“Thank God. That’s really, really cool. I can’t believe I didn’t know you were into writing before, but it totally makes sense.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! You’ve always liked reading for fun, and you’re always the first to want to learn or try something new, which probably makes great research. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how many times you’ve let me fingerprint you.”

I snort. “I couldn’t if I wanted to. That ink stained my fingers for, like, a week.”

“And I appreciate it!” She grins. “But okay, so, not to get all Gia on you, but don’t tell me there was zero romance this summer. Something cooled your Chase panties all the way down.”

I groan. “Do you have to phrase everything so extremely gross?”

“Yes.”

“There might have been … some kissing,” I allow. “But that’s all I’ll say about that. And let the record show that my Chase panties are still firmly on. Are we done now?”

“We’re done,” she agrees, pulling up to my building. “But Lar, I’m really, really glad you told me. And if you ever wanna use those newfound web skills, I wouldn’t mind having help making some pretty ads for Kiki on the Case. Paid, of course.”

I tap my finger to my chin. “I don’t know if you could afford me, but we’ll talk.” Impulsively, I lean over and press a kiss to the top of her head. “Thanks, Keeks.” I jump out of the car before she can yell at me for showing emotion.

But there’s no yelling. “Lar?”

I turn back. “Yeah?”

“Whoever you were kissing … I think they must’ve been really good for you.”

My mind lingers on her use of “they” long after she leaves me standing in the Porsche’s dust.

Chapter Eleven

The thing about using your cell phone as your alarm clock is it’s hard to avoid seeing your notifications first thing when you wake up. The minute I open my eyes, I see a new episode of Kiki on the Case has been released.

Oh, and the title of the episode is “Secret Relationships in History.”

It’s too early to deal with my stress over whether or not she’s trying to send me a message, or worse, if there’s something pointed at me in it, so I skip my usual routine of scrolling through everyone’s posts and pictures to wake myself up and instead hop straight into the shower.

I try to think about literally anything else as the hot spray rains, but everything from Homecoming to Chase to college feels charged. I went to sleep around eleven last night, and there hadn’t been a new episode then; what was so important Kiki had to post it first thing this morning? Not to mention the time she must’ve taken to edit it. Did she even sleep?