“Honestly, I don’t know how I feel,” I said, frustrated. “But I don’t think I hate him.”
“Clearly,” Alex stated.
“I just find it hard to believe that he genuinely cares.”
A mischievous smile spread across Alex's face. He leaned over and whispered something to Killian to which he shrugged. What was going on in his head?
"I have an idea." Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket. I tried to see what he was doing, but he had a privacy screen on it.
Despite knowing that, I kept trying to see around the privacy screen. It wasn't working. "What are you doing?"
"Asking him to come over," he said simply. Seeing the shock on my face, he said, "Relax. I told him Killian found the jacket he lost so he needs to come pick it up. He left it over here a couple of weeks ago."
Killian’s eyes squinted. "But I didn't find his jacket."
"You told me last week that you found it."
"I told you last week that I found my jacket." He groaned out of frustration as he stared dully at Alex. "I left it at my parents' house."
Alex's mouth formed an 'o' shape and laughed nervously. His head shot down to his phone when it buzzed. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Javier doesn’t think he’ll have enough time to stop by, so he’ll come get it another day.”
“Can I have pizza?” Millie asked loudly. “I’m hungry.”
"Oh." Alex smiled at his phone. "Never mind."
"Never mind what?" Killian asked as he ignored Millie’s dramatic sigh because no one answered her question.
"He said he can come over. Guess why," Alex prompted me with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
"Because he really misses his jacket?" I asked innocently.
Alex shook his head and handed his phone to Killian to read. I tried to see, but Millie grabbed my wrist and began to shake my hand back and forth aggressively. She was trying to dry off the polish that she worked so hard to perfect.
"Done!" Millie exclaimed. "How do they look?"
"Beautiful," I told the child. She clapped her hands a few times and told me to be careful so that I don't mess them up. "I love them, Millie."
Her big toothy smile showcased all of her teeth, including the two missing ones in the front. Millie began to pick up and put away the nail polish. She was a good kid. Any other child would have ran off to the next task and left the mess behind.
"I mentioned that you were here and guess who all of a sudden can stop by," Alex said suggestively.
"It's just a coincidence. He wanted his jacket," I insisted.
Killian sighed. "If that's what you want to tell yourself."
As we waited for Javier to show up, Killian decided to search the apartment for the jacket Javi had lost. He hoped that it would miraculously appear so that he'd have the item to give him. There was no jacket.
Killian was visibly annoyed. At first, I thought it was because we were wasting Javier’s time coming here when we did not have his lost item, but as I watched more closely, it seemed like he was annoyed with Alex. I pretended like I did not notice the odd tension between them.
Alex told his boyfriend that it was fine, Javier wasn't really coming for the jacket anyway. Apparently, he was coming for me. Alex just wanted to play cupid. Regardless, I assumed Javiwould want the jacket he had lost considering he was told that it was found. Too bad we didn’t have it.
Millie showed me her entire doll collection that she brought with her from her house. There were about twenty dolls piled in a bag. She told me the backstories to each one and what their goals in life were. It was surprisingly entertaining to see what went on inside Millie's head.
I found myself smiling at the thought of Javi being here. It hadn’t been long since I had last seen him, but I had a desire to see him again.
When the doorbell rang my heartbeat quickened.
"Pizza!" Millie exclaimed as she ran full speed to the door. She swung the door open, excited as ever, but her smile dropped when the person at the door was not the pizza delivery man. "Oh, just this guy."
