No. I knew he did. I knew he felt the bone-deep connection that I did. You just couldn’t fake that. What I didn’t know was if he’d act on it.
I’m not what you need.
He wasn’t. I knew that. But I also knew that I’d be available the next time he called.
So we went out on Friday night. Jeff, one of the kids on the floor below us, had an older brother who lived just off campus in one of the few nice apartment complexes. The brother was having a party, and Jeff had been trying to get on Jane’s good side from day one, so we were invited.
We partied. Jane drank too much beer and gave poor Jeff no encouragement whatsoever. That didn’t keep him from hanging around her all night, feeding her beers and hoping.
Syd made a play for the older brother, who looked like he’d be stepping into daddy’s law firm the moment he passed the bar.
Pretty, entitled rich boy. But basically an okay guy. Bribury was full of ’em. I’d grown up with them. But Syd hadn’t. And you could tell she desperately wanted to be part of that. I could have told her it wasn’t anything special.
The older brother wasn’t biting at Syd’s hook, so she left when Jane and I did. On the walk home, Jane pinballing between Syd and me, I kept an ear out for a louder, older car, but none came.
A text woke me up the next morning at nine.
You awake?
Lucas.
I snatched the phone off my pillow and texted back that I was. The phone was ringing seconds after the text went through.
“Morning,” he said, his deep voice the best wake-up call ever.
“Hi,” I said.
“Did my text wake you?”
“No,” I said, though it had.
“Liar,” he said, a chuckle in his voice.
I smiled. “It’s okay. I’m glad you called.”
“Late night last night?” he asked. It should have been a routine question for waking someone up at nine, but there was a hint of…just a smidge of…pissiness in his voice. And that pissiness made me tingle with excitement.
“Not too late,” I said, not willing to let him off the hook quite yet.
“How late is not too late?”
“Well, since I didn’t hear from you, I’m not sure you get to know.”
There was silence, and I panicked that maybe I’d gone too far. But I held my ground—something I probably wouldn’t have done before.
“You’re right. I don’t get to know.” I waited. “Listen, I’m taking Andy swimming today. They have open swim time until two, and I can take him now that I’m a Bribury employee.”
“That’s nice,” I said. “He’ll love that.” I was trying to figure out if he wanted tips on what Andy should be working on or what.
“Wanna come with us?”
“Swimming? With you and Andy?” I asked, surprised. “You mean as, like, his instructor or something?”
“No. Like…a…friend of mine who’s just hanging out with us.”
“Umm…” My mind was spinning with what this meant. Would he want me around Andy as Lucas’s “friend” if he didn’t want me in his life? At least as more than just a hookup against the side of a car?
“You don’t have—” he said at the same time I said, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
