Kiss in the Dark Read Online Free PDF

that was very refreshing,” Boston said. She felt like an idiot! Very refreshing? What decade did she think she was in? What century?
    “So,” he began, “you’re having roommate troubles, huh?”
    “Oh, yeah,” Boston sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’ve been having roommate troubles for a while. But…you know…it’s so sticky…getting out of a situation like that. I mean, she doesn’t have her own car. She’ll have to do the dishes.” Boston paused, frowning as she considered something. “I don’t even know if she knows how to do dishes,” she said. “Plus, she doesn’t have any friends. The only people she hangs out with are us. I feel so awful about it really. I feel worse the more I think about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have—”
    “So she hangs out with your friends, rides around in your car, and you do the dishes?” Vance asked.
    “Pretty much,” Boston admitted.
    “Let me ask you this,” he began. “Does she borrow money from you? Does she whip up a good show of tears whenever you disagree with her on something? You said she told you to leave the apartment so she could have time to think?”
    “Yeah,” Boston said tentatively. This total stranger sitting next to her at the table was leading up to something, but she didn’t know what.
    “She’s a poisonous friend,” Vance said. He picked up the bottle of chocolate syrup to his right and slathered the remaining ice cream in his bowl with a generous helping.
    “A poisonous friend?” Boston asked.
    “She puts her own wants, needs, feelings before yours…before your friendship. She uses you at every turn and sounds like a manipulative little—” he paused and glanced up at Danielle. Boston saw Danielle arch one eyebrow in warning to her brother, and he finished, “—a manipulative little wench. She’s what I would tag a poisonous friend. And I’m guessing you’re a very empathetic, caring individual who finds it really hard to say no to anybody about anything. Am I right?”
    “Maybe,” Boston said, blushing with humiliation. He’d pegged her! Totally nailed her to the wall. How could he possibly have done it? He’d only met her once before.
    “I’m pretty familiar with poisonous friends,” he began, “So my guard is always up. That’s why I can spot them right away. What did she growl at you about when you first got here earlier this evening?”
    Boston shrugged, trying to feign indifference. “Just something about something.”
    “I’d bet you a hundred bucks she was demanding something of you. Am I right?”
    Boston nodded, shook her head, and giggled. “Wow! I must be really transparent,” she said.
    Danielle set a bowl of vanilla ice cream on the table in front of Boston and smiled. “No, you’re not transparent,” Danielle said. “Vance is just the creepiest people-reader I’ve ever known. Don’t take it too personally. I’ve seen him peg someone’s character by just glancing at them.”
    “So you’re judgmental,” Boston teased, reaching for the chocolate syrup and squeezing a generous portion over her ice cream.
    Vance chuckled. When he looked at her again, he was smiling, and Boston was astounded that he was even more good-looking when he smiled.
    “No. Just…just observant,” he said. He laughed and added, “Besides, just before you came back, Danielle was sitting here telling me everything about all her friends. She’d just finished up about you and your roommate.”
    “Danielle!” Boston exclaimed, laughing. “You were letting me think he was, like, psychic or something!”
    Danielle laughed too. “Oh, don’t let him fool you. He sort of is!” Danielle said. “Sure, I told him some stuff. But that whole poisonous friend routine…that’s purely Vance Nathaniel and his theories.”
    “But I’m right…aren’t I?” he asked Boston.
    Boston couldn’t help but smile at him—couldn’t help being momentarily smitten by how handsome and charming he was. “Maybe,” she said.
    He