Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
There are snickers from around the room. “That’s my brother, alright.” That’s said by the bearded guy, and honestly, he looks so unlike Orion that I can’t believe they’re actually brothers, so I think that word is used more like a brother-from-another-mother kind of brother.
My Ers—that would be my erogenous zones—heat up to a temperature hot enough to melt gold when I accidentally look Orion’s way, and our eyes meet. All it takes is a soft caress from even softer eyes that aren’t gray and blue to make me feel like I’m going to become a liquified gold bar on the spot.
I’m very careful not to gasp as I take a deep breath in the name of composing myself. “Anyway, so I noticed him. I’d had a few drinks, and I was feeling…I don’t know. My inhibitions were a tad bit lower than they’d normally be, and so were my manners. I got a little bit closer. I wanted to start up a conversation, but then I noticed he was sitting there playing with his phone, and when I edged even closer, I noticed he wasn’t playing with his phone. He was hacking.”
The room goes incredibly silent. It’s the type of silent where a bomb has just gone off, the informational kind of bomb. And shit, now I’m getting looks like someone might be considering breaking out the ropes and gag and making me stay for a good long while. No one moves, and after a second, there are a few forced smiles from the guys. The energy in the room has definitely gone to that of the oh-shit nervous variety.
“I wasn’t hacking in public,” Orion protests. He raises his voice, and his cheeks turn adorably pink. Yes, adorable. I just used that word on my husband, who isn’t really my husband, who I guess is kind of my husband. “You hear that, Granny?”
“Oh, I heard,” the response comes from the kitchen. “And if these butt-kissing chocolate chips don’t cooperate, I am going to….”
“Okay, what happened then?” the guy who made the wild theory that was absolutely correct asks before a string of expletives can come out. There’s a baby present here.
“I walked over, made a geeky and techy pickup line, and sat down. I pulled out the chair across from him at the table in that lounge and asked him straight up who he was hacking. He said he wasn’t hacking. He was coding. I then asked him if he was indeed coding on his phone, and he replied he was trying out a few ideas. After he put his phone away, we had a few more drinks and stared at each other weirdly because it seemed like we had a strange connection. That sounds funny, but…anyway. This was more than a few drinks in for both of us. What was a few more? He then subsequently confessed to me that he was hacking, and I confessed that I knew it because I was also a hacker, mostly in my spare time. After which, he said he wanted to marry me. I was drunk, but since I have a near-photographic memory that also includes details and sounds, I remembered saying sure, why not?”
“Shit, son,” the guy with the beard says before he glances at the baby. “I mean shoot.”
“So we ended up at an all-night wedding chapel. The thing is, I don’t know if they didn’t care that we were drunk or if they couldn’t tell. Orion was acting totally normal. Like he wasn’t drunk at all. I didn’t realize until later just how drunk he was.”
“Blacked out drunk,” the guy sitting beside the lady with the baby mutters.
I nod. “Maybe. Right after the JP guy declared us husband and wife, Orion took out his wallet and told me to hold it. He was trying to find his phone, but it appeared to have been lost. He then ripped his T-shirt down the front, made T-Rex arms in front of his body, and went running down the aisle at blinding speed. He burst through the chapel doors, and…um, he never came back. I thought he was joking at first, but when I went outside, and he was nowhere to be found, that’s when my drunk brain sobered up in a hurry. I’d just married a guy, and I had no idea where he was. I did have his wallet, though. If I were anyone else, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find him.”
The guy with the beard clears his throat. “How did you find us? That’s not…normal. Not normal at all. You clearly have skills that go beyond hacking in your free time.”
“Well, I did have his wallet. The ID might have been fake, and there might not have been much else in there beyond a credit card with the same fake name and an old gum wrapper, but long story short, I got far enough along with my hacking that I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere. There was a reason the ID was fake. Whoever my husband really was, he didn’t want to be found. I didn’t know the reason for it. Honestly, I still barely do.” I make sure I cover my bases because if these guys are into doing what I think they’re doing, I don’t want them to know that I know. “It wasn’t easy, and it took a freaking long time, but I did it.”