“I told you that you were talented.”
Eric laughs and shakes his head, biting into his own toasty. “It’s just a toasty.”
And you’re just wonderful.
Oh, my God, you really are.
Oh, my God, I like my best friend’s best friend.
God, I’m so fucked.
“Better?” he asks.
I wouldn’t say ‘better’, seeing as I’ve just realised I’m developing an inappropriate crush on you. But it doesn’t seem like the right time to admit this, and honestly, I doubt you want to know.
Pretend. That’s all this is.
Even though the way I feel is starting to become a little too real; a little too dangerous for a guy like me.
“Uh-huh.” I take another bite and take a sip of hot tea. “Thank you for all this. Honestly. But you don’t need to stay.”
“Do you want me to go?”
Hell, no. I’m not an idiot.
“N-No.”
Or maybe I am.
“Then I’ll stay.”
“You’ll stay?”
“If that’s okay with you.”
“Aren’t you tired? Don’t you want to get some rest?”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
I don’t know how I feel. I’m certainly not good – not while you’re doing everything you can to make yourself seem even more wonderful in my eyes.
“I really don’t know.”
“She’ll come back as soon as she’s cleared her head.”
I thank him with a smile, then take another sip of tea.
“She’ll come home, Sean. She’ll come back to you.”
22Eric
Sean makes me jump when he comes back into the living room as I’m nosing through his bookcase. He stepped out for a few minutes to call his sister’s boyfriend and find out if there was any news.
“Seen anything interesting?” he asks me, sitting on the sofa in front of the bookshelves.
“So you read not only enormous, old books.” I pick up a thriller and wave it at him.
“I like to change things up. Fiction, crime. Sometimes even a rom-com.”
