“I know, but Alex is a father figure to Nick. The father he wished he’d had. He’s going to talk this out with Alex. If you butt in, he’ll resent you. Trust me, I know. Besides, this is a conversation you need to have in person. If you wait until he gets home, Nick will have cooled off and you can talk to him easier.”
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. Grant was right again. If nothing else, this was something we needed to talk it out face-to-face. “Alright. Do you know when he’ll be home?”
“Come by around three. If he gets home sooner, I’ll text you. Oh, and don’t park that Quattro anywhere he can see it. If he does, he might spend the night at Alex’s.”
A jealous burst filled me at the thought of Nick staying with anyone other than me. It was stupid, but it was something I’d better get used to. We wereHKarlin.I wouldn’t let anyone else have him ever again. “I’ll take an Uber.”
Sitting on the sofa in Nick and Trevor’s apartment, my heart felt like it was caught in a vice. Anxiety clawed at me as I waited for Nick to get home. The noise from Trevor cooking in the kitchen made it hard to concentrate. I’d searched for the perfect words, but nothing felt quite right.
I took in the modest surroundings, feeling out of place among their mismatched, assemble yourself furniture. This was the home of someone who only had the money he earned. I’d grown up in a mansion furnished with sturdy, hundreds of years old pieces, and never needed to work for money.
Grant’s family also had money, but he had to pretend he only had the money from his job. He’d been upset having to babysit Nick at first, but he seemed happy with his life now.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking. My heart skipped a beat as I heard Nick’s footsteps approaching. I stood up straighter, mentally preparing myself for whatever came next.
“Trevor? I’m….” Nick froze in the doorway, holding a half dozen shopping bags.
I waited for the flash of anger, a sneer, or annoyance. Something to tell me I’d been wrong to come over unannounced.
Nothing. We just stood there, our gazes locked as if time had stopped. In the kitchen, Trevor shut a cabinet, but he never rounded the wall to intrude. Nick and I needed to deal with our issues without anyone’s help.
“Hi, Nick,” I managed, my voice barely above a whisper. It felt like an eternity had passed since we’d last spoken.
“Uh... Hi?”
A thin layer of perspiration formed on my palms, and I wiped them discreetly on my pants. Nick mirrored my unease, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Whatever his feelings, he didn’t want me to leave. Pulling courage from that, I said, “I’m sorry about?—”
“I’m sorry,” Nick said at the same time, our words overlapping in a clumsy mess.
Despite the tension, our laughter intertwined, filling the room with the sound of shared anxiety. It was a small comfort – a fragile bridge connecting us despite our recent distance.
“Listen,” I began, but Nick also spoke – again.
“Sorry, I–” We stopped again, each gesturing for the other to continue. The awkwardness between us felt like a living, breathing entity, threatening to swallow us whole.
I held up my hand and pointed to myself. “Let me go first?” Nick nodded and his expression softened enough for me to continue. “I know you were upset last night, but I couldn’t think of a way to make things better. I figured if I tried, I’d just mess it up worse. Which is exactly what I did.
“Things got awkward after I told you I couldn’t tell you everything about my family.”
“Ya think?” Nick said with a grin. He set the bags down to the right of the door and moved closer.
I smiled back, because he looked happy again, or at least he wasn’t upset. “Yeah, and that’s on me. The call from work left me on edge.”
“About that. Was it really a work call?”
Something in the way he asked told me this was at the center of his anger. “Of course. It was my uncle. He called to remind me I couldn’t tell you about the family.”
“That’s…. Why would he call you out of the blue like that? Has he ever done that before? I…. Sorry. Trevor says I ask a billion questions at once.”
“You do!” Trevor shouted from the kitchen.
We exchanged looks and I was sure we both had the same thought.
“Do you want to go somewhere and talk?” I asked.
“Please.” He glanced toward the kitchen. “The apartment evidently has ears and a mouth.”
Trevor rounded the wall, drying his hands, and gifted Nick with an exaggerated, fake scowl. “C’mon. You knew I was here and that I could hear everything.”
