Page 88 of Try Me

“Can’t argue with that. Also, I’ve never heard of Slurpy’s before, but is that really the best name they could come up with?”

“It’s new. It’s where all the cool kids go”—her gaze raked over me in rigorous assessment—“so I’ll need you to stay in the car while I order for us. Their shakes are delicious, though.”

“As a point of fact, you should know I was a cool kid once.”

“No, you weren’t.” The comment came so whipsaw quick and decisive that I burst into laughter. A tiny smile threatened Carrie’s tough veneer. I didn’t dare acknowledge it for fear of sending it crawling back to the fiery pits of hell. “What?” she asked, batting her lashes.

“You’re cutthroat. Damn.”

“Thank you.” A pleased smile spread primly over her face.

We managed to make it to Slurpy’s without further decimation of my ego and got our shakes—chocolate for me, strawberry for her, and a vanilla we agreed upon last minute for Chet.

She fiddled with the radio as we drove, finally settling on a top twenty station.

“Cheech says you were friends when you were kids.”

“Cheech?”

She grinned. “That’s my nickname for him. He calls me Corny. Or, well, not anymore actually, because it’s cheesy now.”

“But you still call him Cheech?”

“Little sister privs.”

Cheech. I filed that one away. “Yep. We were friends.”

“But you went to a different school. And now you work together at the law firm?”

“Yep.” The line of questioning had me on guard, given Carrie’s effectiveness at bringing me down to size.

“Are you hooking up?”

I choked on a glob of milkshake, and she snickered maliciously.

“That’s kind of personal, but no.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but I wished it was.

“Are you in your senior year, too?”

“Yes.”

“Are you in a frat?”

“Yes.”

“Which one?”

I cast a sidelong glance at her. “Sigma Psi.”

“I thought so. Only a frat guy would wear a tie like that.”

I looked down at the tie. “My aunt gave it to me last Christmas. I’m not actually a fan of it. But Chet picked it out this morning, and we were in a hurry so—”

“Aha!” Her eyes gleamed rapaciously, as if I’d just served up a particularly tasty morsel of gossip. “Youarehooking up!”

“Wait…what? C’mon, you’re railroading me. I’m gonna tell Chet he needs to fast-track you to law school stat because you, my friend, have a gift.” She preened, angling her hands under her chin and swiveling side to side. I held up a finger to press pause on her gloating. “But for your information, your brother—who I amnotdating—showed up at my place this morning because I overslept. Kind of on purpose, but we’ll disregard that point. He wanted to make sure I didn’t miss work.”

“Is he going to win the prize?”