It wasn’t much, but it was something, and I felt good about the conversation after the fact.
I stopped by to see Diego at work that day, since it was early on a Wednesday.I told him about it, then showed him the messages.
He shook his head and said, “Hope you didn’t do that because of me.”
“I get where she was coming from.I didn’t owe her an explanation, but I wanted to give her one.”It was no skin off my back, and if it answered a burning question for her, hey, why not?Besides, I did wish I’d said something.I wished I’d said something to everyone I’d dated or gotten remotely close since college, at the very least.
“I can’t get over how chill you are about someone you thought you were gonna marry cheating on you.”He shook his head and handed my phone back.
I shrugged.“I wasn’t at first, believe me.”
“I do.”He cocked his head and squinted, as if trying to see through me.Or impersonating a forest bird of some kind.Hard to tell, with Diego.“But compared to me, this stuff is like water off a duck’s back for you.I envy it big time.”
“Starting to think it just deflects the damage off me and inflicts it on everyone else,” I admitted.
He smiled.“You made it up to me.”
“Did I?”I smiled too.
He licked his lips.“DidI?”
I chuckled, and Bryn brought me something that looked suspiciously like an old fashioned.“Heard you’re a whiskey guy.”
“Sure am.”I accepted gratefully.
“My gift to you.Can you come out after work tonight?”they asked.
“Me?”I wondered.
“I knew you were too pretty to be smart,” they said with a little smile.
Diego laughed.“Don’t let the face fool you; I would’ve repeated eleventh grade if not for his big brain.”
“Not quite.”But I smirked because I had worked really, really hard to get Diego to like me in that chemistry class, it was true.
“We’re going to The Firebrand after.”
“That’s the bar I keep saying I wanna take you to.Also where my birthday party’s gonna be,” Diego added.
“You’re having a birthday party?”I wondered.His birthday was in the first week of August.That much I knew, but otherwise I wasn’t sure.
“Yeah, and if you don’t come, I’m breaking up with you,” he said, eyebrows high.
I laughed.
“Come hang out,” Bryn said.
“He has to work in the morning,” Diego said.
“I’ve made worse decisions for worse reasons.”I grinned.“Say when and I’m there.”
“Go home and get some clothes, then.”Diego bit his bottom lip and gave me a long, lingering up-and-down look.“You can stay so work will be closer.”
“You’re letting him use your bathroom?”Bryn’s eyes widened.
“I know, right?”Diego sighed.“He doesn’t understand that’s amuchbigger deal than calling him my boyfriend.”
“Wait, he’s not your boyfriend?”
