… what the hell was Ithinking? The guy was pouring his heart out to me and I wanted to get him intobed?
Well, that wasn’t exactly it. Iwanted to comfort him.
With my cock.
Good thinking, Gray. Realcompassionate.
“See, at first, Ilovedit. My firstboyfriend broke up with me when I was sick—which, yeah, I’m aware that wasa dick move, but we were fifteen and he wanted someone he could actually startexploring his sexuality with, and I don’t reallyblamehim. But anyway.Then there was this other skinny, nerdy kid, and we had a lot in common, and hekind of worshiped the ground I walked on? Which was awesome. Until it wasn’t.”
I winced. It wasn’t hard toimagine how that could getnot awesomequickly. Some people didn’t know how totake no for an answer.
“But he’s out of the picturenow?”
Miles snorted. “He works at thecompany, if you can believe. Coincidentally, as far as I know, since ourrecruiting process is double-blind—that is, HR doesn’t know who the candidatesare, and the candidates don’t know who we are. We go through a recruiter. Ithink he’s given up, although he did come to check on me the day I hired you.”
I nodded, filing thatinformation away. This didn’tfeellike a stalker ex, but… who knew? And Iwasn’t exactly Sherlock Holmes.
Just one more face to watchout for, I figured.
“Do you mind if I share thiswith Fox? He says he likes your book collection, by the way.”
“You trust him,” Miles said.“So I trust him. I don’t think any of this is like… a secret. I’m just scaredit’s about her, or one of the other kids in the trial.”
“Do you visit all of them?”I asked.
Miles nodded. “Yeah. Most ofthem have great support networks, but I like to drop by, check how they’redoing. More for my benefit than theirs, I guess. I want to see them gettingbetter. I actually kinda wanted to be a doctor, but my path was set the momentI was born. This is the next best thing.”
“You’re doing importantwork.” I said, finally starting the car. “The world needs people like you.”
ELEVEN
MILES
BY THE TIME we were in traffic, I wasstill in awe of how kind Gray had been to me today. He’d shown up when I neededhim most, taken me away to calm down, and listened to my goddamn life story.
I still wasn’t sure why I’dtoldhim that. Neverin a million years had I intended to, but having him right there after seeingMaddi had just made it all come pouring out.
And he’d listened.Reallylistened, likeno one else ever had. I’d never gotten to talk about it like that withsomeone who hadn’t lived through it as well.
Until now, I hadn’t realized howmuch of it I was still carrying around like the world’s most tragic backpack.Most of the things I’d told Gray today had been stuff I’d never said out loudbefore.
He was dangerously easy tobe comfortable around.
I wasn’t sure I shouldlet that happen, even if I was really starting to want it to.
“So uh.” I glanced over atGray, turning my phone over in my lap while he navigated midday traffic on theway back to my apartment building. “I told you my life story, so, umm… if there’sanything you wanted to share…”
“What do you wanna know?”Gray asked, and I got the impression that he was trying tosoundopen, but thatthere were things he’d rather not talk about.
Something safe, then. Justto hear the sound of his voice.
“Why personal security?”
That seemed like prettyneutral territory, and Iwascurious. Gray seemed smart, and competent,and I couldn’tsee why he’d picked glorified babysitter as a day job.
“Honestly? I like it. I… youdon’t wanna hear this.”
“I do,” I said earnestly. Iwanted to hear all about Gray’s life. I wanted to know why he was being so goodto me.
