The Boyfriend Thief by Shana Norris Page A

you don’t like the way I talk, maybe you should stay away from me,” Hannah told him, one hand planted firmly on her hip as she stared back at him.
    In my head, I silently egged Zac on, willing him to tell Hannah exactly where to go and free himself of her forever. Zac and Hannah’s relationship was crashing to a fiery explosion right in front of me. In a few minutes, Zac and Hannah would be no more.
    Molly’s elbow dug into my ribs. “You’re about to lose your chance to get to Costa Rica,” she whispered.
    A sense of panic set in. Molly was right. If Zac dumped Hannah right now, it wouldn’t be because of me. Hannah would never pay me the rest of the money she owed me unless I’d fulfilled the terms of our agreement.
    “Hey, Zac,” I said, not really believing that I had opened my mouth. “Do you want to meet at the Rose Castle tonight to work on our project?”
    Zac and Hannah turned toward me. Even Molly stared at me, her gaze flickering back and forth between all of us. Zac looked dazed, as if he had forgotten exactly where he was.
    “What?” Zac asked, shaking his head slightly to clear away the confusion of the moment.
    “Our project?” I smiled at him as if nothing were wrong. “I thought we could meet tonight at the Rose Castle and work on it.”
    Hannah gathered up the rest of her things and walked toward the door. “I have to go.”
    He watched her leave, staring at the empty hall for a few seconds until he turned back toward me. “Um, I can’t tonight. I have to work at my dad’s shop. How about tomorrow?”
    I shook my head. “I’m working tomorrow. Tonight is my only night off until the weekend.”
    Zac snapped his fingers. “Hey, I know. You can come over to the shop tonight and we can work on the project there. It’s usually pretty quiet during the week. Most of our business is on weekends. You can sit at the front counter with me. If you’re lucky, I’ll even teach you how to make keys.” He grinned.
    Molly jabbed a finger into my side, but I ignored her. “Won’t your dad get upset about me being there?” I asked.
    Zac shook his head. “He’s not inside the office much. He’s usually out on calls or else in the workshop out back. It’ll be fine, as long as I’m there to run the register.”
    “Okay,” I agreed. He gave me the address of his dad’s shop and then checked his cell for the time.
    “I gotta run,” he said. “I’m supposed to be there in five minutes, actually.”
    I nodded to him. “I’ll meet you there.”
    He said good-bye before dashing out the door, seeming to be in a much better mood than he had been when talking to Hannah. Molly’s nails dug into my arm as she bounced up and down.
    “That was close,” she said. I had filled her in on all the details about the breakup plot—except, of course, for the part where Hannah had threatened to tell Molly about Elliott and me. “I thought for sure Zac was going to dump Hannah right then, without your help. But now you can go romance him in the locksmith shop. I wonder if he’ll taste like keys when you kiss him?”
    I peeled her fingers off my arm and shot her a glare. “I am not kissing him. I can win him over in other ways.”
    “With what? Your stunning personality?” Molly asked, rolling her eyes. “Face it, Avery, the only thing you have going for you is your cute smile. If Zac spends too much time with you, he’ll realize you’re kind of miserable sometimes.”
    My forehead crinkled into a scowl. “I thought you were supposed to be my best friend.”
    “I am,” Molly assured me. “I can scare people off too. That’s why we get along so well. But this is different. You want Zac to like you, not to run away screaming in the other direction.”
    I knew I didn’t welcome people with open arms into a circle of lovey-dovey hugs, but the fact that Molly thought I was a miserable person made a twisted knot form in my stomach. I fiddled with the strap of my backpack as I walked, biting my