Regardless of what else Jeremy was, he was a terrible dancer.
He was all jerking limbs and stiff hips. It was terrible, but he didn’t care. He was laughing and smiling and singing along, getting only one word right out of every ten.
I stood there watching him, feeling my stomach flutter.
Diego and Kai weren’t dancing. They were sitting on the old sofa in the corner, legs tangled together. Diego caught my eye. I held up the note. He frowned, nodded, then leaned over to whisper something in Kai’s ear. They didn’t look up from their phone as he kissed them on the cheek. He stood up from the couch and made his way through the throng of dancing people.
I thought I’d made it out undetected, but the next thing I learned about Jeremy was that nothing escaped his attention. He was still smiling when he saw me standing on the other side of the room, though he stopped dancing. He watched as Diego nervously made his way over to me, rubbing the back of his neck, gaze darting around to see if anyone else was watching him.
All right? Jeremy mouthed.
I nodded, then shrugged.
Jeremy looked back at the couch. “Kai! I need you to get up off your ass and dance.”
Kai rolled their eyes and didn’t look up from their phone.
I led Diego away from the noise toward the office. Marina was still inside, bent over her laptop, her face scrunched up. She’d been on the phone earlier with the financial advisor, and the conversation hadn’t been going well, from the sound of it. I’d thought about asking her if there was anything I could do to help when I came in, but then I’d been distracted by the orange Post-it on the seat of my chair.
“Hey,” she said, looking up at us. “Diego, how are you?”
Diego fidgeted in the doorway. “Fine. Just… looking at where you guys work.”
She nodded. “Isn’t much, I know, but it’s good enough.” She glanced between us curiously. “Is there something you needed?”
Diego looked stricken, and I stepped in before he could flee. “Nah. I just wanted to talk with Diego. Get to know him a little better. The others seem to listen to him pretty well, and I want to pick his brain to see if there’s anything he can teach me.”
Bless her heart, Marina seemed to understand all I wasn’t saying. She closed her laptop and stood, stretched her arms over her head. “Perfect timing, then. I could use a break. I think I’ll go see what all the fuss is about out in front.”
“Maybe you could convince our illustrious leader to consider better music,” I muttered.
She laughed and patted me on the shoulder as she headed for the door. “We don’t stifle anyone here, Corey, even if their tastes are… lesser.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s one way of putting it. You’re not the one who rides with him every day and gets to hear just how lesser his tastes actually are.”
She glanced over her shoulder and winked at me. “No, I don’t suppose I have to do that at all. That’s just you. Funny how that works.”
I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as she closed the door. I shook my head as I pointed to her recently vacated chair. “Take a seat, Diego. Your note said you wanted to ask me something.”
He rubbed at his bare arm. He wore a thin tank top that proclaimed him to be the #1 Party Dude at Lake Havasu over cutoff shorts and flip-flops. He had a smudge of dirt on his knee. He gnawed on his bottom lip, the bar through his eyebrow moving up and down as his brow furrowed.
“Or you can just stand there, if you want,” I told him as I sat down in my own chair. “Whatever works.”
“I’ll just stay right here,” he finally said.
I shrugged. “Okay. What’s up?”
He looked around the office, anywhere but at me.
I waited.
He sighed, shoulders slumping. “It isn’t—it’s not a big deal.”
“Okay,” I said evenly. I thought hard for a moment. “Hey, can you do me a favor?”
He looked dubious.
“Nothing big,” I said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said the others seem to listen to you. Look up to you, even. You’re a natural leader. That’s pretty great for someone your age.”