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Luca’s eyes gleamed. “That you do. Meet you at your apartment?”
“Please do.”
Bubble tea and orgasms really did the trick on my stress levels. Luca met me in the parking lot and I brought him straight up to my apartment. I’d put in a grocery order on Sunday so my fridge was actually reasonably stocked to feed us both a late dinner.
He stood behind me as I prepped a pair of frozen gourmet ramen meals. His arms looped around my waist while they bubbled away. “I was fully intending on cooking for you tonight.”
“Sometimes I’m prepared. Let me return the favor once in a while. Not that cooking up a pre-made meal is all that difficult…”
Luca loudly kissed my cheek. “I love it.”
“Cheeseball.” I spun around to pull his mouth to mine.
“Cute, though, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course.”
“Good. That’s the important part.”
“Your sister’s apartment was broken into.”
“What?!” I snapped to attention, my coworkers laser-focusing on me. “Is she okay?”
“Yes,” Mom sniffled. I wished I was with her, instead of on a call. “She’s staying with Gabe and Jasper and said that she wasn’t hurt.”
“Should we go over there?” I was already itching to talk to Lux about getting the rest of my shift off.
“No, she asked for some time to settle. We’re going to go over this weekend.”
I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. That at least sounded like there wasn’t too much panic. “Do they know who broke in?”
“She said it was Alphonse. The police are looking for him.”
Some people ran from their past, but I guess Nicky hadn’t run far enough to avoid ever seeing her ex-fiancé again. I had never understood why some people couldn’t leave well enough alone. Nicky hadn’t said very much when she had broken things off with Alphonse, with him moving to Tokyo for business and her remaining behind. I didn’t know all the details, but I didn’t need to. I was glad Gabe and Jasper were there to help her through this. They seemed like infinitely better choices than Alphonse had been.
Once I was off the phone with Mom, I sent a text to Nicky.
Luca:
Love you
Let me know if you need anything and I’ll be there in a heartbeat
Nicky:
I love you too
I’m OK but thank you
I knew she didn’t mean anything by brushing me off, but it cut all the same. It didn’t matter. Both of us were kind of loners, and I felt the guilt of letting the years stretch between us. As glad as I was that she had Jasper and Gabe on tap, I still wished we’d have been close enough she would’ve reached out to Sidney and me first.
I wasn’t very good at connecting with people who didn’t need me. Nicky wasn’t the sort of person to air out her troubles, so it made it a lot more difficult for me to reach out and solve them.
“Everything okay?” Lux asked when I finally turned to her. “Do you need to head out?”
“No, I can stay. No one was hurt and I’ll make a phone call later to check in.”
“All right.” Lux nodded, setting a hand on my shoulder. “Let me know if that changes. I can manage if you need to go.”
