“Technically, you fucked me for three months, then ghosted me on and off for a year, but whatever.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
And whynow?
I picture Skylar lying on the couch in the A&E break room with his phone on his chest, but the more distance I have from him the more I realise I never knew him at all. Not really. A few bunk-ups after work isn’t enough for that. We never ate together. Drank together. We never talked like this, because he didn’t want to. Not with me. And it’s getting easier not to take that personally. I’m not too churned up to know something’s happened in his life to make him the way he is. It’s not thatIdon’t care. I do. But I’m not his person for this shit.
I never was.
We talk a little while longer, about work, mainly. Skylar never answers my question. Then he’s gone again, but I don’t feel empty without him. I feel like maybe we can be friends.
A knock at the door breaks me from my thoughts.
Tam.
It has to be. No one else can reach the annex without a gate key or going through his house. Andhe’sthe one I count as my friend.
Maybe that’s why I forget I just got out of the shower and open the door in nothing but a towel. Doesn’t explain Tam’s hot gaze and raised brows, but here we are.
“You’re naked,” he states.
“Not quite. Give me a second.”
I wave him in and duck into the bathroom with some clean clothes.
Dressed, I return to find him exactly where I left him, smirk still in place. “I never said it was a bad thing.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. Are you coming in or staying out there all night?”
Tam eyes me as he winces. “I really fucking want to, even though you put your clothes on, but I have a ton of deliveries to make that I forgot about and I won’t be back till later. You didn’t cook already, did you?”
“Uh.No. Not even close. I took a shower and got waylaid by the past.”
“Your ex?”
“He’s not my ex, but how did you know?”
Tam props a shoulder on the doorframe. “You look like your brain just got turned inside out.”
“What does that look like?”
He straightens and steps over the threshold of the annex in one fluid movement. There’s a mirror on the hallway wall. Tam guides me in front of it and nudges my mouth with his finger and thumb, coaxing my lips into a smile. “That’s better. Now tell me who I need to punch.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m yourfriend.” Though the way he easily fills the space behind me is anything but friendly. “Someone upsets you, I want them dead. That’s how this works.”
“I’ve never had a friend willing to commit murder on my behalf.”
“Then you’ve never had a friend like me.”
That, I can believe. But I don’t want him hating on Skylar. “No one upset me. He called. We talked. About nothing, but everything’s cool.”
“You’recool.” Tam lets his hand drop. If we were lovers, he might’ve kissed my neck. But he steps back with a rueful sigh. “And I hear you. I saw an old fuck buddy a few weeks before you moved in. I haven’t been with him in years and we were never together, but it still affects me to see him.”
“You wish things were different?”
