He caught it, still laughing. “I can’t believe you went there.”
“Whatever,” I muttered. “He can have his fashion-house boyfriend. I don’t care.”
Henry bit the inside of his cheek, trying and failing to look neutral. His eyes were soft, though. Gentle. He knew exactly what I was doing and was kind enough not to say it out loud.
“Okay.” He pushed up from the bed and clapped his hands once. “New plan, roomie. You’re coming with me.”
“To where?”
“Site. Raúl’s meeting us. His cousin too.” He wiggled his fingers in the air. “Distraction therapy.”
I grabbed my phone. “Fine.” Because sitting here thinking about the things I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about was starting to feel like a losing game. “He better be hot.”
“That’s the word around town.”
I rolled my shoulders, surprised to find some of the pressure gone. Nothing had changed, but saying it out loud had made it feel… less like it was swallowing me whole.
We walked the five minutes it took to get there, this time without Henry badgering me about Sebastian—just him rambling about his plans. I tried my best to steer him away from talking about traveling together for the weekend to check out other clubs.
I had enough saved to last me through the year, but that was assuming I was paying rent and, you know, surviving. Not going on trips with Henry and his Olympic-level drinking habit. Even if he got half his drinks comped, he also loved buying rounds for the whole damn place—and I couldn’t let him pay for everything. That wasn’t how friendships worked. That wasn’t how anything worked.
I was supposed to be able to handle my life on my own. And I’d been so fucking close, too. I checked my phone again—calls, emails, all of it—and still nothing. And every hour that passed without hearing from him made this whole situation feel a little more fucked.
The place still looked rough, but most of the heavy structural stuff was cleared out so they could start on the basics: floors, plumbing, the bones of it all.
I wandered around, trailing behind Henny, when Raúl walked in with his cousin—and yeah… they hadn’t been lying. The guy was built. Rough around the edges in a hot way. Not exactly the kind of guy I went for, but sure, fuckable.
“Holy fuck, can you believe the men in this country?” Henry asked, tugging at his shirt like he needed fresh air. “I swear everybody is fuckinghawt.”
I sucked in a laugh as they approached, and we all went through introductions. Mateo—that was the cousin—pulled a stack of papers from a bag, spread them across the floor, and immediately launched into a structural breakdown with Henry.
I stepped aside to give them space.
Raúl followed. “Did you start classes already?”
“Tomorrow officially.”
“That’s a great time—starting fresh,” he said fondly. “I remember how ambitious we were back then.”
“We?”
“Ash and me.”
Right. Wharton friends. It felt weird meeting someone who’d actually known Sebastian in that world. I’d gotten so used to thinking of him as a loner, in spite of how charming he could be, that I couldn’t even properly imagine him being my age and social.
“He still is,” I said.
Raúl huffed a laugh and shrugged. “Sure. Not like before, but yes—he’s still very much about carving out his future in a spectacular manner.”
“Why not like before?”
“He’s softer around the edges now,” he said, glancing at Henry and Mateo still deep in discussion. “He’s changed a lot these last couple of years. I couldn’t believe it when he moved here. That he left his empire for a lesser title.”
“Lesser?”
He looked back at me. “Because he was CEO before.”
I frowned. “And now?”
