“There was no mooning. I did not participate in any mooning.” I was horrified.

Angus’ eyeballs almost exploded out of his head. “You mooned him?”

Merry nodded as she bit into another slice. “Not that kind of mooning. He did not show him his naked arse. If you moon over someone, you daydream over them.”

“Ohhhh,” Angus said, nodding slowly.

“I did not moon him,” I said indignantly. “Butthole or daydreaming or any kind of astral body. Jesus, fuck. Where is my dignity?”

Angus looked around the room. “I dunno man. Did you lose it?”

I slow blinked. “No, it’s around here somewhere.”

Angus smiled. “Cool. So did you speak to him?”

“Yep.”

“He did more than that,” Merry said, smiling as she shoved the crust of her pizza slice into her mouth.

“Shut up.” I grabbed another piece of pizza with as much aggression as I could. “I’ll need to find another bus to catch home and possibly move suburbs. Cities even. I haven’t decided.”

“You’ll be fine,” Merry said.

Angus frowned. “Jordan, are we moving?”

I wouldn’t ever admit it to anyone out loud, but I did like how he assumed if I moved, he’d be moving with me. I patted his leg. “No, mate. We’re good.”

“Phew,” he said, smiling and taking another slice of pizza. “You want another beer?”

“Sure.” I smiled up at him as he stood and headed toward the kitchen. “I need all the help I can get with forgetting this clusterfuck of a night.”

“Jordan, you’ll be fine,” Merry said.

She said the same thing to me on Monday at two minutes past five as I was almost hyperventilating at the bus stop. “Jordan, you’ll be fine. He’s a nice guy. You have nothing to worry about. Unless he’s not on the bus…”

“Oh motherfucker, why would you say that?” I took some gulps of air. “What if he’s not on the bus? What if he moved suburbs to avoid me? And now he’s joined the witness protection program, his name is Hans Solo Gruber and he’s an intergalactic German terrorist smuggler, living in the Nakatomi Cantina—”

Merry gave my arm a shake. “Jordan. Stop it. Get on the bus. Say hello to him.”

I made a high-pitched sound that surprised even me.

Merry smiled. “I’ll call you tonight.” She nodded over my shoulder, and I turned to find the bus right fucking there.

Motherfucker.

I had no choice but to get on. I swiped my Opal card and didn’t want to scan the faces. I truly didn’t, but of course I did. There he was, sitting halfway up, headphones on. And of course I had to walk past him, and just as I made my way through the crowd, he looked up. Then he did a double take, and he smiled and nodded and pointed to his own head. “Headphones Guy.”