My heart skips a beat. “Interview?”
“Yes.” He looks up at me and nods. “Yes, interview. About the night this,” he points to his scarred face, “happened.”
I blink a few times and then, out of nowhere, find myself launching at him. I wrap my arms around his neck. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Yeah.” He awkwardly pats me on my back until I unwrap myself from him.
“Thank you, Alex.” My heart is full of love and appreciation, knowing well enough how hard it is for him to open up and talk about this. “Do you want something to eat or drink?”
“I want a bottle of whiskey in one go, but I’ll refrain. We want the facts here.” He chuckles and walks to the couch.
“Do you want to go on record?”
“Yes.” He nods. “It’s time.”
“Okay.” I pull out my voice recorder and start. “Today is January seventeenth; Alex Crawley is present to tell his side of the story. You can start, Alex.”
“How do I start?” he asks nervously, scratching his chin.
“We can start by stating the facts about your unit.”
“Alright then.” He chews on the inside of his cheek and asks, “Can you turn it off for a second?”
I nod and hit ‘stop’ on the recorder. He looks around, looking uncomfortable again.
“What’s on your mind, Alex?” I ask carefully.
He shifts his attention from the very interesting coffee table in front of him to me. “So, you and your new boyfriend broke up?” He raises his brows and rolls his lips. He looks adorably hilarious. And super uncomfortable—after all, we’ve never discussed our relationships. As far as I know, he doesn’t know if I’ve ever had any. And judging by the way he jumped into the question, he’s not going to beat around the bush.
“We were never together to begin with to, you know, break up.” I force a weak smile.
His face clouds as his hand squeezes the pillow he’s holding. “So, he just fucked you and left?”
“No.” I state firmly, preventing him from boiling over again. “We had an agreement. We weren’t together. We just spent the time we were given together.”
“And he was okay with that?” His forehead wrinkles.
“Do you see him around?” I mockingly look around. “He’d be here if he wasn’t, right?”
He watches me for a few moments before speaking. “Are you okay with that?”
“I guess.” I shrug.
“Oh fuck.” He scratches his cheek. “Did you fall in love with him or something?”
I throw him a funny look. “Or something?”
“I dunno.” He looks around as if looking for an escape, and I chuckle to myself. “Do you want me to beat his ass?”
I let out a laugh. “No, Alex. I’m a big girl, and we really had an agreement.”
“That’s good. Okay.” He nods a few times to himself. “I should still beat his ass, though.”
“I thought you wanted to beat my ass?” I narrow my eyes.
“What?” He rears back, looking scared. “I’d never do that.”
“Hmm.” Let him sweat a little, so he knows his actions always have consequences. Always. “Should I remind you that you blamed me for taking your friend away?” I ask, lightly tapping my chin.
