“You make it sound so easy,” he said with a soft laugh.
“Well, isn’t it?” I countered. They’d been broken up for almost two years already and it wasn’t as though they were friends.
“I guess it should be. I just fear I’ll never fall in love again and if I block her, I’m blocking my chance at happiness in the future.”
I groaned. “Miiiiike, there’s literally so many women you can date and fall in love with, why stick to the one person you know isn’t for you?”
He went silent and I briefly feared I’d spoken too truthfully. “You’re right.”
“Huh? Come again? I don’t understand those words when directed at me.”
That made him laugh. “I’ve never thought about it like that. I know for certain Vera and I don’t work together, so why am I refusing to take that last step?”
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see it. “You tell me.”
“I’m so glad I have such a wise friend,” Mike teased.
“And I’m glad I have a burger and you don’t.”
“Fucking bastard,” Mike growled and I cackled in return.
Chapter Four
Mike
“This is fucking gorgeous,” Ivar stated, his tone filled with awe as we walked through the camping site. We had a week off because our research was doing so well. We had to stay in Africa but were allowed to do our own thing for the week before we were assigned our next task here. Ivar wanted to go further out to explore the more rural parts of the country so here we were, about to sleep in small huts because tents weren’t safe enough out here. I was slightly terrified; I wasn’t about to lie about that.
“The stars at night will be something else,” Ivar continued, not even noticing my trepidation as we approached our small hut for the next week. “There’s a trail we can follow too which will lead to a small waterfall.”
“Cool,” I amended, because a waterfall would be pretty cool to see here.
“Wanna dump our stuff and just go now?” I could tell by Ivar’s tone that hereallywanted to go.
“Sure,” I agreed, mostly because Ivar deserved some happiness. I hadn’t known it at first, but his mother was sick and his job was his escape to experience something for himself after caring for her. She wanted him to have fun and enjoy life and he was trying to do exactly that while his younger brother took care of their mother. Ever since he told me the whole story a few months ago, I’ve tried doing things he wanted, basically because I felt bad for no longer going clubbing with him. Honestly, I hated going out and had only done it because I wanted to give it a shot. Unlike Ivar, I was not into one-night stands and meaningless hookups, I actually preferred talking or texting with Dylan for hours over a quick orgasm with a stranger. Not that I’d told Ivar that part.
“Sweet!” he grinned, a bounce in his steps as we got into the hut and left our stuff. It wasn’t anything special, just the necessities but way better than a tent would’ve been so I couldn’t really complain.
We began walking out of the camping area with the huts and found a sign near the trail where it said how long it would take to hike to the waterfall. It seemed to be a safe enough area but they still advised us to stay on the trail because of snakes.I fucking hated snakes.
“So,” Ivar started once we were on the trail. “How’s Dylan?”
I smiled as I remembered our phone call yesterday. “He’s fine. Eating way too many burgers.”
Ivar laughed. “You and those damn burgers.”
“Excuse me for missing something I’ve grown up eating!” I defended without any real bite to my words.
Ivar shook his head smiling. “You must miss him.”
That had me confused.Miss him?“I talk to him several times a day?” Our texting was almost always ongoing and we would talk on the phone whenever I was back at the hotel at night.
“That’s not the same as being in person, and you know it.”
I felt nervous all of a sudden. Things between Dylan and me had changed while I was gone. What would he act like around me in person? Would he hug me? Hang out with me? The thought scared me, but not in a bad way, in a fluttery and slightly nauseating way.
“I guess you’re right,” I agreed. “We weren’t really close before I left for this trip. It will be interesting to see how things will change once I return home.” I feared it a little bit too. I didn’t want to lose what I’d built with Dylan. We talked about basically anything. The only topic we never really ventured into was dating, Vera aside, and that was mostly because the thought of Dylan dating anyone rubbed me the wrong way. I was selfish for wanting all his attention for myself, but I’d already “lost” one best friend to my little brother and didn’t want to lose another one as well.
“Maybe it’ll be amazing,” Ivar said, his tone wistful, like he was talking about something else now.
