Page 55

“Again?” August’s brows pinched together. “Is it your battery?”

“No, I lost my charger.” Uther gave him his trademark pouty face, fishing for sympathy.

“Again?” August rolled his eyes.

“I’d appreciate more sympathy and less victim-blaming, thank you.”

“You’re the victim of your own…never mind. I have one upstairs.”

August rose, but Esther cut him off, jumping up and grabbing Uther’s arm.

“We’ll get it.” She pulled Uther toward the stairs. “Uther and I cooked. You two can clean.”

Ashley was left in the kitchen with the last person she wanted to be alone with, washing dishes. “Can’t you just snap your fingers and finish this?”

“Shocking as it may sound, washing dishes is not as easy as snapping your fingers. It’s less mental energy to just do it by hand.”

“You’re one of those people that never had a dishwasher growing up, so when you finally move into a place that has one, you use it as a large drying rack while you continue to hand wash dishes, aren’t you?”

August didn’t answer, which only confirmed her theory and annoyed her more.

“But if you snap your fingers,Iwon’t have to do the dishes.”

He gestured a soapy hand at the empty kitchen, losing a dollop of bubbles to the kitchen floor in the process. “No one’s making you do the dishes,”

Sure, Esther wasn’t here to make her do the dishes, but after Esther and Uther disappeared upstairs, August started clearing the table. Ashley hadn’t even considered the idea of letting the host do the dishes on his own. She just wasn’t raised that way.

“What do you think is taking them so long?” She snatched the plate he held out to her and started drying. They were almost done with the stack, and Esther and Uther were still missing.

“They’re obviously talking about us.”

“What?” The plate slipped back into the sink, splashing both of them.

“Watch it,” August growled.

“You watch it,” she snapped back. “What do you mean, they’re talking about us?”

“Well, there are two obvious options.” He rinsed the plate and handed it back to her. “The first is that they’re talking about us as potential love interests. The pros and cons, if you will.”

“Oh god.” Ashley looked at the stairs and wondered if there was a way to stop them but couldn’t think of an option that also turned back time. “Wait. Both of us? As inI’ma love interest?” Did August not know Esther wasn’t interested in dating women?

August rolled his eyes and didn’t answer, and Ashley continued to hate him.

“Well, what’s the other option?” she asked.

“The other option is much worse.”

“Worse than them discussing what’s wrong with us?” Ashley squeaked.

He glanced at her through the hair that had escaped his hair tie. “The other option is that they want us to get along.”

She waited a few seconds to see if he had more to add before she burst out laughing. “Could you imagine?” She grasped her side and wheezed in stuttered breaths. “You’re the worst.”

Her laughter was interrupted by a burst of water from the handheld nozzle. “Right back at you, bloodsucker.”

Water dripped from the sleeve of her sweater. “Witch, I will end you!”

“You can’t.” He drained the sink, before turning to face her.