I gaped at him. In all the excitement and the confusion over what I should do next, I’d never actually remembered to ask him why he’d been called into the office. But… surely there was no way that could be right?
“You?” I managed to ask, failing utterly to retain any tact.
Deon barked a laugh beside me, almost shooting his drink back out of his mouth.
“Yes, me,” Xavi said sourly. He shook his head. “I know I don’t deserve the job. That’s why I asked her who was next in line to get it if I turned it down.”
“And what did she say?” I asked, my mind racing. I felt like I should have been treading more carefully than I had been. Was he about to tell me what I thought he was going to…?
“She said it was you,” Xavi said, grabbing his glass. “So I turned it down.” He took a huge gulp of his water as if that would fend off any further conversation, staring sullenly to the side.
He wasn’t used to being the good guy. He wasn’t used to people having a reason to thank him – not in a genuine way. And, I realized, he was so unused to all of this that he was actuallyembarrassedto have been caught in a good deed.
I swallowed. “Thank you,” I said.
“It’s fine,” Xavi said, waving a hand. “I didn’t want it.”
“But you turned down a lot of money for me,” I insisted.
Xavi shook his head roughly. “I didn’t want it and I don’t deserve the job,” he said. “Um. And I made a few calls after you told me you needed an apartment.”
I stared at him, not blinking for a moment. “Okay?” Was he really going with this where the urgent beating of my heart told me he was going?
“I know someone,” Xavi said, then made a face. “Well, I don’t really know him. Friend of a friend, really, but I knew he had some property that he rented out. And – don’t get mad at me, but – his little brother died of leukemia.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What does that have to do with anything, and why would it make me mad at you?”
Xavi took a breath, and the rest came out in a rush. “I told him about how your sister’s sick and you’re paying all her medical bills and it’s a lot for you to handle and how you might have to turn down a really great job because of your rent. And, um. He has this one place available. You’d have to share with someone and I don’t think it’s his best place, but… it’s cheap. For you.”
I bit my lip. Yes, I was a little mad that he’d told someone else about Daisy in order to get me a discount – but since I would never take advantage of that for myself, maybe I did need someone else to say it for me. And this could be the solution I needed.
“Can I go see the place?” I asked. My voice trembled slightly and I willed it to stop. Xavi had come through for me. Instead of being selfish and taking the promotion, getting more money in the bank even though he knew he wouldn’t take the job seriously, he’d bent over backwards to help me.
And judging by how he looked like he wanted to crawl into his skin and disappear now that he’d told me everything, he wasn’t expecting anything in return, either.
“Yeah, of course,” Xavi said. “I’ll give you his number and you can arrange a time.”
“Thank you,” I said. My voice cracked again even though I tried to hold it, and Xavi looked down at the table, shaking his head and toying with the edge as if he was trying to peel up the veneer.
“It wasn’t a big deal. I would have been able to help you earlier if I hadn’t been so wrapped up in myself.” He cleared his throat and looked up. “Hey, so, Deon. You work with Aiden? What’s that like?”
I knew he was trying to push the topic aside, and I didn’t stop him. He was uncomfortable with my gratitude, and that was okay.
I kept glancing sideways at him through the whole of the meal, trying to figure out how I could show him how grateful I was. And though I wanted to think of something else, something less obvious, there was only one thing that came to mind.
In fact, it came to mind so much, that it really began to feel like it was the only way to go.
Xavi
“It’s been good, man,” Deon said, reaching out to clasp my hand and pull me in for a bro-hug that I was not expecting. He did the same for Rowe; we’d left the other three, whoever they were, alone in their own little world. I could see why Deon had invited Rowe. He obviously hadn’t bargained for me coming along as well, but to his credit, he hadn’t shown that he minded.
“It’s always good to see you,” Rowe said. I detected a little rawness around the edges of his voice.
“Hey, now,” Deon said. “It’s not the last time. You’re going to figure this housing thing out with Xavi’s help, and you’ll be fine.”
“Yeah,” Rowe nodded like he was still trying to make himself believe it. “Alright. Well, until next time, then.”
Deon lifted a hand in simple greeting and grinned at us, giving Rowe a pointed look that I didn’t understand, and strolled away back into the hotel.
