“Guys, you’re probably going to need this,” Syndey said from the doorway, holding out two rolls of painter’s tape. “When you finally finish bullshitting.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” Kevin walked over to grab them and ducked down to kiss her barely rounded belly. “Now get the hell outta here. Once we open the cans, it’ll be Fume City, and there’s no way I’m exposing my little pomegranate to that.”
“Quite a nickname,” I mused.
Sydney laughed. “No, that’s the size of the baby right now. A pomegranate.”
It was all a mystery to me, and an inexplicable sadness washed over me seeing how tender Kevin was with Sydney as he escorted her out the door.
They were happy. Blissfully so, which meant that itwaspossible, just not for me. I wasn’t built that way.
Kevin held onto the doorframe as he leaned after Sydney. “And stay out!”
Sydney’s laughter echoed around us as he shut the door.
We got to work taping off the ceiling and baseboards.
“So I have to ask,” Kevin said. “What’s going on with you? Because you seem quiet.”
“That’s my level-set,” I replied. “You should know that by now.”
“Not buying it.”
I thought about trying to duck the question again, but Kevin was far too patient and persistent to back down, so I figured I might as well give in.
“Gwen and I aren’t, uh, we’re not seeing each other anymore,” I finally said.
He paused to fully turn to me. “Aw, man. I’m sorry to hear it. Like, no-contact, or do you still talk at work?”
I shook my head and stared down at the blue tape in my hands. “Her contract with Ashford ended, and she’s moved on to start her own boutique agency.”
“Damn.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine,” I lied.
He went back to taping. “I don’t know. She was different. I wasn’t around you guys too much, but during that flight it seemed like you two were really in sync with each other. She could handle you. And she didn’t take any of your bullshit.”
I let out a laugh despite myself. “True.”
“Do you miss her?”
It was a question I hadn’t allowed myself to consider. I preferred to focus on the facts: Gwen had been a part of my life and now she wasn’t, and the best course of action was to move on.
“I’m going to take that silence as a yes,” Kevin said.
I focused on peeling a jagged edge of tape. “Yeah. I do.”
“Okay, dummy, unless you did something stupid like sleeping with a supermodel, get her back.”
“It’s not that simple,” I insisted. “We’re very different people. She needs things I’m not capable of giving her.”
Kevin turned to gawk at me. “Likewhat? Because you’ve got the world at your fingertips.”
“Kev…” I said in a tone that made it clear I didn’t want to talk about it.
But Kevin’s never been the type to leave things unresolved. “All I’m saying is you were good together. And that’s rare. So my guess is that it’s less a matter of you not being able to give her what she needs, and more a case of you being scared to.”
He was throwing down the gauntlet, and he knew it. I became incredibly focused on taping the corner of the room.
