Page 30 of Demon's Heart

Was it weird to send that after declining Dante’s offer to play tonight? Probably not. They were friends, so sending memes was normal. But they hadn’t texted much outside of organizing when to meet online.

Dante sent back a laughing emoji, and Ollie relaxed. It was like any other interaction with Dex or his work bestie Ellie.

But instead of flipping back to the meme thread he’d been scrolling, Ollie stayed on the text screen, staring at the emoji. Should he meet up with Dante in person? He kept thinkingabout it. The only reason he hadn’t committed was not knowing how to ask. Everything sounded too date-like in his head.

Making a new friend had never been this hard before, but then, Ollie didn’t usually have massive crushes on his friends. Maybe he should have avoided Dante rather than try to hang out with him and suppress his feelings. All the butterflies and sweet tingles didn’t seem to be going away. If anything, Ollie’s attraction to Dante had grown.

He was hopeless. Why else would he be staring at their text thread like this?

Was this bad?

Did it mean his friendship with Dante was going somewhere unhealthy? Ollie was fixated on Dante, and that wasn’t good. Why couldn’t he get Dante out of his head? Dante consuming his thoughts could be the first step to consuming his life.

Ollie’s stomach twisted. He took a long breath, and the discomfort faded. Maybe he was creating problems that weren’t there. He hadn’t blown off Harper or Dex to hang out with Dante, and there was nothing wrong with thinking about Dante if it didn’t get in the way of anything else.

Ollie turned back to the movie. What were the characters even saying? He’d missed something important but couldn’t bring himself to ask Harper to rewind it. He turned back to his phone.

Having a normal conversation with Dante might stop the worries banging around in his head. He could talk to Dante without turning his world upside down, just like he could with anyone else, and he’d prove it.

Ollie:

How was work today?

They’d chatted about Dante’s conservation work a fewtimes. Ollie couldn’t help bringing it up when Dante was so passionate about it.

Dante’s reply came through quickly. Maybe Ollie wasn’t the only one keeping his phone close.

Dante:

The birds are all doing well. Settled into their nests for the night. Things have been a bit slow with the project I’m working on, but I shouldn’t complain.

How about you?

Ollie:

Glad the birds are all happy and tucked in. It’s so cool you work in the reserve.

My day was booked solid. So glad it’s Sunday tomorrow.

The salon was closed on Sunday and Monday, and Saturday was always their busiest day. Ollie had fun at work—the Ollie and Ellie team was unstoppable—and wouldn’t change his job for the world, but by the end of the week, he was tired.

He rubbed his stiff neck. How good would a massage be right now? Especially a massage from Dante.

Nope. Not going there. That was the last thing he needed to imagine.

Dante:

You’re off work tomorrow, right?

Ollie:

Yep.

A light feeling of anticipationfilled him.

Dante:

Would you like to see the birds?