Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,62
turn on in human history. With all that going on in my head, poor Geoffrey didn’t stand a chance.
So, I timed my exit perfectly to say good night to Kit but no more.
The next day, Tuesday, I gave the Cowardly Lion a run for his money and made sure I stayed in my room until I knew Kit had left. It was about as brave as I’d been in saying good night to him the night before, but I just didn’t feel brave enough to face him when I couldn’t get him out of my head.
Instead of trying to get him out, I chose distraction in a more guaranteed form. I put my music on as loud as I could handle and started unpacking. It worked. Mostly. I had all my clothes put away – still barely taking up half the walk-in robe – and was feeling more stoic about the whole just friends decision as I made a start on the endless ‘Bits & Bobs’ boxes.
It was, after all, for the best.
The whole Patrick flipping his lid thing aside, I liked Kit. We got along now. I didn’t want that ruined when he realised I was boring and unglamorous. It was better we were friends, and I could still live with him and be in his life, without any risk that we were going to implode and ruin anyone’s life.
It was a good plan. One I stuck to even better because he was working all night and I didn’t see him. We exchanged a couple of quick messages because he’d wanted me to know what he was up to. But I didn’t have to see him or smell him or have any other stark reminder of Sunday night.
Wednesday gave me a slight reprieve from my overactive brain in the form of Carmel and Flo, who stayed to have a coffee – or three – with me as her aunt pottered around the penthouse, taking her time with the cleaning and the tidying and going over the shopping list with me. Flo was amazing and I was a little bit in love with her by the time she left.
“So, Arthurian Legend?” she asked me.
I’d exhausted the photos in her phone of her twin sons, Hank and Archie, and we were onto my PhD notes. It was like we trying to discover everything about each other in record time.
I nodded. “King Arthur and the knights and all that.”
“Merlin?” she asked me excitedly.
I nodded. “And Merlin.”
“Have you seen the show?”
I shook my head. “What show?”
She waved her hand at me. “Ugh. It’s the best. The boys are gorgeous. The bromance is real. I’ll bring it for you next week when Tía comes.”
I smiled. “Oh, I like that idea.”
She pointed at me knowingly. “You can even call it research.”
I laughed. “Yes!”
“Right?”
“And more Hank and Archie pictures, please,” I begged.
She laughed. “That I can do. You don’t babysit, do you?”
I gasped excitedly. “Cuddles? Ugh. I want to say yes, but I have never been left in charge of small humans before.”
“I’ll start you out slow,” Flo promised, and I smiled.
I decided without a doubt that I liked Flo from that moment on. I also decided that surrounding myself with new friends was probably a really healthy and sensible thing to do – I could only live in PhD world for so much of my life and I didn’t really want no life awaiting me on the other end.
So, not only did I make sure to swap numbers with Flo – and promise myself that I’d actually charge my phone regularly – I also left the penthouse on Thursday. Yes, as in showered, dressed in society-approved clothes, and got into the Mayhew’s elevator all by myself.
My mission? See if Petra wanted to go and get that drink.
With all the stuff with Dannie and Brent, I was most angry with Dannie. I wanted to say that I was surprised that she’d betrayed me like that. I mean, yes, I’d quite clearly not been terribly attached to Brent but that still didn’t give a girl the right to sleep with her best friend’s boyfriend, did it?
The more I thought about it, though, the more I realised I was resigned to her behaviour and the more I realised that she’d never been a terribly good friend to me through our whole lives anyway. She’d treated me like the DUFF; I was really only around to make her look better because I’d always been less outgoing, less concerned with