Once I was in the foyer, I let out a long breath. My chest was tight. I wished Rhett would have come after me. I even waiteda minute, thinking that he decided to just park and would come into the building after. He didn’t.
Instead, I headed up to the tenth floor. I lived by myself, but I would often come home to Noah or Presley being there. It was like we still lived together. I never minded. Especially tonight. I needed the company, so I hoped that at least one of them was there.
The four of us used to live together but after a few too many beers, I confessed that I wanted to try living by myself for a while. The guys were understanding but demanded that I still give them a key.
The guys understood why I needed the change and never asked about it. Noah and I often talked about it privately because he was going through an odd situation with Presley’s brother. At the time, I had been fucking my best friend.
“We just like keeping things interesting,”he had told me with a wink.
Keeping things interesting was an understatement.
When I finally reached my apartment, I walked in to Presley and Noah sitting on the couch in the living room. They were playing a video game and eating from a large bowl of popcorn they shared between them.
“You know that you guys don’t actually live here, right?” I teased.
“You have video games, food, and beer,” Presley said, like that explained everything.
I laughed, shaking my head, appreciating that they were there when I really didn’t want to be alone.
“Night off?” It wasn’t unusual for them to play video games and pig out on junk food at my place but it was early. It was also Saturday night, which meant the bar would be easier.
“We were sent home,” Noah explained, turning to me. “But we didn’t want to actually go home because that’s boring.”
“Brady told us to take the night off and that he would help the staff,” Presley added.
“Oh.” I sat on the love seat opposite them. “Was it slow?”
“Not really,” Noah answered. “But we weren’t really needed. Jasmine kept saying that we were getting in the way.”
Jasmine was one of our original waitresses. She was good at her job and the customers loved her. She also hardly ever called in sick and picked up shifts when we needed her to without any complaints.
“How was your date?” Noah grinned, waggling his eyebrows.
“I didn’t have a date.” My cheeks heated.
He chuckled, pointing at me. “Yeah, you did.”
“Dad said you left with someone,” Presley pointed out. “It was probably Rhett.”
“Unlikely.” Noah’s laugh deepened. “Could you imagine? Your dad said that Rhett had some business to take care of or something.”
“True. It wasn’t like Rhett would do anything stupid like sleep with his son’s ex-boy...” He paused. “Whatever that was.”
While they joked amongst themselves, my face heated even more. They may have been joking but everything they were saying was the truth.
When they noticed that I hadn’t laughed or wasn’t joking along with them, they looked between each other.
Please don’t say it. Please don’t say it.
“It’s you,” Noah said, a wide grin spreading on his face. “Isn’t it?”
Presley glanced at him. “Him? Who? What?”
“It is.” Noah laughed, sitting back in the chair. “I’m right, aren’t I?”
I only shrugged because what the hell was I going to say? There was no way I could deny it because clearly it was writtenall over my face. I was a shitty liar anyway and I sure as hell couldn’t lie to them.
“Wait.” Presley’s eyes widened, finally putting the pieces together. “You’re fucking Rhett?”
