“Mase, he was my friend. I need him to know why I’m doing this.”
“You’ll come over after?”
I watch him, his face still hard. I love this man. So damn much. “I will.”
He nods, looking down his nose at me. “I need you to consider something for me… about Jasmine.”
“What’s that?” I ask.
“We will speak about it tonight?—”
“On our date.” I grin, excited.
“Yeah, on our date.” He places a soft kiss on my lips. “Are you going to PT me or should I find something else for you to work on?” He grasps my hand and covers his still hard cock.
I chuckle into his chest. “You’re quite simply the most impossible man I’ve ever met.”
I’ve been trying to think of the right thing to say to Joey all day. Nothing seems to sound right, or fair, yet he tried to kiss me. He crossed the line and now I have to fix that before our friendship is completely ruined.
When he doesn’t answer, I pull out my set of keys and unlock the door.
“Joey?” I call.
The wheels of his desk chair grate across the wood floor, sliding until he appears at hisbedroom door.
“Hey,” he mutters, running his hand through his hair and twisting his neck.
I’m surprised to find him so bright eyed. Especially after how I found him yesterday. “Hi… how are you today?” I ask, not going any farther into the room and putting off bringing up the real reason for being here. “You seem… better.”
“Fine,” he says, quickly. “Working.”
I nod. “Of course, you have prints going out soon, right?”
“No. I cancelled them. I have something else I’m working on.”
I openly frown. Because what the hell? “You cancelled them?”
“Yeah. You want a drink?” Joey stands from his chair, crossing to the kitchen and getting a drink.
“No.” I swallow the lump in my throat. Why is he acting like nothing happened? “I need to talk to you, Joey.”
“Yeah?”
I stand next to him at the sink, trying to figure out what to say. “I need to take a step back from our friendship.” My eyes burn with the words. “I need to focus on my family for a while.”
“Family?” he asks.
He thinks I’m being insensitive. “Just for a while. I’ll still be around. I just won’t be dropping in.”
“I don’t need you dropping in.” He gives me an awkward look that makes me frown. “Did you want something else?” He looks past me. I follow his line of sight to his bedroom. “I’ve got work to do.”
He’s mad at me. Hurt and upset which isn’t fair because he did this. He might not have been in the right frame of mind when he did it, but thatdoesn’t make it okay. “Yeah, that was it. I should have texted before coming, sorry.”
He slips past me, disappearing into his room.
I go to the door and open it, but something stops me from leaving.
Backtracking, I go to his room and walk to his computer chair. He’s working on an image on the screen. It isn’t clear what it is, but it’s beautiful and holds every colour you could think of. “Joey.”
