Below Zero (The STEMinist Novellas #3) by Ali Hazelwood

            “I think about it a lot,” he says immediately, without hesitating. His expression is undecipherable to me. Utterly unreadable.

            “Is that why you came to rescue me?” I tease. “Because you were thinking about it? Because you have been secretly pining for years?”

            He meets my eyes squarely. “I don’t know that there was anything secret about that.”

            He goes back to his tablet, still calm, still relaxed. Then, after several minutes and a couple of yawns, he closes his eyes and tips his head back against the seat. This time he’s the one to fall asleep, and I’m left awake, staring at the strong line of his throat, unable to stop my head from spinning in a million different directions.



* * *



            • • •

            When we step out of the TSA area of the Houston airport, there is a sign in the crowd, similar to the ones limo drivers hold up in movies when they’re picking up important clients they’re afraid they won’t recognize.

            hannah arroyo, it says. And underneath: who almost died and didn’t even tell us. also, she always forgets to replace the toilet paper roll. what a little shit.

            It’s a pretty big sign. All the more because it’s held by two not-very-tall girls, a redhead and a brunette, who are very obviously glaring at me.

            I turn around to Ian. He slept on and off for the past four hours and still looks groggy, his face soft and relaxed. Cute, I think. And immediately after: Delicious. Handsome. Want. I say none of it and instead ask, “What are my idiot friends doing here?”

            He shrugs. “I figured you might want to talk through your near-death experience with someone, so I decided to tell Mara what happened. I did not expect her to come in person.”

            “Bold of you to assume I didn’t tell her myself.”

            His eyebrow lifts. “Did you?”

            “I was going to. Once I felt less whiny. And—whatever.” I roll my eyes. Wow, I’m mature. “How did you go from not remembering Mara’s name to having her number?”

            “I had to do unspeakable things.”

            I gasp. “Not Great-Aunt Delphina.”

            He presses his lips together and nods, slowly, wretchedly.

            “Ian, I am so sor—”

            I cannot finish the sentence, because I’m being tackled by two small but surprisingly strong goblins. I wobble on my one functioning ankle, nearly choking when their arms squeeze tight around my neck.

            “Why are you guys here?”

            “Because,” Mara says against my shoulder. They are both full-on crying—so weak, so tenderhearted. God, I love them.

            “Guys. Get it together. I didn’t even die.”

            “What about frostbite?” Sadie murmurs into my armpit. I’d forgotten how fantastically short she is.

            “Not much.”

            “How many toes amputated?”

            “Three.”

            “That’s not bad,” Mara says with a sniffle. “Cheaper pedis.”

            I laugh and inhale deeply. They smell wonderful, a mix of mundane and familiar, like airport terminals and their favorite shampoos I used to steal and our cramped Pasadena apartment. “Seriously, guys, what are you doing here? Don’t you have, like, work to do?”

            “We took two days off, and my neighbor is watching Ozzy, you ingrate hag,” Sadie tells me before starting to cry harder. I pull her even closer and pat her on the back.

            A few feet from us, two tall men are talking quietly to each other. I recognize Liam and Erik from their guest appearances on our late-night FaceTime hangouts, and wave at them with my best These two, amirite? expression. They wave back and answer with fond nods that tell me they 500 percent agree.

            “Oh—Ian? You’re Ian, right?” Mara detaches from our hug-lump. “Thank you so much for calling us, this moron would have never told us the extent of what happened. And, um, I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for the past . . . fifteen years?”