Chapter 93 KNOX

Chapter 93 KNOX

"Knoxy." That tone alone made me laugh before she'd even said anything else.

"Speckles."

"I'm havin' so much fun." She beamed, took one enthusiastic step forward, and her heel caught on absolutely nothing. 

“Wow.” Her eyes widened. “My hero.”

She patted my arm approvingly, like I'd done something genuinely heroic instead of just having functioning reflexes.

"You caught me. Very impressive. Very quick. Have you considered a career in, um. Catching. People. That's a whole industry, right? I feel like that should be a job."

"I don't think there is."

"There should be."

She blinked down at my arm, then up at me, deeply impressed all over again,  "Anyways .I have no idea why, but the floor is very affectionate tonight."

"The floor?"

"It keeps tryin' to hug me. I think it likes me."

Then she stared at my face..
"You're really good-lookin' up close, y'know that, Knoxy?" She studied me with the intense concentration of someone conducting extremely important research. 

"I mean — you've got the whole big, broad, handsome, sexy thing goin' on."

"The whole thing?"

"The whole package." She nodded firmly, the motion slightly bigger than it needed to be. "Very unfair, actually."

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?"

"It's the best thing." She waved a hand vaguely, nearly clipping Hunter in the chest. "That's why women fall in love with you left an' right."

"Women?"

"Yes. Constantly. Must be exhaustin'."

"You sound concerned."

"I am concerned." She frowned at me, deeply serious, then leaned in with the exaggerated stealth of someone attempting a covert operation, nearly toppling forward in the process. 

"Psst. I'm s'posed to be concerned. I'm your — " she made a vague, complicated gesture with one hand, like the word was too classified to say at full volume, "—F.G. Remember."

"F.G.?"

Code word for fake girlfriend, silly." She whispered it like state secrets, then whipped her head left and right, checking for spies with all the subtlety of a woman wearing a blinking neon sign. "Shh. Nobody knows. It's a secret. A cov'rt operation."

"Everyone here knows, Speckles. It's not exactly classified information from our friends."

"They know the cover story." She tapped the side of her nose, missing slightly and hitting her cheek instead, entirely undeterred. "They don't know the details. Details're top secret. Need-to-know basis only."

"What details?"

"Can't tell you. You might be comp'mised." She patted my cheek consolingly, like I'd just failed a background check.

"Very comp'mised, actually. Extremely comp'mised person. It's honestly concernin' how comp'mised you are."

"I'm the one who hired you."

"Doesn't matter. Rules're rules." She nodded firmly, entirely satisfied with this logic, then immediately abandoned the whole bit to squint at Hunter like he'd just materialized out of thin air. "Wait. Does hel know?"

"He's known since the beginning."

"Hunter." She said his name like an accusation, rounding on him with real betrayal wobbling in her eyes, one finger pointed and slightly off-target. "You've been in on the FG thingy the whole time?"

Hunter, delighted beyond words, just raised his glass in salute. "Guilty as charged."

"This is a very leaky op'ration," Juniper informed me gravely, turning back to me with the air of someone delivering devastating intelligence, swaying slightly on the pivot. "

"Very leaky. We should fire someone. Somebody's gettin' fired tonight. I don't know who yet. But somebody."

Before I could answer, she took a step away, caught her heel on absolutely nothing again, and lurched sideways. I caught her around the waist again...

"Woah..You okay?"

She blinked up at me, then gave me a tiny, very serious smile. "I'm fine. Fine an' dandy." A hiccup followed.

I stared at her. Then at Katy. Then at Piper.
"Okay. How the fuck did she manage to get drunk in the bathroom?"

Juniper gasped, scandalized, one hand pressed to her chest like I'd personally wounded her. "I'm not drunk."

I raised an eyebrow.

She reconsidered instantly, holding up her fingers — thumb and forefinger pinched together, squinted at, adjusted twice, then held out for my inspection like the matter was officially settled. 

"Only this much." A beat. Then she held up her other hand too, apparently for emphasis, though the second measurement was, suspiciously, identical to the first. 

"And also this much. That's it. That's the whole amount. Very small. Basically medicinal."

"You were in the bathroom for twenty minutes. How does someone get drunk in there? It's a bathroom. There's a sink. Maybe a hand dryer. No bar."

