Number Neighbors - Emma Hart Page 0,12
on you.”
“You’re ridiculous. I’m supposed to call him tomorrow morning, but if I call, he’ll save my number, and realize that it’s been me he’s texting.”
“So what are you going to do?” she asked around her toothbrush. “Hold on.”
I had a clear view of the ceiling, and the sound of her spitting the paste out and running the tap crackled through the speaker.
She really could have done this before she called.
“Are you done?” I asked when she picked the phone back up.
Defiantly, she took a mouthful of water, swilled it, and spat it out. “I’m done.”
“Remind me to make new friends.”
“Like you have the patience for that.” The phone wobbled again as she walked into her room. “What are you going to do? And how do you know Lucifer is a boy?”
“Isaac violated him and found balls.”
“Not a good day for Lucifer, then.”
It really wasn’t. “How am I supposed to call him when it’ll give it all away?”
“Are you really going down the pretending it never happened route?”
“Um, yeah?”
“Hannah, that’s ridiculous. Now that you know it’s him, you can’t text him anymore, and you have the verbal control of a toddler trying to say ‘fork.’” Immy tilted her head to the side, eyebrows quirked. “There’s no way you’re going to live next to that man and never let it slip that you know he wants to put Scarlett Johansson on her knees and fuck her senseless.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but there really was nothing I could say back. It was the damn truth. I was useless.
“Okay, fine. Then I don’t know what to do. I can’t pretend like I don’t know if I give him my number.”
“Just call him and if he figures it out, he figures it out.”
“That’s easy for you to say. I can barely focus when he speaks to me as it is. Never mind if he were to talk about dirty things.”
Immy sighed. “Yeah. I kinda spaced out when Dolly got spayed last week. I barely understood a word he said and I still sighed as we left. Mason was pissed.”
“Mason will live. My predicament is far worse and it’s all your fault!”
“Hey! I didn’t tell you to do it every night. I didn’t even think you’d do it once!”
“And that makes it okay?”
“Again, your unrealistic expectations of me are all on you.”
“How does that even apply here?”
“I think you’re looking for someone to blame even though the only person who stuck her hand in her pants and poked the bear to dirty messages with a stranger was you.”
My cheeks flushed. “I’m done with you.”
“Wait!” Immy laughed. “Look, just go over to his place in the morning instead of calling. It’s that simple, Hannah.”
Huh.
So it was.
“But that doesn’t change the fact that—”
“I know. But it’s late. You’ve had a long day. You’re tired,” Immy replied. “Get Lucifer back and we’ll work through what to do tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” I blew out a long breath and nodded. “Tomorrow.”
Her lips quirked. “Don’t do anything crazy like run over there right now, okay?”
“Okay. I won’t. Don’t worry. I’m not sure I can ever look him in the eye again anyway.”
“I don’t think I can look him in the eye knowing he’s a dirty talker,” she replied. “Anyway, I’m going to bed to dream of Mason with a British accent.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Thanks. I’ll just go to bed with my nightmare.”
“Ah, think of it like this: at least you might get laid now.” With that delightful silver lining, she hung up on me.
I didn’t need to be a genius to say this: I was not going to get laid.
There was no way in the world that Isaac was interested in me like that, and there was no guarantees he would be even after learning that we shared a sexual fantasy or two.
Wait.
No, he wasn’t going to learn that. I wasn’t going to tell him, and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that he never, ever got my number to find out.
***
There was something about an early morning sunrise that made me feel good.
I didn’t know if it was being up before the birds and being able to experience the silence that came with such a thing, or if it was simply the beauty of the ever-changing color of the sky, a bit like a kaleidoscope.
Maybe it was the magic of both combined.
Either way, I was awake at the ass-crack of dawn, nursing a cup of coffee while I looked out of my