“Well, Ant, Piper has people who are looking after her.” Kelly eyes him suspiciously. Anam is already too busy with her tacos to follow the conversation properly, so she decides to do what she thinks is a good deed and attempts to talk me up.
“You know, Piper is one of the smartest people I know, and she’s into all kinds of weird shit,” Anam says.
“Weird shit?” Ant’s antennae tilt forward, there's an amused lilt to his voice.
I vocally groan, but it doesn’t deter Anam from continuing.
“Yeah, all of this.” She waves a hand in Ant’s general direction, and my stomach sinks. “This nerd shit,” she finishes. “She’s always watching some show, or raving about some movie I’ve never heard of. She knows about all the vintage video games and all that weird stuff.”
“Is that stuff weird?” Ant asks. “I have a collection of vintage games.”
“You do?” I lean toward him, unable to contain my excitement. “What kinds?”
“All the old consoles: Atari, NES, SNES, Sega Master System, the works.”
“Duck Hunt!? With the Light Zappers?” I exclaim, real excitement rolling through me.
“Of course.”
“I’ll kick your ass atDuck Hunt,” I threaten.
He shakes his head very seriously. “You couldn’t.”
“Maybe I should come over and prove it?” It would sound cool, but a nervous laugh pops out after. Loud and awkward.
There’s a little purr in his chest. It radiates through the shoulder he has pressed against me. The reverberations calm my nerves, I shove another nacho in my mouth before I can say anything more embarrassing.
Soon we are loading a very drunk Anam into an Uber, so she can sleep on Kelly’s couch.
Before Kelly follows Anam into the car, her eyes lock on Ant, but she’s clearly talking to me. “Do you want to catch a ride with us? Or are you alright here?”
“I’m fine.” I feel my cheeks heat, and glance at Ant, who is waiting for me under a street lamp, looking like a tall shadow from a storybook with his wings folded behind him. “I’ll be fine.”
“Good. Good. This will be good for you.” Kelly bites her lip before she sucks in a deep breath and grabs my hand to pull me aside. Not far enough to have a truly private conversation, butshe doesn’t seem to give a rats ass if Ant hears everything she says.
“Give me your phone.” Kelly waves her hand at me. “You are sharing your location with me. And I want you to text me all the addresses wherever he takes you, And I will be calling you in the morning to make sure you are okay, and I want you to use protection. And you can call me anytime, from anywhere. I’ll come get you. Or I’ll make Jeremy come and get you. You know we will. We both love you.”
I roll my eyes as I let out a loud sigh. “Okay, okay, okay, thanksMom.” But I happily turn on location sharing. “And you text me when you get home safe.”
“Have fun tonight.” Kelly grins, tiara crooked on her head. “You deserve to enjoy yourself for once.” Without any prompting, she wraps her arms around me in a tight hug, then climbs into the Uber with Anam.
I’m left standing on the sidewalk, alone, with the Mothman.
3
PIPER
He shifts on his feet, his wings whisper across each other, and all of my self-confidence melts like butter under Tatooine's twin suns.
Crap. What is next? I don’t know how to do this. Take a guy home the same night that I meet him. I don’t know anything about him. I’m not even sure what his real name is. When my girlfriends were here, I was so certain about what I wanted, now all I’m certain about is that I am a complete idiot.
He closes the distance between us.
“Piper?” He says my name quietly, like I’m an animal that might run. “Would you like to come home with me?”
“Now?” I squeak as the nachos in my stomach churn violently.
Crap. He’s going to think I’m some idiot who can’t do casual sex.
