“Just repaying the favor, brother.” I give him a knowing look. “Or should we revisit how buddy-buddy you were with London when she came back, just to spite me.”
“Hate to break it to you,brother, but that was never about spite. I felt like at least one of us needed to be kind to her so that you’d have a chance to get out of your own way and figure out what everyone else already knew.”
“And what’s that?”
“That you still loved her.” A smile plays at the corner of his mouth. “It would appear as though I was right.” He crosses his arms in front of his chest.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I grumble.
“So, how was it?”
“I am not, nor will I ever, discuss my sex life with you.”
“So you did sleep with her.” His smile widens. “I knew as soon as you asked me to fill in for you today... I can’t recall you ever doing that before.”
“Alec,” I warn.
“Okay. Okay.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “Just do me a favor and tread carefully. The last time she left, she nearly destroyed you. I’d hate to think what would happen if she were to do it again.”
His words find that insecure pit that’s been brewing in my stomach since yesterday and gives it a good poke.
“She won’t.”
“I hope you’re right. Just do me a favor and take it slow. Be sure that she’s in this for real before you let yourself get too deep.”
“A little too late for that,” I mutter under my breath loud enough for him to hear.
“We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?” Alec flops down in the chair across from my desk, stretching his legs out in front of himself.
“You really want to know how to win Josie over?” I ask, lowering myself into my own seat.
“I wouldn’t have asked for your help if I didn’t.” He blows out a hard breath.
“Befriend her.”
“Befriend her?” He looks at me like I’ve just sprouted horns out of the top of my head.
“Don’t scoff at it until you try it. Take the time to get to know her and not just on the surface level, to really know her. Be her confidant. Her comfort. Her companion when she wants to do something no one else will do with her. Show her you’re someone she can lean on, that she can trust; the rest will take care of itself.”
“How do you know it’ll work?”
“Because I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”
“Oh yeah?” He perks up at that.
“And because that’s what I did with London.”
He thinks on that for a long moment.
“So how would I go about doing this, exactly?”
“You have to let it develop organically.”
“Easier said than done when she won’t even answer my calls and barely answers my texts.”
“Maybe London can help with that.”
“How so?”
