Page 122 of Bang

Cami

I was half asleep when my cell phone buzzed on the night stand. With a start, I sat up and glanced at the nearby clock. It was past midnight.

I picked up the phone and studied the display. I had a text.It was from Mason.

Oddly enough, it was identical to the one Arden had sent me earlier in the night. It said,"Can you talk?"

I blew out a long, trembling breath.I could. I just didn't know if I wanted to.

I was still trying to decide when my cellphone buzzed again. It was another text,alsofrom Mason. This one said,"You were right."

I bit my lip.Right about what?

During that tense phone conversation, I'd said a lot of things.And so had he.Some of those things stung, even now.

And if I were being totally honest, I wasn't just hurting over the thing he'd said about us not being friends. I was hurt by the way he'd coldly informed me that he wasn't my boyfriend.

As if I expected him to be.

The idea was completely ludicrous. He and I were total opposites. He was hard. I was soft. He was tough. I was a peace-maker by nature. He was rich. I wasn't exactly poor. But compared to him?

Oh yeah, I was a total pauper.

In my darkened bedroom, I was still staring at his latest message. I was dying to know what he meant, but dreaded the thought of going another ten rounds with my impossible boss.

In the end, I decided to split the difference by texting him back."Right about what?"

His reply came almost immediately."You're awake."

"Maybe."

"Can I call you?"

Huh.That was weird. Mason was the kind of guy who didn't ask permission – well, other than the time we'd gotten frisky in the pantry. But that was a total anomaly in more ways than one.

I was still trying to come up with a decent response when my phone buzzed yet again."Say yes."

And right on the heels ofthattext, came another."You know you want to."

I felt my lips twitch like they wanted to smile. But I shouldn't be smiling. Mason had been totally awful. And yet, judging from his texts, he was willing to meet me more than halfway.

After all, I wasn't tellinghimthathewas right – because he wasn't.

In the end, curiosity won out. I didn't give him a "yes," but I did send him a text with two little letters."Ok."

I'd barely hit "send" when my phone buzzed with his incoming call. Bracing myself, I answered with a quiet, "Hey."

His voice was quiet, too. "Hey."

It felt so embarrassingly good to hear his voice, although for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why. "So…What's up?"

"There's something I need to tell you."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You were right."

"So I hear. But about what?"