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“My sincerest apologies,” he jokes. “He and I have been roommates since our freshman year.”
I raise a brow. “Really?”
“We lived in the dorms together, pledged Delta Xi together, made plans to go into business after graduation together…” He looks up at me. “But he’s never said anything about you.”
I shrug, not surprised. “We’re not close.”
“He said that.”
“He mention anything else about our family history?” I ask, embarrassed.
“Not much. Messy divorce. I don’t like to pry.”
“No, it’s okay. You can pry. I mean…” I clear my throat. “It was a long time ago, but… yeah. Messy would be the word.”
“You lived with your mom after?” he asks.
“And Seth lived with Dad,” I answer with a nod. “We still went to the same school, though, so we saw each other a lot. He was the popular jock type, I very much was not, and we…”
“Clashed,” he finishes.
“Nice way to put it. Yeah.” I look at him, our strides steady and equal. “He said you told him to apologize to me. For the stamps.”
Drew glances at my marked arm and nods. “I did.”
“Why?”
His expression changes, the answer obvious. “I don’t like seeing people hurt each other. Especially not people I care about.”
I give a brief smile as my stomach quivers with nerves. “You two must be really close,” I say.
Drew exhales. “Yeah,” he says. “We are.”
“So, then…” I come to a slow stop on the corner of Shanty Row. “We should probably cancel our date this week.”
Drew pauses a stride ahead and turns to face me. “You think so?” he says.
“I don’t think the first thing I should do here is get between my brother and his best friend. That’s a little more drama than I’m accustomed to…”
He nods once. “I don’t want to get between you guys, either. You seem to have a nice white flag thing going on right now.”
“It’s for the best,” I say, as much as I hate it.
“When you’re right, you’re right.” He looks down the street toward my house. “But please allow me to take you the rest of the way. If only to enjoy the last sixty seconds we’ll ever have together.”
I smile. “Sure.”
I step forward. Drew quickly matches my short-legged stride, perhaps to make the brief walk home last just a little bit longer.
“Maybe it is better this way,” Drew says as we reach my lawn. “We could have gone out and had zero chemistry. That’d be an entire night of our young lives completely wasted on each other.”
I chuckle as I step up onto the porch. “I’m feeling nothing for you already,” I quip.
“I’m three seconds away from deleting you from my phone forever.”
“I was going to wait until I got inside, but,” I reach into my dress pocket for my phone, “I’ll just do it right now.”
“Me, too!”
