“Of course.” Sophie shoved her bag on her shoulder and took Jodi’s arm, steering him to the bus stop. “How are you feeling? Do you want to do anything before we go back to the flat?”
Jodi shook his head. They’d only been out a few hours, but every part of him felt like lead, and he was cold too. He wanted his bed—no, the couch—and a three-hour nap. “I want to go home.”
Sophie pulled him closer, and her body heat seeped into his bones. Jodi absorbed it and tried to recall a time when feeling her pressed up against him had excited him. Tried to recapture the many intimate moments they’d shared. But ... nope. The memories were there, but Jodi felt nothing but platonic affection, tinged with a touch of sadness, and maybe regret? Hmm. Perhaps that was one for the diary, though Jodi couldn’t imagine findinganyoneattractive in this brave new world where his dick did nothing but burn like a bitch when he had a wazz.
Back at the flat, Jodi flopped onto the sofa, coat and shoes still on. Sophie tugged at his boots. “Help me a little?”
Jodi grumbled and sat up, fumbling with the laces. “Give it a rest. I wanna sleep.”
“And you can, just as soon as you take your grubby boots off. Don’t want dirt all over your couch, do you?”
Jodi didn’t much care. The flat was a mess, and he liked it that way. Made it easier to find all the shit Sophie and Rupert insisted he needed. “Where’s Rupert again?”
“Work,” Sophie said. “Why? Do you want him for something?”
“No. Just wondering. He’s been gone since yesterday.”
Sophie shot him an odd glance. “Do you miss him when he’s not around?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Just wondering.” Sophie shrugged with the barest hint of an impish grin. “You seem to prefer his company to mine.”
Do I?“Maybe because he leaves me the hell alone and lets me sleep.”
Rupert asked his fair share of annoying questions, but he didn’t nag Jodi about stupid dirty boots. In fact, he didn’t nag at all, save his unnatural obsession with how much Jodi ate for dinner.
On cue, Sophie disappeared into the kitchen to fetch “a snack.” Jodi curled up on the couch, hoping he’d be asleep by the time she came back, or at least look enough like it for her to let him be.
“Eat.”
Or not. Jodi sat upagainand stared down at the plate she’d placed in front of him; Nutella on toast. His brain clicked.Nutella. Toast. Rupert.No, that wasn’t a blast from the past. That had happened last week, hadn’t it?
“What’s the matter? Rupert said it’s all you’ll eat when you’re in a bad mood.”
“I’m not in a bad mood,” Jodi said absently, shifting over as Sophie sat next to him. “Have you made me this before?”
“Actually, no. The smell of that stuff makes me heave. Perhaps that’s why we turned out better as friends.”
“Eh?”
Sophie hesitated before her wry grin morphed into a reckless take on determination. “Nutella is your and Rupert’s thing. He doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but you always used to make him this when he came home from late nights at the club.”
“The club?”
“He used to moonlight on the doors at The Cube.”
“But he doesn’t anymore.” It wasn’t a question this time. Jodi had heard Rupert and Sophie talking about this a few days ago.
“That’s right.” Sophie seemed pleased. She put her arm around Jodi and coaxed him to lie down with his head in her lap. He went willingly. Sophie was soft and warm, and he found himself cuddling closer, absorbing her warmth until drowsiness swept over him and he fell asleep.
He awoke with a jump sometime later. Rupert was home. Jodi couldn’t see or hear him, but somehow he just knew, though it could’ve been simple logic. At some point Sophie had disappeared, taking her handbag from the coffee table, which led Jodi to conclude she’d gone home, leaving him in Rupert’s care.
’Cause you’re too much of a doughnut to be left on your own, remember?
As if he could forget. His lack of independence was the one constant.
On cue, Rupert came out of the kitchen, clutching a mug of tea like it was the only thing keeping him upright, and judging by the dark circles beneath his eyes, perhaps it was. “Morning.”
