“Julie.” He almost cried at the sound of her voice. “I’m fine.”
A frustrated sigh. “Then why thehellare you calling me, Caravalho? You know what an actual phone call means. The IRS has a very legitimate concern about my taxes, or someone very dear to me has died.”
“I fucked up, Jules.” He rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I wanted to hear your voice. And maybe cry a little. I don’t know.”
“Oh.” Her voice softened immediately. There was an indistinct shuffle. “Okay. Hold on.”
“Wait, are you at work? I’m sorry. I honestly have no idea what day of the week it is. I can call you back.”
“It’s Tuesday, objectively the worst day of the week, and stepping out to talk to you is going to be the best part of it, so shut your mouth.”
More shuffling. A smallwhooshBen thought was a door swinging shut. And then quiet.
“Okay, so how’d you fuck up? I’m thinking you either broke your leg or something happened with that hunky hunk in all your Instagram photos.”
“Are you sure I’m not interrupting? I’m on a zero day, so I’ll be around. I really can call you back.”
Julie snorted. “Bitch, please. Lorraine sent a real trip of an email this morning, and I’ve been very angrily telling myself I don’t care about it for two hours. I’m begging you. Interrupt me.”
“Ugh. Fuck Lorraine.”
“I agree. Now, what did the boy do?”
“What if I told you I actually did break my leg?”
“I would be very mad at you for lying and saying you were okay when I picked up the phone. Come on, Ben. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Ben sighed.
“Well. So. I slept with him.”
“Obviously,” Julie said. “I’d been assuming you were sleeping with him this whole time.”
“No, no. We were just friends. Hiking partners.”
Silence. Ben could picture Julie, in whatever closet she was hiding in, trying very hard to think of something kind to say.
“Is that so,” she finally said.
“It is!”
“Same dude you posted a photo of three days ago, just the side of his face while he watched the sun set, with no caption? You weren’t already banging that dude.”
Ben sighed. “He’s going through some shit. His parents fucking disowned him, Julie. For being gay. He came to the trail to deal with it.”
“Shit,” she muttered.
“Exactly.” A pang of guilt hit him for spilling Alexei’s secrets, but he told Julie everything. And he was still reeling from this morning, and God, he missed telling someone everything. “And from the moment I met him…I don’t know. I think I’ve been waiting for him to walk away from me this whole time, even though I made him make this pact—”
“You made apact?”
“Yeah. To walk through the desert together. He’s scared of the desert.”
“Oh no. Oh, my dumb little heart is melting. Please, continue.”
“Well—” It suddenly felt like a lot to tell, the last couple of weeks with Alexei. “Basically, we got to this town last night, Big Bear City, and went to this restaurant. And…”
Ben swallowed.
