“Don’t be cute? Up until the other day, you had sworn her off your life. She swooped back in, and stole the ground from beneath your feet, turning your beliefs inside out. I bet things are intense betweenyou.”
“We meet every day. She insists on accompanying me to the doctors’ appointments and tests. Things have gotten intense as you put it, but there’s too much pain and regret between us as well. It’ll take time for us to patch our relationship, if we ever get to doing that. To be honest, I don’t know if I want to go that route. I’ve been enjoying having my childhood friend back, youknow?”
“I guess I’m not enough for you anymore,huh?”
Tristan threw a paper ball at Noah. “Wipe that silly grin off your stupid face. You know what I mean. Izzie and I were friends long before we were lovers. It’s natural we repair our friendshipfirst.”
“You’re saying you’re not attracted to heranymore?”
“You kidding? I’ve been fighting finger cramps, I jerk off so oftennow.”
“That Ibelieve.”
They worked in silence for awhile.
Tristan broke it. “You know, the tests are invasive enough, but nothing compares to my appointments with theshrink.”
“Too much prodding and probing of themind?”
“You can say that again. Years of stuffing demons in a closet have come back to bite me in the ass. I’m an expert in avoidance, notconfrontation.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I’ve been telling you this for years, at nocharge.”
“Dr. Tucci also said I can’t move on with my life without some spring cleaning. Unclutter the mind, that’s how he describesit.”
Noah snorted. “What do you have to say aboutthat?”
“I swear to God, if it weren’t for the mosaic of certificates on the guy’s wall, I’d call him aquack.”
“Would call? That means you don’t call himthat.”
“Nope,” Tristan confessed, crestfallen. He couldn’t help the feeling he had turned into a coward. “Instead, I’ve started revisiting choices and rethinkinggrudges.”
“That’s great, Big T. I’m proud of you,” Noahexulted.
Attempting to get out from under the spotlight, Tristan asked. “How’s the songwritinggoing?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Noah’s evasive reply didn’t convinceTristan.
“Don’t play coy with me. You were humming a song the other day in the apartment, at breakfast. A tune you had justcomposed.”
“That’s the end of the story. My melody is waiting for yourlyrics.”
Tristan raised his hands in mock defeat as he stood up and collected his stuff to leave their office. “I get it, you’re not ready to talk about your feeling for a certain amazing woman we both know. Fine, don’t talk.” He opened the door and looked over his shoulder. Noah was shuffling papers, pretending to focus on work. He knew it because those payroll reports Noah held were over six months old. “Just be sure to make the lyrics great. She deserves a hitsong.”
Tristan grinned when he heard a thud against the door he closed behind him as he left their office. The string of muffed cuss words, both in Portuguese and English, made him laugh outloud.
Noah had been bitten by the love bug, and Tristan was going to have a blast watching his friend deal with theitch.
* * *
Meanwhile,Tristan had his own heart issues to sort out. Dr. Tucci’s words had been playing in his mind like a broken record for the past few days. The guy was right about Tristan being stuck in a quagmire. He had to move on, but he had been avoiding it. The first step would be painful, embarrassing even, and he didn’t know how to approachit.
The damn shrink wouldn’t give him suggestions on the how-to part. He merely raised questions and told Tristan to find theanswers.
Yeah, right. Look how that has turned out for me in the past fifteenyears.
A swarm of angry butterflies made him queasy as the elevator ate up the floors and the numbers increased in the digital display. They went wild as her floor number tinkled and the doors pinged open. Pushing himself off the back wall before the damn doors closed again, Tristan stumbled out of the metalcage.
