The Andrew Complex

TAC: 24

“Are you going to say anything?” Lena says, agitated. “Because apparently, Willa isn’t going to let us out until you say something. And I still can’t get over the fact that you got locked in your own safe room.”

I look at the ground, sheepish. Willa had locked us in my safe room. Of course, the minute she had met Lena, she fell in love but she could tell that there was tension between us. She got Adam to take us and shove us into the safe room, where we had just been sitting for 15 minutes in silence.

How did we get here? Let me rewind.

As soon as she’s out the door, Maloney turns to me, irritated. “Listen, you jackass. I don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, but you’re going about it the wrong way. Lena isn’t the type of girl that you play hard to get with. She’s clearly already wounded. I don’t know what the fuck you want to do but this is not the right way to do it. If you still like that other idiot then whatever but the least you can do - actual common courtesy is to fucking tell her.”

A growl starts to build its way and I almost let it erupt out of me but the door opens again. I immediately snuff the growl out, expecting it to be Lena. I knew full well that if she caught me growling at Collin, she’d be pretty pissed off and would probably subject us to another trust exercise.

“Andy!” A voice yells from the doorway.

My head swings open to the person standing at the door, my jaw dropping as I realized who was standing there. “Willa?”

Willa stands there, trying to pull the key out of the door and also trying to not look awkward as she was juggling whatever it was she had in her other hand. Her hair was up in a haphazard ponytail, messy as usual. Her eyes widen at the sight of me, probably because I looked like I was getting ready to punch Maloney in the face.

“Andy - holy - fuck, is this a bad time? I’m sorry - I realized that I forgot my hoodie here and I figured I would just stop in and get it -”

“Will, you haven’t been here for almost a year. Did you just notice that your hoodie was still here?” I ask, trying to bury the smirk. I knew that Willa was really absentminded - most of the time she was focused on her computer and hacking into ‘high-security’ sites.

She smiles sheepishly, “Sorry. And maybe I needed to borrow your safe room for a little bit. I’m not in trouble or anything - it’s just...Oliver is being really loud.”

“Are you still with that -”

“Yes. And what did we say about calling Ollie names?” She asks, frowning at me.

“We agreed not to...but if the shoe fits…”

Willa rolls her eyes at me. “Oh, shut up. Ollie took a bullet for you.”

“If you could even consider what he did ‘taking a bullet’...”

“I do. Is the safe room in the same place?”

I roll my eyes, “Will, since when can you move safe rooms?”

She opens her mouth and starts off towards the bedrooms. Right before she’s at the entrance of the safe room, she turns around. “And Andy, why is Collin Maloney standing in your living room?”

I give her the look and she steps back, hands up in surrender. “It was just a question!”

When Willa is in the safe room, I turn back to Maloney, whose jaw is dropped. “Who was that? Is she related to you? And how does she know who I am? She’s gorgeous, by the way.”

Adam stands up and smacks Maloney on the back of his head while rolling his eyes. “That’s Willa Wayne. She’s Andrew’s cousin.”

Maloney turns to Adam, eyebrows raised. “When you said Willa, I didn’t think…”