LOGINShare
156: 5pm
publish date:
2026-05-12 23:13:22
Latest chapter
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 161: Questions
Avery's POV"It may be nothing," Gregg said. "But I thought you should know."I sat still and waited.He shifted slightly in his chair, the way he did when he was about to say something he had not fully decided how to frame yet."Last weekend," he said. "Saturday night. You were not working but we had a full floor. It was a busy night as usual." He paused. "One of the bar staff mentioned to me on Sunday that there had been a girl asking questions.""What kind of questions?""About Scarlett," he said. "About you specifically. Who you were, whether you worked every Friday, other days of the week you were working, whether you were available for private bookings outside the regular schedule." He looked at me steadily. "She was not a client looking to book. She was not asking the way clients ask. She was asking the way someone asks when they are trying to find out information about a person."I kept my hands still in my lap."Did anyone tell her anything?" I said."No," he said. "The bar s
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 160: Complaint
Avery's POVIt seemed like everything went back to normal and I didn't see nor hear from Zoey on Tuesday. But then towards evening, I realized I concluded too soon about everything being fine. The message came through on Tuesday evening.Not a call. A message, from the club's internal system, the one the manager used when he needed to speak to staff about something that was not urgent enough for a phone call but too formal for a text. It said to come in before my next shift. It said Wednesday at four.I read it three times and then put my phone face down on my desk and sat there for a moment.Raven had said it was only a matter of time. I had thought I had more time than this.I got to the club at five to four on Wednesday. I had spent the better part of Tuesday evening deciding how to walk into that office, which sounds like too much preparation for a conversation but was not, because the way you walked into a room like that set the tone for everything that came after it. I was not g
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 159: Rumors
Avery's POVI said nothing for a moment.Nikki had been at Velvet Underground for two years before I got there. She was good at her job, good enough that the manager gave her latitude most of the other girls did not get, and she had always known exactly how to use that latitude in ways that were difficult to pin down. She had never been openly hostile to me. She had never needed to be. She worked at a different frequency, subtle and patient, and I had always known she was watching even when I could not see her doing it."How certain are you?" I said."Certain enough that I am telling you at nine o'clock on a Monday night," Raven said. "I didn't call you to speculate.""No," I said. "You didn't.""I heard her say it," Raven said. "Not to me. To one of the newer girls, the one who started in September. They were in the changing room before a shift and I was already in there and they didn't know I was behind the lockers. Nikki was talking about the no-contact rule and using Scarlett as t
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 158: Break rules
Avery's POVI called Raven when I got home.I had been putting it off since the text came through, first because of the project session and then because I needed to be in the right frame of mind to work on the project and be in the same space with Liam and possibly Zoey. By the time I closed my front door behind me it was nearly nine o'clock and I had been carrying Raven's message for the better part of four hours.I sat on my bed and called her.She picked up on the second ring."I was wondering when you were going to call me back," she said."I had a lot of things to take care of," I said. "What's going on?"She was quiet for a second, the kind of quiet that meant she was deciding how to start rather than whether to say anything at all."How long have you been at the club?" she said."You know how long I've been at the club.""Seven months," she said. "In seven months have you ever had a week where your private room requests dropped off completely?"I sat up straighter. "What do you
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 157: Ask tomorrow
Avery's POV"Ask me tomorrow" was not an answer.I told him that as we came down the steps outside the library and he pulled his jacket zip up against the cold."It is an answer," he said. "It's just not tonight's answer.""That's the same as not answering.""It really isn't," he said. "Tonight's version would come out wrong. I need a night to figure out how to say it right." He had said the same thing about Zoey not being wrong about everything, two hours ago in the library, and I had been waiting the whole walk down for him to come back to it.I looked at him. He looked back at me with that expression that gave nothing away and everything away at the same time, and I decided to let it go because pushing Liam had never once produced anything useful and I had learned that well enough by now.We started walking. The campus was quiet at this hour, most of the day buildings dark, just the library and the sports complex and a few lit windows scattered across the blocks. Our breath came ou
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 156: 5pm
Avery's POVI had not replied to Raven's text by the time I got to the library.I had read it four more times on the walk home and then twice more while I was getting changed and once more while I was eating something I barely tasted, and each time it said the same thing. 'Someone has been asking questions about Scarlett.' I had typed three different responses and deleted all of them because none of them said what I needed to say without saying too much over text, and eventually I put the phone face down on my desk and told myself I would call her after the session.I was eight minutes early. Liam was already there.He had his laptop open and his notes out and a coffee on the table that was still steaming, and he looked up when I came in and pulled the door shut behind me. He did not mention the corridor. I did not mention it either. We were both apparently operating on the mutual understanding that the most productive thing we could do with this afternoon was work, and I was grateful
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 011: Confronting Brianna
Avery's POVI had about three seconds to decide whether to stop her.I used them watching Jade cross the gym floor with that particular walk she had when she was done being reasonable, and I decided that three seconds was not enough time to get between Jade Rivera and someone she had decided needed
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 009: Supposed to hate him
Avery's POVTwo seconds.The handshake lasted exactly two seconds and I was the one who pulled away first.He let me go without comment, and for a moment after I dropped his hand, he just looked at me. Not the polite, surface-level glance of a person being introduced to someone they do not plan to
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 032: Liking him more
Avery's POVHe did not answer straight away.I had asked about Jade like I was asking about a random stranger I didn't know. He was quiet as if there was an elephant in the room for a second or two before he picked it up. I lay still and waited and told myself I was just curious, that it was a natu
Falling for My Best Friend's Brother 029: The plot
Liam's POVI was three blocks from the library and still talking to myself.Who the fuck does she think she is?I kept walking with my hands deep in my pockets and my jaw so tight it ached. I had gone over it three times already and the answer was the same every time. Jade had stood on those steps
You may also like
Just A Kiss
Kadene35.1K viewsMy Step Daddy
Flying Soul 🦋630.1K viewsBlackmailed by the Bully
Anrose Amillie152.5K viewsBully Me
Anrose Amillie57.3K viewsTHE QUARTERBACK NEXT DOOR
Author.B443 viewsON THE SIDELINES
Jahbliss151 viewsCarl v. Ash Cannon Prep
Charlize Unpingco554 viewsOff the ice: Fake dating my hockey enemy
c.knox332 views
