Page 260 of A Matter of Time

I walked a few feet away from him. “It’s not gonna be like you want, so maybe you should just give up.”

After a minute of staring at me, he nodded.

“I just can’t, Sam,” I said, swallowing hard, the lump in my throat almost painful.

“Okay.”

I let out a deep breath and turned to walk away.

“Hey.”

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.

“I’ll see you around, all right?”

I smiled at him and continued down the street. I wasn’t sure how to feel. Relieved? Sad? Steeped in regret, vindicated, or hopeful? Hard to imagine that I would ever fall in love with another man the way I had been in love with Sam Kage. It was, however, not necessarily a bad thing. Being in that deep was really scary.

FIVE

Iwas in early the next morning, and by working through lunch and staying after Sadie left that night, I caught up on three days’ work. Dylan was very impressed when I called her that evening, even though she worried when I didn’t eat.

“You’re too thin now, Jory.” She sighed into the phone.

“Okay.” I indulged her as I ate the granola bar in my desk.

She promised to try and be in the following day if she felt better, but I told her not to worry, I’d call if I got in any trouble. I then made her guess to figure out who I had accidentally run into.

“I hate doing this, and you know it,” she complained. “Who’d ya meet?”

“Abe—your friend, Aubrey Flanagan.”

“Really? How funny.”

“I know, it was totally random.”

“Well, that’s great. Didn’t you just love her? Isn’t she awesome?”

“She is.”

“But don’t love her more than me, okay?”

“Could you be more hormonal?” I asked her. “Like that’s even possible.”

“Good.”

“That reminds me. I gotta call her.”

“That’s my cue to get off the phone.” She yawned and then burped.

“Lovely.”

“Sorry,” she sighed. “My stomach’s all screwed up.”

“Because it’s been taken over by an alien.”

“You’re funny. You should do stand-up.”

I smiled into the phone.