Any new emojis?’
‘Just a couple of question marks on some I sent, which I will not reveal because they may have suggested something dirty.’
That’s right, Conner didn’t understand River’s emojis, or at least he pretended he didn’t. This whole thing is stupid. Like a fight you’d have with a boy in middle school. I grab my phone from my purse to glance at what I sent back to his confusion.
‘What are the most recent you’ve sent?’ Laney asks. If she could take my phone and do this for me, she’d love it. But since I won’t allow that, I have to explain or she really will continue to pry for information until she has it.
‘Praying hands, a phone, a swearing face, wind, and a black hole.’
‘Which means?’ Laney asks.
‘Uh, praying you call so I can swear at you, ya blowhole.’
A laugh bursts from Dad, filling the whole room and turning some heads. ‘That’s a good one, though if he didn’t understand the dirty stuff, he’ll never get that message decoded. What was his response?’
‘Stop sign, hospital.’
‘Let me see that thing,’ Laney says, snatching the phone from my hand and tapping the screen frantically.
‘Laney, no.’ I reach for my phone but she pulls it away from me.
‘Trust me…’ she insists, but I do not trust her in this scenario. When she’s done, she hands the phone to our father, who pulls his reading glasses from the neckline of his shirt to see better.
‘Sword, heart, man, coffin, and she signed off with my name. Perfect,’ he says sarcastically. ‘I’ve just threatened to kill a guy without saying the words. I’m sure that won’t come back and bite me in the ass.’ He’s amused, though. His tone says he’s proud, and his nod confirms it.
‘Laney!’
‘What?’ she asks as if innocent. ‘He didn’t respond to the thing I shan’t say aloud because our dad is in the room, so maybe he’ll respond to a death threat from him.’
Shockingly, my phone rings almost immediately. Both Dad and Laney glance at the screen where Conner’s contact flashes. I throw up a finger, toss my napkin onto the table. Grab my phone from where Dad set it on the table, and bolt out of the restaurant to the parking lot.
‘Hello?’ I answer as if I don’t know who it is.
‘What the hell?’
‘My God, Conner. You’re alive! I thought maybe you’d been kidnapped and were trying to get help via emojis. But you’re fine?’ Yes, I’m putting on a bit of a show. My tone is angry and a little mixed with shock that Laney was finally the one to smoke him out of silence.
‘You thought I’d been kidnapped? We talk every day.’
‘No, we emoji every day. Talking consists of words, either written or spoken.’
‘Jay,’ he says, clearly already tired of this conversation. Or maybe just tired of me. ‘I promise, I’m just busy with school. Residency is no picnic. I don’t have time to flirt via text or have long, drawn-out, giggly conversations anymore.’
‘Then say that, Condor. I’ve been worried.’
He groans a forced laugh when I use his nickname. ‘You don’t need to worry about me. I’m completely fine, just back to my real life, and that has me stressed, a little traumatized, and I don’t want to lay it all on you.’
Back to his real life? Holy freaking spaceballs. River might be right. He wasn’t serious about anything while he was here. I was literally something for him to ‘do’ while on summer break. Now that he’s back to his real life, he’s no longer got time to woo me, his fiancée. Fuck. Now I’m mad.
‘How about laying anything on me? Tell me about your day, or ask about mine. Anything, Conner. Whatever happened to the sweet good morning and goodnight texts you used to send? You swooned me with that, and now that we’re engaged, all those sweet things just stopped. Then we had the whole Masterblake incident. What am I supposed to think of your “real” life?’
