Playing It Safe by Barbie Bohrman Read Free Book Online Page A

he is. Like he’s in his office or something.
    “Where are you?” I ask in a rush of breath.
    “In my office.”
    “Where’s your date?”
    “Why do you want to know?” he asks with a smile in his tone.
    “You’re right. I don’t.”
    “Yes you do.”
    “You know what, Alex? The better question would be why are you calling me in the confines of your cozy office, all alone I might add, when you have a date?”
    He chuckles, and the sound is one that I will catalog in the recesses of my mind for future reference because it sends a chill down my spine.
    “That would be the better question,” he says smoothly. “Too bad you didn’t ask it.”
    And he hangs up. The smug bastard just hung up on me!
    I throw my cell phone onto the couch next to me and rub my eyes with the heels of my hands. My phone dings, and I’m almost afraid to see what it says, but curiosity gets the better of me, and I snatch it up to see a text from Alex that brings a huge smile to my face.
    You looked beautiful tonight.
    Swoon.

CHAPTER FIVE
    S he what?!” Sabrina yells loud enough that I have to turn down the volume on my laptop.
    We’re on our weekly Saturday morning Skype session. It’s become a ritual with us ever since she moved away last year. I just finished explaining to her about Marisa sticking her tongue out at me like a child on a school playground last night and me giving her the finger in retaliation.
    “This girl obviously doesn’t know who she’s dealing with,” she says while laughing her ass off until she starts to cackle.
    “I know, right? Can you believe that shit?”
    “Wait a minute,” she gets out in between a laugh and wiping a tear from her eye. “You’ve got to tell Tyler about this.”
    She yells out his name, and he appears on my screen a few seconds later with just a pair of sweatpants on, looking like he just rolled out of bed.
    “Hey, Julia, how are you?” He gathers up Sabrina from the chair and sits down in her place. She plants herself back down on his lap, and he gives her a quick peck on the cheek.
    “My morning just got way better by looking at your fine ass. How about you?”
    “Julia!” Sabrina shouts in shock.
    “Oh please, we’re all adults here. You know he’s fine. I know he’s fine. Shit, I bet he even knows he’s fine.”
    Tyler is trying to cover the smirk on his face but not doing a very good job of it before clearing his throat. “So, what was it that had my girl laughing so hard? With you involved, I can only imagine.”
    I tell him the story, but just like with Sabrina, I don’t elaborate too much on the Alex part of it. I know that Sabrina is completely head over heels in love with Tyler, but I still feel funny talking to her about him.
    Tyler starts to laugh and then asks, “How old is this girl?”
    “I have no idea. But if I had to guess, I’d say twenty-five at most.”
    “Alex likes them young, huh?” he muses.
    “I wouldn’t know,” I say, somewhat dismayed myself.
    Sabrina notices my slight tone change. I can’t get much past her and vice versa. I’m grateful that I have someone in my life I can share my ups and downs with. But as close as we are, I still haven’t been able to fully disclose what I’ve been feeling toward Alex. Worse, I haven’t mentioned how I had a run-in with Aiden earlier in the week and the amount of times I’ve replayed our meeting in my head since then. I can only imagine how crazy I would sound to her by admitting out loud just how much that has done a bit of a number on me. The best part is I’m not even sure why. You would think after all this time since Aiden that I wouldn’t care, that it would just roll off my shoulders as if he meant nothing to me. And he doesn’t … kind of. I don’t know. I can’t even explain it to myself, so there is no way in hell that I could possibly explain it to Sabrina, right?
    I feel guilty keeping things from Sabrina, and I know she’ll be upset when she eventually finds out, but