Piper held up the half-empty bottle. "I brought backup for the bathroom summit. She drank most of it."

"What the fuck?"

"Apparently your fake girlfriend has the alcohol tolerance of a golden retriever who found the punch bowl at a wedding."

Juniper's whole face brightened, completely unbothered by the comparison. "I like golden retrievers," she announced, the words running together just slightly.

"That wasn't a compliment, Juni."

"It was to me." She nodded, very pleased with this conclusion. 

"They're cute. And fluffy. And everybody likes them. I'm basically a golden retriever."

"You're definitely something."

She giggled, then looked down at the bottle in Piper's hand. "It was so yummy, Piper." She licked her lips and reached for it again.

"Pips."

"No."

"Just a little?"

"No."

"A tiny little?"

"No."

"A baby sip?"

"No."

She pouted, the expression soft and wobbly around the edges. "Mean."

I caught her hand before it got anywhere near the bottle. "You've had enough."

She stared down at our joined hands like I'd just committed a federal crime, then looked up at me with the deepest, most wounded expression I'd ever seen on a human face.

"You're no fun at all, Knoxy."

"You wound me, Speckles." I pressed a hand flat over my chest, mock-grievous. "Right here. Deep tissue damage. I may never recover."

"Aww. No." Her whole face crumpled with instant, exaggerated concern, like she'd genuinely just injured me.

Apparently deciding forgiveness was in order anyway, she reached up with both hands and pinched my cheeks — hard enough to actually sting — then held on like she was testing the structural integrity of my face.

"I forgive you," she declared, giving my cheeks one solemn, decisive squeeze, like she was sealing the verdict.

"I'm very generous like that. Very forgiving person. You're lucky, actually. Some people don't get second chances. You got one. For free. No charge.
And because you're so cute. Like — aggressively cute. It's unfair. Some of us have to try and pass looking decent, and you're just standing there being... this." Another experimental squeeze.

She gave my cheeks one last squeeze. I had to look away before the smile won.

Hunter looked like he'd been handed front-row tickets to the best show of his life. "This is the best night of my life."

Slate took a slow sip of his drink. "Did you hear that? Knox Reyes, reduced from notorious playboy to cute." His mouth twitched. 

I glared at him.
"What? I'm just saying. Man of your reputation, brought down by a woman two drinks deep. Poetic, really."

"Hey — why is the club spinning?" Juniper demanded suddenly, gripping my forearm with real concern, eyes wide like she'd just uncovered a conspiracy. 

"What did you guys do to the club while I was gone?"

Hunter raised both hands, all innocence. "We didn't do anything, I swear on my mother's—"

"The room isn't spinning, Speckles." Katy patted her shoulder.

"It is."

"No, it isn't."

Juniper stared at her, deeply suspicious, then apparently decided to accept the explanation, nodding slowly like a judge delivering a reluctant verdict. 

"Fine. But I'm keeping an eye on it. I don't trust it. Clubs are sneaky. They wait until you're not looking and then — whoosh. Chaos."

Then, without warning, her entire face lit up, every dark suspicion about the architecture forgotten instantly. 

She turned back to me so fast she nearly lost her balance again, eyes bright, mouth already curving into a delighted, unfocused smile.

"Oh my god, Knoxy." She grabbed my arm with both hands, vibrating with the specific urgency of someone about to announce a Nobel Prize. 

"I completely forgot to tell you the good news. We're famous."

"We're famous," I repeated, fighting the smile that was rapidly losing the battle against my face. "Since when?"

"Since tonight. Obviously." She said it like I was the one being slow here, patting my arm reassuringly, like she was breaking difficult news gently. "Keep up, Knoxy."

"My mistake."

"It's okay. I forgive you." Another cheek squeeze, apparently the going rate for forgiveness tonight. 

“You’re doin’ really well, though,” she added, giving me an approving nod. “For someone who just found out he’s famous. Very composed. I’m proud of you.”

I had absolutely no defense against that, and didn't particularly want one. "Thank you. I appreciate the support."

"That's what f.g.'s are for."

I stared at her.

Then at Katy and Piper, who were both suddenly very interested in anything happening anywhere else.

But what the fuck was she talking about?
Famous for fucking what?

I was beginning to suspect I'd missed an entire chapter of the evening while standing right beside her.