The compliment came easily, but there was a beat too long before she added, “That top is… flattering.”
I turned my head toward her. “Flattering?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah. You don’t usually wear stuff that fitted.”
There it was.
Not quite rude. Not quite kind.
Just enough of a comment to sit wrong in my stomach.
I looked down at myself. Dark jeans. Black sandals. Black top with a low square neckline and short sleeves. Cute, simple, normal. It fit exactly how it was supposed to fit.
I looked back up. “That’s because most of my wardrobe is work clothes.”
“Mm.” She gave a small nod. “Still. It looks good on you.”
I let that sit for a second.
Then I smiled faintly and said, “You know, when normal people compliment someone, they usually stop after the compliment.”
Her mouth twitched like she was deciding whether to laugh or deny it. “Oh my God. I was being nice.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
I snorted softly and looked back out the window. “Debatable.”
She did laugh then, though it sounded a little too sharp around the edges.
The rest of the drive passed in pieces. Work gossip. Complaints about traffic. Maya ranting about one of the women in accounting who kept reheating fish in the office microwave like she had a personal vendetta against the entire building.
I only half listened.
My mind kept drifting back to Derek.
He’d asked me to come three separate times over the last two weeks, and each time he’d looked more tired than the last. Not physically tired. Soul tired. The kind that sat behind his eyes and changed the shape of his smile.
His older sister was sick.
Cancer.
And everyone at work had been trying in their own awkward, fumbling way to help. Derek was the kind of person people wanted to show up for. He was good. Reliable. The kind of man who stayed late to help when systems crashed and brought donuts on Fridays just because.
He’d never said the words I need you there, but I heard them anyway.
So here I was.
In Maya’s car.
Driving toward a biker bar in the middle of nowhere for a benefit I had a feeling was going to be a lot bigger than I’d expected.
I didn’t realize just how right I was until we turned into the parking lot.
“Holy shit,” Maya breathed.
My eyes widened.
