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“Sure thing,” Joy said. “Ryan?”

“Coffee. Black,” she said.

“Coming right up,” Joy said, moving on to taking other orders.

I started feeling like I was hitting my social limit and needed a break. The noise of everyone talking and the effort it took to converse and keep a smile on my face and come up with responses had worn me out, so I headed to the guest room slash library to have some space. No one said anything to me, and I let out a breath of relief as I closed the door, muffling the sound.

Sydney and Lark had quite the book collection between them, so I browsed the titles, pulling any out that intrigued me so I could remind myself to add them to my to-buy list when I got my next paycheck.

My body slowly came down and started to reset itself. I sat on the bed and pulled up a book on my phone to read until I was ready to join the party again. I’d just read the first paragraph when there was a soft knock at the door.

“Come in?” I said, hoping it was just Sydney checking on me.

It wasn’t Sydney that walked through the doorway. It was Ryan.

“Oh,” I said.

“Sorry to disturb you,” she said in a low voice as she shut the door behind her.

“It’s okay,” I said as she filled the room.

“It was getting crowded out there,” she said.

“I know. Their apartment isn’t exactly made for entertaining,” I said.

“No,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be so many people.”

“Me neither,” I said. “I needed a break.”

She nodded and I watched her eyes flick over the bookshelves, looking at the spines of the books.

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “You’re fine.”

She nodded and lapsed into silence. Something about her energy communicated that she didn’t want to chat. Ryan had never given me the impression she was a chatter, but especially now she appeared to crave silence.

That was fine with me. She paced the room and started looking closer at the bookshelves, and I pretended to go back to reading.

In reality, I was ogling her. A whole lot easier to do when her back was turned to me.

What a beautiful back it was. I longed to touch her, to trace those muscles beneath her shirt. My gaze traveled lower, to the perfect roundness of her ass. So very biteable.

There was another knock at the door that made me look up with guilt, even though no one had caught me doing anything.

Sydney poked her head in.

“Hey, just wanted to check on you and make sure you didn’t want any dessert.”

Right. Dessert.

“Of course,” Ryan said without looking at me. She left the room without a backwards glance and I followed her back into the living room.

Dessert was nice, but soon it was time for me to head home. Ryan didn’t say anything else to me, and I hoped I hadn’t said anything that upset her, or said something wrong. I didn’t get a chance to ask, since she had slipped out when I’d been in the bathroom.

So much for that.

I thanked Sydney and Lark and walked down to my car, still thinking about Ryan.