The Party Boy's Guide to Dating a Geek (Clumsy Cupids) Read Online Free Page A

check up on his hand. It
    was my fault he got hurt the other day," Ash half-
    truthed. He was proud he could come up with a
    semi-plausible reason on the fly. Jack was quiet
    for a minute, and Ash figured he was debating
    whether to believe him or not.
    "All I've got is his work email," Jack finally
    answered.
    "I'll take that," Ash said, probably a little too
    quickly.
    "We're not supposed to give that out. We had to
    sign confidentiality agreements. I'll have Mari pass
    your email and your number on to him, though, all
    right?"
    Ash let his breath out in a huff, blowing his
    bangs off his forehead. He really wasn't in a
    position to argue. "Okay, fine. Just let him know I
    wanted to make sure his hand isn't bothering him."
    "Will do."
    "Thanks." Ash disconnected the call and flopped
    back on the couch. He picked up the dating guide
    and turned back to the first chapter. His eyes kept
    closing as he tried to focus, so he just flipped
    through the pictures of the different Star Wars
    characters. When he got to Han Solo, Ash's mind
    called up a picture of Fee wearing tight blue pants
    and a long-sleeve white shirt with black vest
    hanging open over it. A red stripe ran up the length
    of his leg, and he had a holster strapped to his hip,
    his hand resting on the grip of some sort of
    futuristic gun. He was smirking at Ash over the
    black rims of his glasses.
    Ash tossed and turned all night. Dreams of Fee,
    fighting battles in the stars and romancing Ash in
    dark corners of strange bars then leaving him
    behind on distant planets, kept waking him up.
    1.2
    The next morning, he stumbled bleary-eyed and
    coffee-deficient into the shop. Instantly his senses
    were overwhelmed by loud special effects and
    arguments over who was whose father. Tank
    bumped into him as he and Genie danced around
    each other while a Star Wars movie played on the
    flat-screen TV in the waiting area.
    "Can you take your imaginary sword fight
    somewhere else?" he grumbled as he went to stuff
    his jacket under the counter.
    "Dude! It's a light-saber duel." Tank stared at
    Ash as if he'd sprouted a new head. "You really
    haven't seen these movies, have you?"
    "Yeah, man," Genie said. "Have you been living
    under a rock or something?"
    "I didn't spend all my time growing up in front
    of the TV like some people, all right?" Ash knew
    he was sniping at them, but he was irritated. He
    refused to believe that not having seen a few stupid
    sci-fi movies made him some sort of deviant. And
    he was more than a little upset that Ty had
    apparently blabbed about it to everyone. He tipped
    the coffee pot over his mug with too much force
    and sloshed the life nectar over the edge of his
    cup, burning himself in the process. A tattooed
    hand wrapped around his and helped him set the
    cup down before he threw it across the room.
    "Thanks a lot, Ty."
    "No prob. I could tell you were about to drop it.
    Against the wall. With great force." Ty chuckled.
    "Well, as much as I love this mug, the thanks
    was for telling everyone about my night in."
    Ty held his hands up defensively. "Hey, I didn't
    say a word about Fee. All they know is I brought
    the movies in so you could borrow them. They saw
    them and loaded them up." Ash looked him the eye,
    and Ty held up two fingers. "Scout's honor."
    "You were never a Boy Scout."
    "Yeah, but I once corrupted an Eagle Scout.
    That has to count, right?" Ty asked with a wicked
    smile. Ash laughed, and Ty put an arm around him
    to steer him to the back. "Go run some cold water
    over that before it gets any worse. I think there's
    some aloe gel above the sink."
    "Was that a tip from your Eagle Scout?"
    Ty winked. "No, his tip went somewhere else."
    "Oh, yuck. I didn't need to hear that." Ash put his
    fingers in his ears as he walked away. He washed
    his hand off and grabbed the broom. He tried to
    keep up with the movies as they played, but
    between the customers and everyone reciting the
    lines along with the actors, he couldn't pay
    attention.