“Love you too.”
When Callie ended the call, I drummed my fingers against the tabletop. “Who, uh…who’s Marcelo?” I asked Lucas, keeping my voice casual.
“A friend of mine from college. His family owns the hotel we set Morgan up in for her stay there. I asked him to keep an eye out on her.”
“Yeah, he sounds like he’s taking that job seriously,” I bit out, but no one seemed to catch onto the annoyance that laced my voice.
“He seems like a good guy,” Callie said.
Lucas nodded. “He is. And he and Morgan seem to be getting along well.”
A little too well…
I was sitting inside Agora on a Friday night, a glass of scotch in my hand as I scoped out the scene. I hadn’t done this in a while. I’d been here, of course, but not going out of my way to look for something. Because I had Morgan to fall back on…but that was no longer the case.
I’d been in my head the past couple of weeks since trivia night. Hearing Morgan on that call, listening to her talk about going out with another guy and soundinghappyabout it…it made me realize that whatever I was feeling was one-sided. I’d regretted not telling her how I felt before she left, but now I was glad because I knew it would have been met with the rejection I feared that kept me from telling her in the first place. And it felt pointless to even think about telling her now.
It also had me thinking about things I never thought about before.
If I could feel this way about Morgan—if I could want to have something real with her—maybe I couldwantto have that with someone else. I would need to put myself out there to see…and maybe that would help me forget about her and my unrequited feelings.
“Hey.”
I looked up to see Lucas. “Hey, man.” I shook his hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I had a meeting over drinks,” he replied as he sat down. “I was on my way out when I saw you.” He glanced around. “Scoping out the scene?” he teased.
“Yeah,” I said with a halfhearted smile. “Something like that…”
“Uh oh…”
“What?”
“You looked more pensive than usual when you said that,”he said with a chuckle. “And it wasn’t said with your usual devious smirk.”
I huffed out a laugh before taking a sip of my drink. “I don’t know. I guess…” I looked around at the crowd. “Maybe I’m looking for more than just a one-night stand or a fling…”
I don’t think I’d ever seen Lucas’s eyes as wide as they did when I said that. “Come again?”
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
“No, no, I’m serious.” He grinned. “You, Wes Callahan, are thinking of wantingmorethan just a passing fling? Like…a real relationship?”
“I don’t know if I’d say afull-onrelationship. But…maybe I’m willing to see where something could go.”
“Who the hell are you, and what have you done with my best friend?”
“Fuck off,” I playfully retorted.
Lucas chuckled as he leaned back in his seat. Then his laugh faded as he looked at me thoughtfully. “Okay, in all seriousness, not that it’s a bad thing, but…where is this coming from?”
I blew out a breath. I couldn’t exactly tell him the truth.Well, you see, I’d been secretly fucking Morgan for two years, and I fell for her, but she doesn’t feel the same, so I’m trying to forget her and those stupid feelings.He’d probably fall right out of his seat.
So, I decided on a half-truth. “Honestly, I think seeing you with Callie has a lot to do with it. It’s made me wonder what that would be like…having something like that for myself. Having someone like that in my life…”
Lucas smiled. “It’s certainly not a bad thing. It definitely beats being alone.”
I scoffed through a laugh. “Yeah…”
