Did you execute revenge on yourself?What is wrong with you?
my friend thinks she’s hilarious
Funnier than you.
just like that??
you wound me
Good.
wow
and here i was working so hard to make you laugh
He did?Why?Baz wouldn’t ask, but that was… something.Something he had no name for.
guess i have to keep trying…
Baz’s tongue traced the inside of his lip.Was that another promise?They were stacking up with no follow-throughs.
Which was for the better, of course.Except Baz could do with a chance to unwind after dealing with that many people.If Sami showed up at his door later, there was nothing Baz could do to stop him.As long as he wasn’t the one initiating the meetups, no one could reasonably blame him, right?Right.
With that prospect in mind, the day flew by.More than once, he caught himself bouncing in his seat or checking his phone after completing a task on his to-do list; it remained notification-free.That didn’t mean much.Sami hadn’t announced himself last time either.
Baz glanced at the time:8:30pm.What if Sami was already waiting for him?What if he got bored and left?Now that would just be poor hosting.Last thing he wanted was to be accused of bad manners.
Baz packed up his stuff and floored the gas pedal on his way home.
But no one was waiting for him in the hall.His apartment was empty too.No Sami knocked on his door, no matter how late the hour grew.Baz even checked with the doorman if someone had come to see him earlier.The answer was no.His shoulders suddenly weighed a ton, drooping forward.
Must have been a line rather than a promise.And that was fine.Truly.They shouldn’t have hooked up in the first place.
The memories would serve Baz for a while still on his solo adventures, and in the meantime, he could move on to safer encounters with perfect strangers whose intentions he didn’t have to question.Straightforward.Easy.Just how Baz liked it.
He and Sami?That would never happen again.
Chapter eleven
Ithappenedagain.
Not immediately—a week with no sign of life from Sami went by.It was almost strange for Baz to go about his day-to-day without that annoying presence ruining his clothes, drinking his bourbon, and insulting his apartment.
Actually, the strange part was that Baz noticed his absence at all.He barely knew the guy.Plenty of people had pretty eyes and a weird, disarming sense of humor.Sami wasn’t special.
Baz sure didn’t fantasize about him anymore either, long stopped feeling his hands, much less his lips on his body every time he went to bed.Nor did he race to his phone whenever it buzzed.And if he did, it was only for a lack of better distractions.
No other case of his was as interesting as the Captain Green one.But the sample was with the lab and Ian was radio silent, and so, Baz was forced to play the waiting game.Not that he was waiting!Not for Sami.Obviously.
But when Baz went home that Tuesday night, head buzzing from writing bylaws all day for a start-up Aya represented (“Just because you’re wearing the pants on one case doesn’t mean I can’t make you do the grunt work for the others, Baz”), ready to numb his brain, boom—Sami.Leaning against the apartment’s auburn door with a cocky grin, wearing the same shit suit as the day Baz had the misfortune of meeting him, except worse, thanks to the bright yellow rain jacket he wore over it.
Their eyes met.Baz’s stomach tingled with something he did not care to find a name for.He closed his mouth before Sami could derive pleasure from his surprise.
“Have you been waiting for me all night?That’s sad.”
“Nah, I got here five minutes ago.I assumed a workaholic like yourself would never leave the office before nine, plus a twenty-minute commute, and what can I say.”Sami turned his wrist to reveal his watch:9:30.“I’m a genius who is always right.”
Easy thing to allege when Baz couldn’t verify his claims.
