Page 105 of Stardusted

She rocked onto the heels of her rainboots with a dramatic sigh. “Damn. I was really hoping you were finally taking a shot at that sexy bartender you work with.”

Lightning flashed across the sky like a bony hand ready to slap me into the next dimension. Which could be exactly what I needed. I gawked at her, horrified.

Oh…oh no.

A soft thud sounded behind me, like Sky had bumped against the wall. My pride shriveled up and died. I shook my head frantically, mouth working, but words wouldn’t come.

Luckily for me, Amelia didn’t have that problem.

“I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to you about this! I saw you guys dancing before you ghosted me at Crescent. I get it now. You weren’t kidding when you described his ass.” I lifted a hand like I could physically shove this conversation away, but Amelia only tilted her head, peering at me from beneath her dripping umbrella. “You should do it. Go after him. You’ve spent the last year panting for him, and I bet he’s a good time. They say if a guy can dance…” She grinned like the devil herself.

Which made sense because this was hell. I was in it. I gazed at her, arm falling limply to my side. My throat had closed. Helpless, I tried to will her into silence with my eyes, but it didn’t work.

She plowed on like a charging bull dressed in couture. “That’s what you need, you know. You’ve been super stressed. And it’s been, like, ten months since you’ve gotten laid.”

What?Tenmonths?

That was enough. I tried to scoff, but it got stuck, and instead I choked out a garbled correction. “No, it hasn’t. It’s been four!”

Okay, six.Fine,seven.

Purely a coincidence that’d been when my last relationship had ended and…when I’d started at Oasis.

Fine. I’d been too stuck on Sky since then to entertain the idea of anyone else. I wasn’t admitting that right now, though.

With him. Hearingallthis. I wondered if it was too late to call the Enil to come crush me.

Desperate to derail this descent into my own personal nightmare, I spewed words. “I’m not— I mean, I’m over him. I definitely havenotbeen lusting after him.”

“What are you talking about?” Amelia snorted in disbelief. “Uh, yeah, you have. Last time you got drunk, you spent half the night having ChatAI name your future children.”

Well, I was going to die now. Killed not by alien murder robot, but by humiliation. I closed my eyes. Any minute now, my ghost would leave my body. Death was imminent. I welcomed it.

“That…I never did that,” I whispered. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead.

When I opened my eyes, I saw she’d raised a brow. “You did.”

“Right, but that was before.” I tried for a scoff. “Really, A, I’m over it. He’s got some real, um, issues. The kind that make him very, very…notsomeone I’d want to do…that…with.”

“Yeah, well,”snapwent her gum, “as long as his issues aren’t bad dick?—”

“Okay!” I said loudly, cutting her off as Sky let out a shocked laugh behind me. Hopefully the storm drowned him out. “Well. I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks for stopping by. I’m fine. Great. Everything’s fine.”

Amelia angled her head to the side. “You’re acting weird.”

“Yes!” I smiled. It felt like baring my teeth. “You know me. Just weird. Going to take a bath. Early night. Alone. Very alone.”

“I thought you just took a shower.” I stared at her with wide eyes, and she took a step back, pursing her lips. “O-okay. Whatever. Well, text me if you need me.”

“Will do. Bye!” I slammed the door shut and slumped against it, forehead to wood. I could feel Sky’s eyes burning into my back. My face was on fire again. My neck, too, this time. Everything. My whole life. One big dumpster fire.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I muttered. “You can go ahead and kill me now.”

Sky chuckled softly. The sound was unfairly sexy. Talk about kicking me while I was down.

“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad,” he said, but I could hear the smile in his voice. Maybe even a little smugness. Like that’d been good for his alien ego.

That was great for him. It also happened to be the single most humiliating experience of my life.