“Nothing.” She sighed again. “Just that you two looked good together. I thought you’d finally found someone to take your mind off Blake.”
“I haven’t thought about him much lately.” The realisation surprised him, but it was true. He hadn’t. Jesse had been a lovely distraction while he’d lasted.
“Really?” Cate sounded sceptical, and Ian couldn’t blame her. He’d been hung up on Blake for a long while.
“Yeah, surprising as it seems.”
“What about now?”
Now you’ve no longer got Jesse as a distraction.
Ian thought about Blake, pictured him in all his glory at the club, and tried to gauge how he felt about him.
Do I still love him?
Yes.
But he was one of Ian’s best friends. He’d probably always love him.
Did he fancy him though? Was he in love with him? Those were the real questions.
He ran a hand through his hair, head resting back against the pillow. “I don’t know, Cate. He’s still Blake.”
She laughed. “So you still think he’s hot.”
“Yeah. But maybe... objectively so.” He tried to picture him and Blake in bed together, but it was Jesse’s face he kept seeing. Someone else he couldn’t have. Ian closed his eyes. “I’m not so caught up in him as I was before. I think being with Jesse opened my eyes to the fact that there are other guys out there, and I shouldn’t focus all my time on something that’s never going to happen.”
There was a moment and then, “Thank fuck for that.” Cate sounded so relieved it made him laugh.
“I wasn’t that bad.”
“Oh come on!”
“Fine,” Ian conceded. “Maybe I was, but hopefully that’ll stop now and we can all go back to being great friends but nothing more.”
“I know it’s not what you wanted, but trust that I say this with love for you both... You are so not right for each other. Best friends is by far the better option.”
Ian didn’t know whether to be offended or not. Best probably to let it go. “When’s he back anyway?”
Cate hummed, “Monday evening, I think. Probably why we’re not seeing him until Tuesday night.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Having little to no contact with him for two weeks felt strange. Normally they texted at least once every couple of days and always saw each other in the week. “Wonder how he’s getting on?”
“I’m sure he’s both doing great and managing to piss people off.” She laughed, and Ian grinned.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Ian could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind and wasn’t at all surprised when she brought up the subject of vampires.
“So,” she began, voice a little less confident than moments before. “What sort of stuff do you think they’re teaching him?”
He hadn’t really given it much thought. “How to catch them maybe? Um... I have no idea.”
“If it’s a secret task force, I wonder how much he can even tell us about it.”
Ian snorted. “Pretty sure he shouldn’t have even told us he was joining it. You know he’s shit at keeping secrets when it comes to us.” Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to bite him in the arse. Neither he nor Cate would ever spill Blake’s secrets, but that fact probably held little weight to those in charge of the VLCD. Not that his bosses would ever find out.
Ugh. It was all far too heavy for this early on a Saturday. “I’m sure we’ll hear all about everything when he gets back. Anyway. I’m gonna go back to sleep for an hour or so. Despite Jesse fleeing in the early hours, I didn’t get that much sleep.”
