I knocked on the door and waited. Perhaps she wouldn’t hear me at this time of night anyway. Relief trickled in as I waited, and then the lights in the café flicked on.
Dammit!
Breeze walked towards the door in a shorts and singlet pyjama combo, her hair tied into a messy bun. Her eyes bulged as recognition hit her, and she thumped towards the door.Oh God.
Swinging it open, she narrowed her eyes and planted her hands on her hips. Her lips pressed into a firm line as silencesettled between us. I didn’t want to imagine how I looked, standing there grovelling on her doorstep, still in the same outfit from hours earlier with Dax.
She tilted her head, brow raised.
“Sorry,” I whispered, biting the inside of my cheek to hold back the tears.
Her eyes stayed narrowed for a moment longer. Then, without warning, she pulled me into her arms.
“You’re such a dick,” she said.
“I know,” I mumbled into her shoulder as I hugged her back. “It’s kind of my thing.”
She held me out in front of her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head and then nibbled my bottom lip. I’d mucked Breeze around big time, and she deserved to know why. The thing was, I still wasn’t sure if I could explain it.
I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I don’t know why I do this stuff, and I can’t really explain what happened. I just know I want to stop acting like this.”
She searched my gaze for a moment and then nodded, grabbing my navy pack from the doorway and throwing it over her shoulder.
“Dax was here earlier,” she said, turning towards the downstairs kitchen.
I froze. My body emptying of everything except my pounding heart. Breeze turned her head back, evaluating my response but said nothing.
I dipped my head and followed behind her.
“He asked to leave something for you. He was surprised to hear you’d gone.”
I hadn’t let myself think about Dax since I deleted his text. I had no idea how to deal with him, and I didn’t plan to figure it out either. Everything was for Olivia now. Not me.
We walked upstairs to the flat and Taco trotted up to greet us, her little lips curling into a smile. I scooped her into my arms, pressing her to my chest, rolling her wispy fur between my fingers.
“I put it on the bed, in case you came back,” Breeze said.
“You thought I’d come back?”
She lifted a shoulder and scratched Taco under the chin. “You’re not as complicated as you think you are.”
A strange sound escaped my throat, and a small smile tugged at my lips. She was being far more understanding than I would’ve been if our roles were reversed.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. The oven needs cleaning again, and I was dreading it.”
I wrinkled my nose and flicked her shoulder.
“Iamglad though,” she added sincerely, holding my gaze before turning towards her room. Taco wriggled out of my arms and followed her.
Walking back into my room felt odd.
Mostly because I was calling it my room.
