I glanced down at his hand, curved over my arm. Again, I wanted to thank the winter coat gods.
Look at me, being thankful for winter.
What was happening?
“Nicholas, it’s fine. Honestly. I’ve been a big ball of stress and my shock at seeing you meant I took it out on you. Can we draw a line under it all?” I looked up and met his eyes, praying that my eyes conveyed an emotion I didn’t feel. “I’m sure we’re both different people now.”
“You’re still doing your utmost to avoid socializing. Are you sure you’re that different?”
“To be honest, there haven’t been enough complaints to warrant changing, so I see no need.” I shrugged and pulled my arm from his gentle grip to push my brown hair from my face. “As long as we’re good. I need to pull this off before my parents think I’m a total failure.”
“You can do this. If anyone can, you can. You’ve been a part of it for years.” His eyes twinkled. “As long as you’ve stopped fighting with the lights, that is.”
“That was a low blow,” I muttered, lifting my cup to my lips.
“How did you manage that?”
“I honestly don’t know. One minute I was fine, the next, I was going ass over tit over a fucking reindeer and hoping the ground would swallow me up.” I was pretty pissed that it didn’t, actually. It would have saved me a lot of hassle if it had.
He laughed and sat back up straight. “All right, when do you want me tomorrow?”
“Well, the suit needs to be fitted to you. Can you come to our house in the morning? We have it there and my mom is the only person who’ll be able to do it quickly enough.”
“Sure. What time?”
“Seven?”
“Seven? Fuck, Quinn. What time does the grotto open?”
“About three.”
“So why do I need to be there about seven a.m.?”
“Because my mom is not The Flash and cannot sew at the speed of light.”
He nodded. “Point well made. All right, seven. But I want breakfast. I’m doing you a favor, after all.”
“Ugh, okay, fine. I’m still not happy about it.”
“Tell your face.” He stood up and grinned. “Because you’re smiling.”
I touched my fingers to my mouth.
I was not smiling.
“Gotcha.”
“Asshole!”
Nicholas laughed and finished the last of his drink before he tossed the cup in the trashcan. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Quinn.”
“Can’t wait,” I snarked, rolling my eyes.
“Don’t worry. You’ll love me by the end of the week.” He winked as he turned away, adjusting the collar of his coat to cover his scarf.
I stared after him, keeping a tight grip on my cup.
Yeah.
Honestly, that was kinda what I was afraid of.
CHAPTER FIVE
My phone blared with my six-thirty alarm, and I smacked my hand over the empty side of my bed in an attempt to locate it to make it shut the fuck up.
Nope. Nothing.
Where the hell was that coming from? Where was my phone? Had it grown legs and wandered off overnight?
“Fuck sake,” I muttered, dragging myself up and opening my eyes as it continued that stupid noise. Why was my alarm tune so goddamn awful? What was I thinking when I chose it?
My phone was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t on the floor beside my bed, it wasn’t under my nightstand, and it wasn’t under my pillow. I got up and shook out my covers, but it wasn’t mixed up in there, either, which meant…
Oh, shit.
It had fallen down the back of the bed.
I was gonna have to do some ninja nonsense with this mattress to get it out, wasn’t I?
Ugh.
I shoved my pillow out the way right as the alarm stopped. At least there was that—I didn’t have to do it to the tune of whatever the hell that was. With some very awkward, very tough grabbing and maneuvering of a portion of my mattress, I eventually managed to reach down and grab my phone, right as the second alarm went off.
I canceled it with a grumble. As if it wasn’t early enough as it was without having to deal with my phone trying to escape. What had I been doing in my sleep last night for it to fall down the back of the bed?
That was what I got for watching murder mystery videos on YouTube to help me fall asleep until the small hours of the morning.
Bailey Sarian, I’m looking at you.
I yawned, then wiped the wetness from my eyes. I was way too tired to be up this early with the amount of things I had to do, but with Nicholas coming over, I needed to get my shit together and get dressed.
I trudged into the bathroom with another yawn and locked the door behind me. A glance in the mirror confirmed what I thought—I closely resembled something from The Walking Dead, and it was definitely one of the dead things.