Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
He peers at my screen, studying the messages from Sunday, then my text to him on Monday about changing the time for tonight. There’s no reply from him. The chain ends there.
Such a sad text thread.
So empty.
“Oh, shit,” he mutters, then drags a hand down his face in slow, motion. “I should have known you’d never call me stud or baby.” He sounds mortified.
He pulls his phone from his pocket. “I never got your message on Monday about the time. But I thought we were texting,” he says, sheepishly. “Because of this…”
He shows me the screen he’s pulled up, and I read a slew of messages between Drew and IOU. My eyes widen, flicking from the screen to him as I follow this bawdy thread.
By the end, I can barely contain my laughter. “Drew, I think you have two IOUs,” I whisper through my chuckles.
“Ya think?” he asks drily. “I just want to know which of my jackass friends pulled this off.”
“Someone who’s going to be crowing about it for a long time,” I say with admiration for the architect of this joke. Someone worked him over big time. “But how did this happen?”
Before he can attempt to answer, his phone beeps. The name IOU appears in the notification window but there’s a picture of a dark-haired man smirking, next to the words Did you spank her with tacos yet?
Drew groans. In guy language, that loosely translates to I can’t believe that fucker tricked me. He shakes his head. “I have to tip my cap to my buddy.”
“But what happened? You wrote back to me on Sunday night and I got it. And then nothing?”
His brow knits, cogs turning as he thinks. Then the circuit closes and he winces at what he’s about to say. “This is going to sound incredibly ridic, but I had to reset my phone on Monday morning because it was doing wonky phone shit. I don’t know if it was the sand on Sunday or it was possessed by goblins or what.”
Naughty little goblins seem like a far-fetched dating excuse, but he showed me the text thread. I’ll at least let him tell me the rest of the story. “And what did the goblins do?”
“They fucked shit up!” he says with a laugh. At least he can handle being the butt of a joke. “The update could have merged my contacts and made Patrick’s number the default IOU. Your message on Monday could have been filtered.” He clicks on his screen again and curses. “Fuck.”
He shows me the phone and there’s my note, no contact name attached, filtered into “unknown callers.” If he’s making this up, he went to a lot of trouble to fake the proof.
“So does this also mean if you know ten Davids they’re now one David?”
He looks horrified at the idea. “I better check on that. My friend David runs a sweet new tapas place, but this other David from high school tries to sell me Muscle Milk all the time. I’d hate to mix them up.”
“Understandable. But how do you have another IOU in your contacts?”
Drew drags a hand through his hair, maybe a little chagrined. When he meets my gaze, his vulnerable expression tugs on my heart. I don’t want to sound like I’m doubting him if this is a tough topic.
In his silence, I add gently, “I’m just curious. But you don’t have to tell me. Truly, it’s fine.”
“I don’t mind,” he says quietly, but it sounds like he’s gearing up to reveal something personal. “I didn’t have a lot of money growing up. My buddy Patrick didn’t either, but when we got to college, he started figuring out the stock market and started making money. I was still scraping by, so he’d help me out from time to time. I named him IOU as a joke between us. He didn’t mind, but it always embarrassed me a little that I had to ask.”
I’m touched that he’d share that. “Sounds like he’s a good friend. I’m glad you had him to turn to.”
“He’s a good guy. He’s my financial advisor now, which works out well for both of us.” He blows out a long breath, letting his embarrassment go. Good humor comes in its place, his eyes twinkling. “Somehow, I completely missed that he was pulling a fast one.”
I laugh at the absurdity of the whole situation, from the prank to his friend seizing the moment.
I’m ready to let him off the hook except for one thing. I arch a brow, quoting Patrick’s impersonation of me. “That all sounds good. But I’m totes down for feeding and fucking too. Can you pull off that feat, stud?” I stare at Drew, a smile on my face. “That wasn’t the tip-off you weren’t texting me?”
He shrugs sheepishly. “It didn’t entirely sound like you—the stud part especially. But I didn’t want to be judge-y about how you talked over text.”