I spot a young guy walking toward the building, so I hop out to follow him, thanking him when he holds the door open for me.
Jay
I’m here but I’ll go away if you want me to.
Phoebe
Just come up
A minute later, I knock on her door, slightly winded after jogging up two flights of stairs before she could change her mind.
She opens the door and walks over to her table, leaving me to show myself in. “Have a seat.” She nods at the other chair, the white envelope lying in the middle of the table.
Instead of sitting, I rest my hands on the chair back. “Are we good?”
“Sure, but this could have waited until Monday.”
Her voice is pleasant, but something is off. I frown. “Am I … not supposed to date?”
“Date all you want.”
“Your face isn’t saying the same thing as your mouth,” I inform her. “The subtitles are big.”
“My face is just my face.”
I sit down and rest my arms on the table, leaning forward to study her.
She leans back. “Anyone ever tell you that you have boundary issues?”
I straighten immediately. “Am I making you feel uncomfortable?”
“No.” She waves like she’s dispersing my words. “Annoyed.”
“How about jealous? Because that was the vibe I got at the restaurant.”
She squints at me for a second like she’s trying to figure out if I’m serious. “Nope. Not jealous.”
I don’t know if I believe her. But maybe it’s because I don’t want to believe her. I’d rather believe she saw me with Lyra and wished it was her instead. If this were any other woman, I’d be confident that’s what happened. Time to dig deeper. Phoebe has run this conversation every time we’ve had it, but it’s my turn now.
“Imagine Hayes was never born,” I start, and she gives me a startled look. “Imagine you never had to school him with a lobster tail at a work event.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“If Hayes hadn’t happened, would you have considered me an option when we met?”
She sighs. “Jay …”
“Humor me.”
“Why? No matter what the answer is, it wouldn’t change anything about us right now. I’m not going to date you.”
I like hearing her referring to “us” in any context. “You’re not saying you’re not interested.”
“That’s literally what I just said.”
“No, you said you’re not going to date me, not that you aren’t interested.”
“I don’t want to play semantic games.”
