“Crazy,” Gabe interjected with a laugh.
I glanced at where Blake was sitting on the weight bench. He gave me a small smile and shrug.
We’d met at Lucas’s condo Sunday afternoon to use the gym facility—it was more to keep Blake occupied, and we knew working out helped him clear his head. And I knew this conversation was coming after what happened last night at the bar.
To say I was surprised by Morgan outing what the two of us had been doing the last two years to our entire friend group—along with herbrothersand Loralei—would be the understatement of the damn century. I’d been so caught off guard I could do nothing but laugh and walk away to try and collect myself.
When she came out to find me to apologize, I could see the genuine remorse in her expression. I wasn’t angry. Like I told her, it was bound to come out eventually. I just hadn’t expected it to come out likethat. I knew she’d had a few drinks last night, so I was sure that probably played a part in her being so candid with everyone.
When I told her about ending the sabotage and calling a truce, she took it exactly as I had expected. She was fine with it. I tried to throw out a vague, last-ditch attempt to see if she’d pick up on it.Maybe if we were on the same page, things could be different. It didn’t seem to faze her in the slightest and gave me the answer I already knew: we weren’t on the same page. Then she threw out a “I’m happy for you” and that was like the final knife to the gut.
“So, I need to know how this even started because you two were literally at each other’s throats all the damn time,” Gabe said.
I sighed. I might as well answer their questions and get this shit done and over with. “It just happened one night.”
“When?” Gabe asked.
“The night of your housewarming party.” I had to fight back a laugh at his expression. “That was the first time. And don’t ask for details. All I can say is…we were bickering one minute and the next…”
“And then itkepthappening?” Lucas asked with a chuckle.
“I mean…yeah. Well, no, not instantly. It happened again the next night. After that, it was a couple of months before it happened again. And that’s when I proposed a deal of sorts…for us to help each other out.”
Blake arched a dark brow. “A deal…”
“Yes. We were both in these slumps, so I said that we coulduse each other to scratch an itch when we needed it because we didn’t even like each other, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it getting all complicated with feelings and shit.”
“And you had that agreement fortwo years?” Gabe questioned.
“Yeah…”
“Wait a minute,” Lucas said, letting out a laugh. “Are you the one who gave her that hickey that one time?”
“You gave her ahickey?” Blake deadpanned.
I snorted. “Yeah. It was an accident.”
“And this just continued…” Gabe crossed his arms, his eyes full of skepticism. “Until she went to Miami?”
I nodded nonchalantly. “Yeah.”
“And then things happened with the other one,” Lucas said.
“Loralei…yes.” The three of them stared at me, their expressions blank. “What?”
“Nothing,” Lucas was the first to speak before turning to spot Blake when he laid back on the weight bench.
“That just seems like reallyimpeccabletiming, Callahan,” Blake said as he gripped the barbell—I didn’t even want to know how much weight was on that thing.
“Very convenient,” Lucas agreed.
I scoffed. “What’sthatsupposed to mean?”
Gabe simply chuckled with a shake of his head.
I knewexactlywhat they were getting at, but I wasn’t going to satisfy them with a response.
Things with Loralei had just kind of…happened. And a little quicker than I expected. After the night I met her at Agora, I reached out and asked her on a date. One date turned to two, then three, and so on. After a month, we talked one night, and she said if things were going to continue, she wanted to know it was going somewhere. She wanted alabelgoing forward.
