and stacked them on her lap before heading down the hall toward what she’d called the TV room. It was exactly that. One side of the small room was taken up with a huge red couch that was basically a king bed with arms. The walls were decorated with what looked like oversize black-and-white comic book pages in red frames at matching intervals.
The wall facing the couch had a HUGE TV hung on it—it appeared to be some kind of projector screen.
“Holy crap,” he said, helping her place the pizza boxes on a long tray table that passed over the couch and could be rolled away and pushed against the wall when not in use.
“This is my second office,” she said as she pulled up to one side of the couch, and he caught a trace of that defensiveness in her tone. “I do a lot of work in here, since watching things is part of my job.”
“It’s awesome,” he said. “And watching stuff is hard. I can’t always manage to sit down and focus. Understanding some things can be even harder, which is why I’m here, I guess.”
She locked the brakes on her chair, gripped the handles, and then pushed herself to a standing position. Her arms shook a bit, but she transferred herself to the couch smoothly, crossing her legs before reaching for the remote resting on the table.
He dropped onto the other side. It was big, but not big enough that he could forget she was beside him. The lights dimmed and he shifted in his seat.
They’d had dinner and were going to binge watch a show, and Gus hadn’t felt uncomfortable at all yet, but he was definitely starting to feel nervous.
“Why’d you name your site GirlsWithGlasses?” he asked to distract himself.
“Because I’m a jerk. Well, that and because when strangers decide to ask what’s ‘wrong’ with me, I tell them that my vision is 20/80,” she said drily, before pushing her glasses pointedly up her nose.
Gus laughed.
“Oh, I have something for you.” She leaned over the side of the couch suddenly, her T-shirt riding up to reveal a swath of brown skin. Gus quickly looked away because his impulsive mind was already wondering how that skin would feel under his palm.
No. She’s a friend.
A friend who was pretty and smart and probably a really good kisser.
When she popped back up after digging in the pouch on the side of her chair, she handed over what at first looked like a broken Rubik’s Cube, but when he took it into the palm of his hand, he realized it was a Rubik’s Snake, kind of like an upscale fidget toy.
“I know it’s not really a puzzle, but I got one in a promotional box and they’re supposed to be fun to just twist into different shapes. I know you like keeping your hands busy . . .” Her eyes went wide, and she looked down. “You know what I mean. Anyway, if you want it, it’s yours.”
Gus tossed the toy from one hand to another, then began twisting it into a different shape, a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth. She was thoughtful, even if she tried to pretend she was helping him for purely selfish reasons. “Thanks.”
“Ready?” she asked.
“Let’s do this.”
Chapter Five
Reggie had worried that maybe something like this would happen when she invited Gus over. She was a passionate woman—of course she would be too into the show at episode six to say no when he turned to her with pleading eyes and asked, “Can we keep watching?”
A half-series binge had turned into a full-series marathon fueled by Mountain Dew, a second round of salad and pizza, and a dessert of strawberry cheesecake.
There had been no awkwardness—well, there was, but it was the awkwardness of catching yourself being way too comfortable with someone you didn’t really know.
The awkwardness of wondering whether the person next to you felt your presence like a static shock, even when their eyes were glued to the screen, because you certainly felt theirs.
The awkwardness of Gus having said she was beautiful when he’d walked in, and the words playing over and over in her mind because her brain’s loop feature was intent on making her blush herself to a crisp.
At 2 a.m., the last strains of the show’s closing song were playing and the credits rolled over the final scene, a pan shot of Aurora and Charming holding hands on the battlements of a fort as they looked