“Thank you.”
He sighs. “I just didn’t want them worrying about you, and I saw you ignoring your phone, and when you switched it off…” he trails off, and I nod because, yeah, I get it.
“I guess I’ll have some explaining to do,” I admit around the lump in my throat.
“Yeah, but they’ll understand. It’s a lot to process.”
I glance up at his face. “You can say that again. Caleb will be pissed that I came here,” I admit.
He chews the inside of his cheek before replying, “Maybe, maybe not. But you need to at least give him the opportunity, and you can’t do that while you’re here.”
“I still don’t know how to process it,” I say, feeling strangely vulnerable.
“It’s not something you can just process with a click of your fingers, Noah. I can attest to that,” he says, tapping his knuckles against his prosthetic.
I reach for my coffee and swallow down a few mouthfuls.
“Thanks for this, too, by the way,” I say, holding up my mug.
He smirks. “Yeah, I practically had to carry your arse to bed. Well, actually, it was River. You were a bit of a mess and, fuck, you’re heavy.”
I groan and stare into the cup as a stream of memories from the night before come back to me.
“I’ll have to apologise to Lily.”
He shakes his head. “No, you’re cool. They just presumed you were having some issues at home. They understand that sometimes you just need to get away.”
I stare at him. “So you never told them?”
His smile is forlorn as he replies. “No, I said I wouldn’t, and I meant it.”
This, this right here, is why I came to him.
“Thank you. Was I talking shit?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, we were mostly reminiscing about the past. To be fair, you spent most of it talking about Caleb and Jessica.”
Now my cheeks heat as I recollect some of my word waffle, but in fact, it was all true.
They are my life.
“Did you want breakfast? You know I make a mean fry-up. No one else is here. It’s just us.”
My stomach lurches, and I shake my head.
“And on that note, I need to get home. I’ll call a cab and grab my car later.” Even I know I’m still well over the limit.
He stands at the same time as me.
“You can keep the clothes.” He eyes the joggers playfully. “They look good on you,” he says with a wink. Yeah, River really is rubbing off on him.
With that, he steps forward and pulls me in for a hug. I freeze for a second, but then hug him back, grateful for his friendship and support.
Pulling back, he smiles.“You’re welcome here anytime, you know that, right? Ifyou ever want to talk, I might not know what to say or exactly what you’re going through, but I can empathise better than most.”
“I know, thank you.”
He claps me on the back and steps aside, following me back out through to his living area, and I see the boxes lining the wall. How did I not notice them before?
