“My one piece of advice is.If you like her, then keep trying. Keep showing up. Keep being her friend.I think she needs it more than you know.”
He nods agreeing with me. “Yeah, I will. I just wannakeep upwith her. Show her that shecanrely on me.”
Before I can respond, the front door opens and Lucas walks in, the tired slump of his shoulders visible before he even says a word.
“Hey guys,” he says, voice low, exhaustion clinging to him.
“You’re home late,” I say, concerned. “Does this happen a lot?”
He shrugs off his boots and runs a hand down his face. “Unfortunately, yeah. But hopefully not for much longer. I stayed back to do interviews. We found a couple solid people today.”
“That’s great, man,” Tyler says, sliding a plate onto the table.
“We could definitely use more hands on-site and in the background. It’s been chaos.” Lucas sinks into the chair beside me and offers a soft smile. “Dinner smells great.”
“It’s butter chicken,” I say. “Tyler actually cooked, but I supervised, which is arguably the harder job.”
He chuckles. “Well, I appreciate both your efforts. I’m starving.”
We all sit down together. Plates passed. Laughter shared.
Tyler tells us a story about their apprentice Theo, how he glued his pants to a workbench and tried to pretend it was intentional. I nearly choke on my wine. Lucas adds a few quiet comments about the new recruits, and I catch him glancing at me when he thinks I’m not looking.
When dinner’s over, Tyler disappears into his room muttering something about “TikTok,” and Lucas and I clean up together in the kitchen.
He stands close to me, close enough that I can feel the warmth of him.
Our eyes meet, his eyes drift to my mouth and back up. It’s enough to send butterflies racing through my chest.
“I’m gonna head to bed,” I say, voice a little too breathy.
“Yeah, me too. Goodnight, Angel.”
We say goodnight like we always do. The air heavy with our unspoken feelings.
And when I lie in bed later, staring at the ceiling, I wonder how much longer we’ll pretend we’re not both feeling the same thing. Wondering how much longer I can pretend that my feelings aren’t growing.
32
Valentines Day
It’s Valentine’s Day.
Probably the most overrated holiday in existence.
Unless you’re in a relationship. And I wasn’t.
The backyard is getting set up for the party Tyler is throwing. He is putting up a string of cheap red paper hearts he found at the dollar store, and he even put heart-shaped ice cubes in the esky as a joke.
Renae, one of the chippies who works on site with them, is out there helping him. She’s tall and lean, with a sharp blonde bob that always looks freshly cut and bright blue eyes that miss nothing.
Tyler mentioned it was her idea to round up the single ones from work for drinks tonight—a casual fuck Valentine’s Day thing.
I’m inside, sitting at the kitchen table in my red dress and matchinglipstick. I’m also wearing the necklace Lucas got me, my fingers drifting to touch it constantly.
I am drawing something soft and leafy in my sketchbook. A few heart-shaped petals peeking throughout, but I’d never admit those were on purpose.
The front door opens. I don’t even need to look up. My body justknows, it’s him.
