The Guy on the Right (The Underdogs 1)

We grin at each other.

“I’m glad we ran into each other again,” she says. “You know it’s only been a week, but I’ve made good on my oath.”

“Going to need to do better than a week to impress me.”

“You seem hard to impress.”

“Nah, just giving you shit,” I focus on the delicate curve of her slender neck, the full, dark lashes that dance over her cheeks as she scans more junk. She radiates playful energy that’s hard to ignore.

“Well, I’m giving up fuckboys for food. So, it shouldn’t be that hard to stick to.”

“I guess I should start a bad habit to keep up?”

She turns to me with two boxes of Famous Amos cookies and hands me one. “You’ll thank me later.”

“I could thank you now. That is, if I woke up this morning and thought, ‘today is a good day to die.’”

“Oh shit, these have nuts in them,” she says, scanning the ingredients. “I may just be too dangerous for you to know.”

“Nah, I can handle you.”

“Think so, huh? Challenge accepted. Shop with me.”

It’s the longest grocery store trip of my whole fucking life. Snails have a faster pace than Laney with a shopping cart.

She literally weighs every decision she makes for ten minutes, and not only that, an aisle after a decision is made, if she finds something she wants more or a better ‘steal’, we have to double back to put it back exactly where we got it because she was taught better. I run my hands through my hair so many times, I feel like I’m balding by the time we make it to frozen foods. But it’s her smile and her laugh that keep me from bolting. It’s the energy I’m feeling that keeps me with her, though I’m fairly sure everything I have is hot and wilted.

When we finally roll out of the store, she turns to me.

“Well, what now?”

I shrug. “Beats me. You’re the one popping up everywhere I am.”

“Bound to happen.” She chews her lip in thought. “Maybe we’re supposed to be friends.”

“Maybe.”

“Give me your number,” she says, unlocking her phone before handing it to me. I type my number in, and she looks at it. “So, Theo?”

“Yeah.”

“As in Theodore?”

I grimace. “Unfortunately.”

“As in Teddy?”

“Absolutely not,” I say with such authority, I’m rewarded with a giggle that strikes me right in the throat.

“Fine, I’ll stick with Houseman. Where you off to?”

“Waiting on my special,” I hold up air quotes, “bus driver.”

“Sorry about that, my mouth can get away from me sometimes.”

“No, really?”

“Smart ass, believe it or not, I’m shy at times around people I don’t know.”