Free The Flash of a Firefly by Amber Riley Page A

started twirling it by the heel as he sat down.
    Flo stomped her foot and ran down to the living room, snatching the shoe from his hand. Her hair hit him in the face as she turned to leave the room again, and he twirled a piece with his finger. She turned around, hit his arm with the shoe, and stormed away.
    Stu smiled and shrugged at me. “So what’s up, my peeps?”
    I blinked slowly, trying to process what he had just said. Stu may have always been great at adapting to the changing centuries, but he was being a little extreme. “I have never seen you looking this ridiculous,” I told him.
    He plucked at his shirt and laughed. “I like to switch it up sometimes, or I get bored.” He started to button the shirt, and the smile fell from his face. “I got your voice mail about Francesca, so I found Flo and followed her back here.”
    “I left that voice mail a week ago.”
    “Yeah.” He rubbed his eye and accidentally scratched himself with one of his rings. “This is the age of text messages. I don’t check my voice mail much, but I’m here now.”
    “Comforting,” I said sarcastically.
    Sid’s phone started playing a rock song and vibrating across the coffee table. He grabbed it and pushed the talk button. Reece was talking so loud on the other end that I could hear him. Apparently there was something wrong with his car and he didn’t think he could make it.
    “Put it on speaker,” I told Sid.
    He did. The wind was making a crackly noise into the phone, and it sounded like he was banging around on metal. His voice kept getting louder and softer as he moved closer to and away from the receiver.
    “Reece,” I interrupted. I was too impatient to wait. “It’s fine; just listen.”
    There was a loud clang, and he swore into the phone. After another few noises, the wind stopped and there was silence on the phone for a second. “All right, I’m in the car. Tell me what’s going on.”
    “Sid has a girlfriend,” I said, watching him carefully for a reaction.
    There was a long pause. “So?” Reece said.
    Sid blushed and ruffled his curls. “I just started seeing her a few weeks ago. It’s not anything serious.”
    “Good.” I looked him straight in the eye. “Because she’s sending Alex to date a human so he can watch the girl’s roommate.”
    “I’m totally lost here,” Stu said, jumping into the conversation. “You’re worried about Alex dating a human because Sid’s girlfriend said so, in order to protect the roommate of said human? Now? Don’t you have better things to deal with?”
    “The roommate is my antique dealer’s niece,” I said, throwing him a nasty look. “Francesca threatened her, and now Alex is supposed to be watching her.”
    “I don’t understand,” Reece said.
    Flo appeared and leaned over the back of the couch. She was wearing her white robe again and had her hair up in a bun. “You morons,” she started. “He never told anyone about this,” she glanced at me, “niece. How does Sid’s little girlfriend know enough to have someone look after her? And why didn’t she tell you about it?”
    There was another long pause before Sid got up and put his jeans on. He pulled his sneakers out from under the table and grabbed his jacket off the back of the couch.
    “Reece,” he said into the phone, “fix the car.”
    “Where are you going?” I asked.
    “To deal with this,” he said, slamming the door on his way out.
     
     

  Chapter 8
     
     
     
    When I woke up, Francesca was already waiting for me outside. I knew because Flo was outside my door having a hemorrhage of green paint. I hadn’t heard that many curse words strung together in a long time. I took my time getting dressed. I still wasn’t ready to face the music, but I doubted that I ever would be.
    By the time I made it to the front door, twenty minutes had passed. I was nervous, and Flo was getting me agitated. She hovered behind me in a state of near panic. Even Stu was keeping his distance