picture, and we soon discovered that most guys who used the app wanted to settle down and loved the fact that they knew within one minute what the girl’s job was and whether she would go to Mass the following day.
“Thanks”—Ian rolled his eyes—“for that glowing compliment.” He pulled out a chair and sat. “Do you really think Gabs is the best person to be handling these guys? She hasn’t exactly had a lot of boyfriends.”
“Exactly.” I exhaled, relieved. “Finally you see things my way. I’ll go ahead and call her, tell her we don’t need her anymore—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Ian stood. “She needs this job. It’s the only one that’s going to pay her enough for her to be able to afford tuition. You’re just going to have to do a hell of a job making sure she’s ready.” He plopped the playbook we’d created onto the table and pointed.
The hell!
“I have one week,” I muttered through clenched teeth. “And today we kissed. Do you even realize how long it takes to turn someone into a relationship guru? Add in the fact that she hates me, and, well . . . I imagine one of us is going to die this week. My money’s on her poisoning my coffee.”
Ian still didn’t look convinced that hiring Gabs was a bad idea.
“I could die.”
Too far?
“Stop being dramatic.” Ian waved me off. “And the hate is mutual. At least she doesn’t have some sort of pathetic crush on you . . . right?” His eyes zeroed in on me as if I was getting cross-examined.
“Right,” I repeated, feeling guilty all over again for freshman year. I stood and stretched my hands over my head. We were in dire need of a subject change. The last thing I needed was him breathing down my neck about something I didn’t even do! “Is Blake coming over?”
“She has volleyball practice and then she’s coming over to watch Game of Thrones. You in?”
“Nah.” I was in a weird mood after that kiss, which meant my computer and I needed to spend some serious time together. I guessed the only other option would be to drive Gabi so insane she would quit on her own before she had a nervous breakdown. “I’m going to go work.”
Ian’s shocked expression wasn’t helpful. “And by work do you mean you’re going to trade your glasses in for your cape and tell some poor woman in downtown Seattle that you can only save the world if she sleeps with you?”
“One time.” I rolled my eyes. “On Halloween.”
“Still counts. She believed you.”
I smirked. “That costume was legit. Of course she believed me.”
“You wore that spandex, not the other way around. Well done.” Ian shook his head and walked off. “Try to keep those sticky fingers from hacking the government’s database. I don’t want the FBI making another visit.”
“One time!” I shouted after him.
“Weird, that seems to be your MO!” he called back as he flashed me the bird, then disappeared into the living room.
Ignoring him, I took the stairs two at a time and pushed the door open to what Ian jokingly referred to as my Fortress of Solitude.
The lights from my three computer screens flickered in the darkness. I popped my knuckles, did a little stretch, then sat back in my leather chair while visions of taking over the world danced in my head.
Not really.
Okay, at least not all the time, but what the power hackers had at their fingertips was addicting.
I stayed out of everything illegal. The only time I’d ever been flagged was when I’d accidently stumbled upon something that may or may not have pissed off a certain government agency enough to give me a warning and then a job offer.
I declined.
I was only a freshman at the time; the last thing I wanted was to work for suits.
“What shall we do today?” I said, tapping my fingertips against my desk. For some reason, images of Gabs wouldn’t quit. First it was Gabs biting her lower lip, then the way she had moaned in my arms while we kissed in the kitchen, which of course naturally turned into an extremely graphic vision of her taking off her shirt and crooking her finger in my direction. Hot damn.
That wasn’t what I needed.
I checked the clock; it was only ten in the morning. And just like that I was back to thinking about the playbook. Ian wanted hands-on training for Gabi? Proof that she could do the