“I’d better go now.” I look away, not wanting to be tempted again. “I don’t know how long it will take me to get from here to the office.”
“Don’t you even have coffee?” Seth asks, but I am already at the door.
“See you tonight,” I say quickly, before closing it behind me and running down the stairs, away from him, but not from my thoughts, which follow me all the way to the office.
And not only that.
* * *
PAUL ARRIVES AT the office calmly as usual.
“For you.” He hands me a coffee.
I sneak a look at him.
“I thought you might need it after the night you just had.”
“I’m thinking of throwing it at you.”
Paul laughs as he sits down opposite me. “So?”
“So what?”
He makes himself comfortable, legs crossed and elbows on the armrests.
“I want to know how your first night in your new home with your new partner and your new family went.”
“I’m going to hit you. Seriously.”
Paul is still laughing, and out loud.
What an asshole.
“Judging by your face, I’d say you’ve been up late. I’m all ears. Don’t spare the details. Unless they’re explicit, the kind of explicit your best friend doesn’t need to know.”
“Are you done?”
“Only when you start.”
I snort and pick up the cup of coffee on my desk. I had one this morning as soon as I arrived. And I took a whole wheat scone, too. I hadn’t had my usual protein and multivitamin shake this morning and I was feeling low.
“Seth came home in the middle of the night.”
“And…”
“And I went to bed late. Too late to listen to your bullshit for the rest of the day.”
“Are you telling me you waited for him?”
I take a sip of coffee, avoiding his gaze.
“And when he came home…”
I shrug. “We made small talk and then went to sleep.”
“And you slept in the same bed too?”
“You’re about to take all the hits I never gave you when you were a kid.”
