I shot him a look. “And you’re going to renew our lease in six months and stay in this place forever and ever?”
“Well, fuck.”
“Right.” My chest sank at his frank answer, the reality settling in. It was one I’d been dealing with for a while now, as everyone made lifeplans that didn’t include me. Sure, I might be a needy motherfucker, but I didn’t think asking to besomeone’spriority was unreasonable.
“One question for you,” he said. “And you can tell me to fuck off or not answer if you want.”
“Shoot,” I said, bracing myself for whatever truth bomb my best friend was about to drop.
“How’s what your parents are doing with moving down to Florida any different from me moving out? What extra connection will you have there that you won’t have here?”
Yup, gut punch. I chewed a few more mangoes to avoid answering, my chest throbbing with the truth that, yeah, even my folks had been focused on their relationship with the move, not their relationship with me.
Because they assumed I’d be off, making my own connections, settling down with someone on my own by now. Me fucking too.
“Hey, I’m not trying to be a dick here,” Rory said, lifting his hands. “Just trying to point out that if you want to move, it needs to be because you want it. Not because you’re afraid of everyone leaving you.”
“Okay, you keep up like this, and I’ll be KO’ed before we finish the conversation.” Seriously, ouch. Rory was charging in here with a carving knife, and as much as I hated the lance of pain in my chest, all my avoidance hadn’t forged any solutions either.
“What do you want?” Rory asked. “A life here, or a life somewhere else?”
Distilled like that, the answer was clear as daylight.
“Here.”
The admission cracked open something in me, and the breath rushed out, as if I’d been socked in the stomach. From the moment my folks had announced they were moving, I’d been torn over the idea ofnot being able to drop by at any time. At the idea of them moving on without me.
But the truth was, I knew them. They’d visit me, and I’d visit them. There was no future where they’d disappear from my life. I’d just been paralyzed by the change, because everyone had found their connections, and I was stuck on the outside.
“Thank fuck,” Rory said. “You looked miserable every time you mentioned Florida.”
Relief flooded through me in a fierce, blinding torrent. Had the answer been that simple? I’d been tangled up with thoughts about this for weeks, but all it took was someone who knew me hammering a little bit of sense. No part of me had wanted to leave. I liked my life here. I liked where I worked, my friend group, and everything about the area.
The hard part would be telling my parents.
The other hard part would be pursuing what I really wanted.
WhoI wanted.
Rory kicked me in the shin. “You haven’t told me more about firefighter hottie either, though Nyx told me he’s gorgeous. How come she and Owen got to meet him and not me?”
“Because he happened to be the one who answered the call over our fire alarm,” I said, popping a few more pieces of mango. “Owen’s still mortified over that one.”
“And we’ll never let Daddy Owen live that one down.”
“How does Wyatt react to you calling another man Daddy?” I asked.
“Eye roll usually. He knows me,” Rory responded. “Plus, it’s not like he wants me calling him Daddy. Weird enough that I’m friends with his daughter.”
“How is Harps doing?”
She was one of our old piercers who’d left to become a vet tech. We saw her once in a while, but she wasn’t around as much as she used to be. One of the shifts that had me shaken, because Alchemy Ink was my other family.
“Killing it in school, but she misses the crew,” Rory said. “Once the semester ends and she can breathe, she’s coming out to movie night again.” He eyed me. “But don’t think I missed the dodge. Fess up about Drake.”
Well, there went that attempt. My skin prickled, but I sucked in a deep breath. “We haven’t had a relationship talk, but he’s my ex’s brother, so I’m guessing there’s some shaky territory.”
“But you’re doing sleepovers, babe,” Rory said, pushing up to sit on the side of the kitchen counter, and he swung his legs back and forth, clearly getting out his excess energy. “When I was avoiding anything that resembled commitment, I didn’t sleep over. That was a GTFO as fast as possible.”
