1
SIMON
“My ex-boyfriend is marrying my sister.”
Another man might have been startled—even alarmed—by being awoken by the presence of a second person in a bed they’d definitely crawled into alone.
I, however, was more or less used to this.
“It’s…” I lifted myself up to check the blurry numbers on the alarm clock over the warm body curled up next to me and made a sound usually heard from unhappy dogs. “Three in the morning, Theo.”
Even New York managed to be quiet—quiet-ish, anyway—at this hour, with only the hum of traffic serving as a reminder that the rest of the world was out there somewhere.
Theo made a curious little grunt and shifted to look over his own shoulder before sighing and settling back down as though he belonged in the bed with me. Or that this was even still his apartment, let alone his bedroom.
I wished.
Not that I wasevertelling him that.
“She’s in Rome,” Theo said. “There’s a time difference.”
“Oh, well,” I mumbled, settling down again. “That explains it.”
Theo appearing in my apartment—in my bed—at three in the morning wasn’t necessarily an unfamiliar occurrence. Whenever he got his heart broken—which was frequent—he came to me.
I didn’t ever want that to stop. He was my best friend in the whole world. If three in the morning was when he needed me, then I’d be there. Or here, anyway.
“Which ex is this?” I asked, brain finally registering what Theo had actually said. “And which sister?”
“Delilah,” Theo answered the second question first. I could’ve guessed that, if I’d been awake. Madelaine was unlikely to marry one of her brother’s exes. Not just on principle, but because her taste ran in different directions.
Delilah was likely to do it on purpose.
“And Corey,” Theo added.
“The Texan?”
“Yeah,” Theo murmured, sheets rustling as he shifted.
Yeah. Yeah, that tracked. I could believe that of Corey.
“Right.”
“You never liked him,” Theo said, scratching at the sheets. It was as dark as I could make it in here, but I didn’t need to be able to see Theo to picture him. Eyes downcast, curled up on himself, lower lip pouting.
I had not liked Corey. I never likedany…
Well, no, that wasn’t true. I’d liked some of Theo’s exes, which had sucked because firstly, they’d all eventually broken his heart, and secondly, I didn’twantto like them. I wanted to hate them, because they had something I couldn’t.
Because they had the most wonderful thing in the world, and they hadn’t valued it as much as I would have.Did.
I’d been in love with Theo for a decade now.
But Corey, I’d really hated.
I was used to Theo’s breakup routine, which was as frequent as it was predictable. He showed up to tell me he’d been broken up with at whatever hour it happened—sometimes three in the morning. I consoled him. He moped. We did ice cream and horror movies. I mentally pictured the latest ex as whichever victim met the worst end.
I spent a few days checking up on him at regular intervals and making sure he was still eating and sleeping.
