Between Loves (The Pendant Series Book 2) by Cynthia Austin Page A

date?” I joked, obviously referring to myself.
    “The hottest in town.”
    I smiled at the compliment and nervously shoved my hands in my pocket.
    Is he flirting with me?
    Adrian was so strange sometimes. The things he said to me always sent mixed signals. His words told me he was obviously interested but he never really made a move romantically. I couldn’t say what I would do if he had. I really did enjoy his company but sometimes I caught myself wanting more. Then I would remember Ray and shake those unwanted thoughts from my head. Adrian and I were just friends. Maybe it was better that he never made any advances. I may not be able to tell him no.
    Taking a seat next to him, I took a giant breath trying to compose my thoughts, but instead I choked on the toxic fumes he was dispersing in the air.
    “Have you ever thought about quitting?” I asked impulsively.
    He put the filter to his mouth and inhaled, causing the end to burn red as he did, making a sizzling sound. He blew the gray smoke out of the corner of his mouth in a pathetically failed attempt to blow the smoke away from me.
    I coughed again.
    “What for?”
    I wrapped my arms around my knees and rested my face in my lap looking at him sideways. “For a longer life, for starters.”
    “I’m not afraid of death,” he said, flicking the butt off the steps.
    “Well, you wouldn’t get to hang out with me if you were dead, would you?” I suggested, waving my two hands up in the air as if I was some great performer he would be missing.
    “You’d follow soon,” he concluded as he quickly stood up.
    He seemed to be in rare form this evening.
    I shrugged off his response and stood up to follow him, but then I realized he’d never answered my first question. Impulsively, I stepped toward him and reached into his pocket. My forwardness must have thrown him off guard and it was very satisfying to watch his reaction as I turned the tables. He was well aware of how his close proximity made me shudder and I suspected that he enjoyed making me squirm.
    Now it was my turn as he attempted to take a step back but the banister prevented him from retreating. I took a step closer as I stared into those green eyes that no longer contained humor.
    Could it really be possible that I made him just as nervous?
    “You never answered my question.” I breathed as my hand slid deeper into his pocket. I gripped his iPhone, pulled it out, and spun around to ensure that he couldn’t snatch it back from me.
    He didn’t try, instead Adrian let out a sigh of relief as he tried to get a hold of himself. Quickly going to his media player, I saw the song that he’d left off on, the Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran duet.
    He made a feeble attempt to snatch the phone back but my reflexes were faster than his as I playfully stretched my arm up to the sky and out of his reach. The sun was still in full force, reminding us that summer was right around the corner. I was pretty sure that Punxsutawney Phil was wrong this year when he predicted six more weeks of winter. Spring was really in the air. It was more than in the air. It was here.
    “Come on, Sidney.”
    “Don’t worry, Adrian, I’m not going through your text messages in search of all of those dark secrets you insist on keeping from me,” I toyed with him. “I just wanna see your playlist. You can tell a lot from a person when you see what kind of music they listen to.”
    Now I had his attention. I even managed to bring back that infamous half smile I’d grown to love. “Yeah, like what?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. All sorts of things, I suppose, but mostly I just wanna see how many songs match my playlist.”
    Adrian folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the banister. “Why?”
    “I don’t know. It’s a thing I do. It sounds a little silly saying it out loud, but what if you found someone who had the exact same playlist as yours, two people with every song in common…they’d have to be each other’s soul