Page 64 of Just for the Plot

I let out a short sigh. “Good, because she can’t know.”

“Ever?” Gretchen asks with a lift of her brow.

“No, not never, just…not yet. She…she still sees me as the little brother and I need to show her I’m not that man.”

“Fair. So then my plan will work.”

“What plan?” I ask as I hear Bower thank the barista for her drink.

“Just go with it?”

“Gretchen, I fucking swear,” I say through clenched teeth just as Bower joins us, taking a seat right next to me, her shoulder brushing up against mine.

Is it dumb to think that I missed her? That all of the agonizing I’ve done tonight has made me feel like a lovesick puppy, looking for any kind of connection with her?

And she smells so good, just like her. I want to lean into her, run my nose along her neck, see if she smells like anyone else but her, but I refrain as she crosses one leg over the other and leans into me.

I take that opportunity to drape my arm over the back of her chair, something that Gretchen tracks with calculating eyes.

“So, why are you guys meeting so late?” Bower asks, a smirk on her lips. “Anything you’re not telling me, Bennett?” She wiggles her brows and I hate that she’d ever suggest that Gretchen and I would be together.

“We’re not together,” I say, maybe too quickly and too high-pitched.

“That doesn’t sound innocent at all.” Bower laughs and then takes a sip of her drink. It smells a lot like a chai.

“We’re not,” Gretchen says. “Bennett is not my type.”

Ouch.

Not that I really care.

But still, I’m sitting right here.

“Not your type?” Bower asks, shocked. “Is handsome not your type? Muscular? Good at baseball? Abs for days?”

“Abs?” Gretchen asks, her brow lifting. “Sounds to me like you might be the one who should date him.”

Gretchen…

Bower laughs and shakes her head. “No, Bennett and I have known each other for so long, and I’m practically his grandma. He wants nothing to do with an old lady like me.”

“You’re not my grandma. You’re eight years older. That’s nothing.”

“It’s something, but either way, we’re good friends, right, Bennett?”

So fucking painful…

“Yup, great friends.”

Gretchen looks between the two of us and then folds her arms over her chest. “Friends I can work with.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“I’m just thinking you don’t want to do the zoo anymore, but we have to figure out something that will replace the zoo but still bring in good publicity. And if you two are friends and clearly have good chemistry since you’re so close, it might benefit you to see you two do something together to help the Bombers.”

“I don’t want to drag Bower into this,” I say just as Bower places her hand on my arm.

“Speak for yourself,” she says. “I want to hear what Gretchen has to say. If it means you stop bitching about the zoo, then I say we hear her out.”