He winced, knowing what was coming. “I’m good too. Busy at work.”
“That’s all I ever hear. Work work work. What about guys? Are you dating anyone?”
To forestall answering, he shoved a chip into his mouth and chewed.
“I know you’re avoiding me. So while you’re chewing, I’ll tell you why I know you aren’t.”
Dammit.No matter how he tried, his sister always got the better of him.
“You bury yourself in that soul-sucking job for no reason, especially after you told me how undervalued you feel, and then you say you can’t go out with the guys I’ve tried to set you up with because you’re too busy. You’re making it impossible.”
“I have a date tomorrow night.”
Shit.Why did he blurt that out? As expected, Michelle was nothing less than over the moon.
“You do? Who? Who?”
“Are you part owl now?” He chuckled but then sobered up and gave her the information she desired. “He’s a guy I met walking home tonight in the snowstorm. He helped me with my groceries, then invited me up to his apartment—”
“What? And you went? You let some strange guy pick you up on the street and went home with him? He could’ve been a murderer or a rapist.”
Listening to his sister rant, Blake bit back a retort. How the hell did she think he found guys? He didn’t have the time or energy to go to bars and clubs. The times he was persuaded to go by his work colleagues, he’d faded into the background and left after finishing his drink. They rarely noticed as they were too busy having a good time. When staring at the walls of his apartment became too much, he’d hit up Scruff or VGL and attempt to connect with a guy, but it rarely went anywhere once he put the brakes on anything physical.
“Michelle, it’s fine. I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. He seemed like a really nice guy, and we sat and had coffee and talked a little.” He ran the pad of his finger over his lips, which he could swear still tingled.
“What does he do?”
“He owns a gym—I forget the name. Somewhere in Brooklyn.”
“A gym? Not your usual type.”
Now he understood what Jeremy meant by people prejudging him. “He’s not a dumb jock with no brains. I mean, yeah, he’s got a great body, but he’s smart too.” Recalling the curves of Jeremy’s hard muscles pressed up against him, heat flooded through Blake.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He has an MBA in business and finance plus a degree in kinesiology. I’d say that’s pretty impressive.”
“You certainly think so,” she said and Blake winced, knowing he’d revealed too much. Now she’d be all over him about it every time they spoke.
“It’s only a dinner tomorrow night. I’m sure it’ll be like all the others.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” Her soft voice, so eerily similar to their mother’s, brought a rush of pain through him, and he blinked to keep the tears from falling. Sixteen years had passed since they lost her, and he still hadn’t come to terms with it. No one needed to know he’d kept her last voice message to him and sometimes played it just to hear her say, “I love you.”
“Well, either way, I have a date, so you don’t have to worry.”
“I always worry about you. You’re my little brother.”
“I’m thirty-two. Hardly little. You have enough on your plate with Evan and Henry. No need to concern yourself with my life—I’m fine as is.” Wasn’t that where they’d started this conversation?
A loud bang and a shriek sounded in his ear, drawing Michelle’s attention. “I gotta go. Call me and tell me how it went.”
“Sure,” he said without any intention of keeping that promise. There was no need to. The date would probably go nowhere. The phone was dead in his ear anyway as Michelle had hung up to deal with her middle-school playdate crisis. He shuddered, thankful he had no kids, and headed to the sofa where his evening of Netflix and a bag of tortilla chips awaited.
****
Sitting at thetable in the Japanese restaurant, Blake checked his watch for about the tenth time, certain he’d been stood up. That morning, he’d already steeled himself for the inevitable—Jeremy would forget he’d asked him out and never call. So at noon when Jeremy’s number flashed on his screen with a text reading,Japanese at 7 tonight?, Blake had to read it twice, then set the phone down to stop his fingers from shaking long enough to text back,Sure.
Disgusted with himself and how he’d spent the entire day worrying over what he’d find to say to Jeremy, Blake decided to speak as little as possible. If he didn’t talk, he couldn’t make a fool of himself. Now, with Jeremy running ten minutes late, it looked as though his nerves were all for nothing. Jeremy wasn’t coming. His phone pinged with a text.
