Unhinged by Timberlyn Scott Page A

two
bottles of water from the refrigerator and then returned to the small breakfast
nook where Mark was pulling out the chairs, waiting for Chloe and me to take
our seats.
    “Thank you.” I smiled
at Mark as I slipped into my chair, then glanced over at Chloe and added, “Please
tell me you found a dress.”
    She’d already snatched
the bag of tacos and was pouring the contents out onto the table.
    “Why do you doubt me?”
she asked, pretending to be offended.
    “I don’t. I’m just—”
    Chloe interrupted me,
her green eyes twinkling. “You’re just eating. And then we’ll try on the
dress.”
    “Maybe we should try it
on before I eat. I don’t want to be bloated,” I told her seriously, my
eyes watching for her reaction. “The dress may not fit.”
    Mark and Aaron laughed
while Chloe erupted in a fit of giggles. I sat there staring at the three of
them, trying to keep a straight face. “What is so funny?”
    “Just eat and tell us
about your day,” Chloe replied when she stopped laughing.
    “Mine was boring,”
Aaron offered when no one spoke. “You?” He turned to Mark.
    “Yep, just as boring.”
    All eyes turned to me.
    “I went to Mr.
Trovato’s house today,” I blurted before thinking.
    I kept my attention on
my taco, avoiding eye contact with the other three people at the table, but I
could feel their gazes boring into me.
    When no one said
anything, I slipped my eyes up to Chloe’s face.  
    Her eyebrow was cocked
and she had stopped chewing. “I knew I should be worried.”
    It was my turn to
laugh. “It wasn’t like that.”
    “Spill,” Mark said as he
finished off his first taco. “He’s rich, right? Nice house?”
    “I don’t know. I just
saw the outside.”
    “And?”
    “It’s a house.” I tried
to sound indifferent. I seriously doubted Conrad Trovato’s home could be
classified as a mere house, but that wasn’t the point of my story. “Anyway. He
left his cell phone at home and his wife couldn’t bring it to him. He told me
to go. I went. No cell phone.”
    “What?” Aaron looked
thoroughly confused. “Where was it?”
    I laughed, realizing
how Aaron had taken my statement. “I didn’t get it.” Without hesitating, I
spewed the rest of the story, including the part about meeting the sexy as sin
mechanic, never stopping to breathe.
    “A mechanic? Are you
serious?” Chloe asked, her eyes locked with mine.
    I nodded, sipping my
Diet Dr. Pepper.
    “How hot are we
talking? Lukewarm? Or like scorch-your-fingertips-if-you-touch-him hot?” Mark
asked.
    “The second one,” I
answered, studying my taco.
    I knew I shouldn’t have
said anything. Chloe would constantly remind me of the mechanic from here on
out and Aaron would be worried about me. It was a known fact that I didn’t date
much. And it wasn’t because men didn’t ask me out. They did. But I was a firm
believer in the physiological reaction that I knew existed, even if I’d never
felt it before. Until I found that, I wasn’t interested in wasting any more
time with guys who just didn’t do it for me.
    My hand stilled halfway
to my mouth.
    I’d felt that reaction
to Sebastian, hadn’t I?
    Shaking off the unruly
thought, I forced the taco to my mouth, taking a bite and ignoring the
sensations that stirred in my belly when I thought about him.
    I shouldn’t have even
brought him up. I didn’t want to think about Sebastian, much less have someone
ask me questions about him. I doubted I’d ever see him again and that… that
kind of bugged me.
    I managed to deflect
the rest of their questions until finally we were finished eating. Before I
could grab the taco wrappers to toss them in the trash, Chloe sprang up from
her chair and grabbed my arm, dragging me into her bedroom before I realized we
were on the move.
    “We’ll just… clean the
kitchen,” Aaron called, laughing.
    “Thank you!” I hollered
back, stumbling behind Chloe.
    There on her bed was
the sexiest dress I’d ever seen.
    And the