It’s okay to share your feelings. You don’t have to keep them in around me. I would freak out if something happened to my father. He knows nothing about home remedies or taking care of himself.
The tension in my shoulders dissolves.
I appreciate you. What did you end up watching?
Miriam
I fell asleep on a baking show. Never made it to a movie.
Redo soon? I’ll bring popcorn and a pillow.
Miriam
Nice try, Romeo. You’re not sleeping here.
Romeo. That’s a first.
I’m far from romantically inclined, but I would climb a balcony outside of Miriam’s room just to mess with her.
Do I get a nickname now? I’m flattered. Also, you’re real cold, bestie.
Miriam
Cold as the sofa bed you won’t be sleeping on.
I let out a laugh and pocket my phone. Julian stares at me with a knowing grin.
“Miriam, I take it?”
I nod. “I was at her house last night when my mom called.”
Jalisa blew up my phone yesterday and invited herself over last night. I nearly missed my flight getting her out of Steel House.
Under normal circumstances, I’d welcome her open legs with open arms. But my mom was my priority last night.
And before she called you?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I frown at Julian, who smirks and rests his chin on his fist. “Get your head out of the gutter. We were on her sofa bed eating dinner, fully clothed and showered.” That sounds wrong. “Separate showers.”
“And why were you two eating dinner on a sofa bed after separate showers?”
“I don’t know, counselor. Because we got tired after a day of shopping for her house and painting her room. Don’t cross-examine me. Save your legal tricks for daddy’s law firm.”
He always does this whenever Miriam comes up.
“We’re friends,” I add.
“How many friends have you spent nonsexual time with for a day—”
“A day and a half. I came over on Friday.” Shit. I roll my eyes at the low rumble rattling his chest. Here we go.
“My apologies. It all sounds…cozy.”
A grin flashes across his face, but he conceals it with the rim of his kiddie cup. It’s the same look I gave him three years ago, after he told me Ella and her kids were staying with him. She was going through a bad divorce, and his sister offered up his Georgetown townhouse as temporary housing. She left out the part that Julian still lived there and often came home between his stints in London.
He showed up one night.
She was in his bed.
