He lifts his glass, then downs his drink.
“We have to do some talks about fire safety at the school, so I asked if she wanted to talk about it over dinner.”
“You’re such a dick.”
“Hey, it was nothing. I did it for my friend,” he says smugly.
Now I have to thank him, too?
“Anyway, about those skills…”
“Please, keep it to yourself.”
He laughs again. He’s really enjoying himself.
“Have you become some sort of playboy over the years? The women must have lost their minds around here.”
“It’s the uniform.”
“Please!” I moan, rolling my eyes.
“You’re lucky it doesn’t work on the headmistress.”
“You have no chance against me, Hayes.”
“Is that why you’ve come running to ask me not to show her any of my magicalskills?”
“I came to ask you kindly not to show them off, in the name of our friendship.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else I’d have had to fight you.”
“But…” He gets to his feet, heading back towards the kitchen. He grabs the bottle and pours himself another glass. I join him, nodding at him to pour one for me, too.
“I would never have done anything,” he says, serious now. “Not to a friend.”
“I don’t know how it works between friends, Tyler.”
“Didn’t you have friends in the city?”
“I had teammates, my manager, the coaches, publicity agents.”
“You’re just listing all the people you worked with.”
“They were the people I spent time with. Them, and women.”
“That’s sad.”
Now that I think about it, I realise how sad it really was. And now that I actually do have a friend, I realise how lonely I was, even though I was constantly surrounded by people.
“I worked hard. I didn’t have time for anything else.”
“But now you do.”
“Now I have too much time.”
“You could make the most of it, use your spare time now to do things you never could before. You could spend time with your family, your daughter, your friends… You could attempt to build something meaningful with a woman.”
