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Quinton: Who is this?

Surprised, I blinked.

Quinton didn’t have my phone number? How was that possible?

Quinton: I think it’s the little demon I know who’s disguised as an angel. The one who runs around stealing hearts and pelting people with rocks.

He so totally had my number. Did this mean he thought I’d stolen his heart? Had I stolen his heart?

I wanted to steal his heart because he already had so much of mine.

Ariel: Hmm… No demon here. No angel, either.

Quinton: Liar.

Ariel: Thief.

Quinton: What the hell did I ever steal from you?

Ariel: My underwear!

I cursed silently and almost dropped my phone. Now I’d done it. Without thought, I had taken it in a direction I should not have gone. Would he get mad? I sure hoped not.

It was a full minute before he responded. I knew I had caught him off guard with that one.

Quinton: I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Huh. He was taking a line out of my playbook here. When in doubt: deny, deny, deny. I did it better than he did.

Ariel: Who is the liar now? Huh?

Quinton: Shouldn’t you be busy with your other boyfriends right about now?

Now that surprised me. Did Quinton think of himself as my boyfriend? I hadn’t really thought about it before. I considered us to be in a relationship, but I hadn’t thought of him as my boyfriend.

Ariel: I have a boyfriend? This is news to me. In fact, I don’t believe I’ve ever had a boyfriend before. I’ve gone out on dates, but no boyfriend. I don’t recall going out on any dates recently and yet I have a boyfriend? Very odd.

Quinton: Then you must not be paying attention, baby. FFS, even Damien calls you his girlfriend. And, we’ve been out on a date before. How quickly you forget our moonlight stroll through the forest.

Quinton: I know it didn’t end on a high note what with Ty tackling you in the grass and all, but it still counts.

I choked on a lung full of air and felt my eyes grow as round as they could get, and not because of the choking either.

I read the messages twice more to be certain I had read it correctly the first time. Both re-reads assured me that, yes, I had indeed read the texts correctly the first time around.

I decided to ignore what he’d said about us having gone on a date because it was completely absurd. Him following me into the forest and us watching our naked friends move around a bonfire to be a date. Since I had no intention of getting into that one with him, I focused on the other point he’d made. The even crazier one.

Ariel: Damien has a girlfriend.

Quinton: Yeah, babe. It’s you.

He’d sent me that via text message and still I heard the impatience in his voice and it irritated me. He didn’t get to drop that kind of bomb on me and then get irritated with me when I contradicted him and expect me to take his crap. He had to know better than that by now.

Still, I tried for friendly.

Ariel: That’s not what I meant.

That was about as friendly as I could get.