Mase: Thanks.
“Here you go.” Nick set two pints of lager on the table and sat down. “So,” he began after taking a drink. “You and Rys?”
“There is no me and Rys,” I grumbled, still feeling prickly after Max’s texts.
“But you want there to be?”
“No.”
“Mhmm.”
I glared at him, about to repeat that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with Rys fucking Calder, but the words wouldn’t come. I’d never lied to Nick before, and I didn’t want to rekindle our friendship by doing it now. “I don’t want to feel anything for him, but…” I took a drink of my pint, trying to marshal my thoughts. “He’s infuriating. I go from feeling guilty about our past to wanting to throttle him in the blink of an eye. He makes me so angry I could just… just…” I thought back to the interrogation room. How close we’d stood. His breath on my lips. I’d felt for sure he was going to kiss me, could practically taste his lips, his tongue… “Fuck.”
“Did you tell him what Tombs did to you?” he asked quietly, all signs of teasing gone.
My gaze snapped to his. “No.”
“Why not?”
“He saw me in the forest with Tombs, figured out I was a hunter, then left without a word and refused to take my calls or answer my texts.” I fixed Nick with a pointed glare. “He blocked my number. I really don’t think he gave a flying fuck what happened to me after that.”
He reached for my hand this time, fingers curling around mine. “You were so broken when he left. But you never got to explain your side of it. Maybe if—”
“He hates me, Nick.” When he went to speak, I cut him off. “At the end of the day, I betrayed his trust, and I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for it. Whether I still have feelings for him is irrelevant.”
“When he was glaring at us earlier, it looked a lot like jealousy.”
I barked out a laugh. “I doubt that.”
But he almost kissed me.
“And if he was still attracted to me, I think he’d rather chew his own arm off than act on it.” I was thoroughly done with this conversation. “You know,” I said, dragging out a smile from somewhere, “when I arranged to meet you, I thought it’d be a lot more fun.”
Thankfully he laughed and accepted my abrupt change in subject without comment. “In that case, tell me all about how you managed to leave Tombs’ group. I would’ve killed to see the look on his face when his favourite walked out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fun, I said.”
“Oh, come on, he must have been so pissed.”
“You could say that.” Murderous was another word. But I caved to Nick’s pleading look. “Only if you tell me about how you came to end up as assistant manager at Midnight.”
“Deal.”
We spent the next few hours drinking beer and filling each other in on the last few years of our lives. With each story shared, I felt the distance between us lessen until it really was like we’d never been apart at all.
It felt pretty fucking good to have my best friend back.
* * *
I metMax at the office on Saturday, a couple of hours before we planned to go to Midnight.
He let out a low whistle as I walked in the door. “You know we’re supposed to be working, right? Not hooking up.”
I glanced down at my black skinny jeans, boots, and red shirt. Smart casual. Maybe a little on the snug side, but what was wrong with that? “What was I supposed to wear? We want to blend in, don’t we?”
Max gave me a thorough once-over. “I don’t think you’ll be doing much blending in wearing that lot.” He narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t be trying to impress a certain shifter, would you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I walked over and sat behind my desk, making a show of straightening the papers into a neat pile. “And I doubt he’ll be there tonight anyway. Rys doesn’t strike me as the clubbing type.”
