“You even smiled.”
“People smile.”
“Not you. You usually look like you’re stepping on a Lego. The only one gruffer than you is Flynt…don’ttell him I said that.”
Despite myself, a laugh escaped me. Our boss Flynt was a hard ass.
“I think you know you’re distracted and the reason for it. I’m just saying, from personal experience, if you can’t stop thinking about her, there’s a reason.”
“Yeah well, the owner of the cat I wasnotsmiling at is also my best friend’s sister.” I left the explanation unsaid but I knew he understood.
“Might be worth a conversation before you spend the rest of your life pining.”
I snorted, but didn’t answer as he patted my shoulder and walked away.
I watched him leave, then sat there for a moment longer than necessary. The station buzzed around me with familiar sounds. A radio crackled. I could hear Emily’s voice on dispatch. There was a coffee pot gurgling in the break room.
It was all the same as when I left. So I guess it was me that changed.
I got a text from Cliff the next day, he was back in town.
Cliff: Dinner tonight at Ruby’s? I have zero groceries
I sent him a thumbs up and braced myself. Everyone at the station had picked up on my feelings, there was no chance he hadn’t.
* * *
The smell of french fries and coffee washed over me as I stepped into Ruby’s Diner. I spotted Cliff in a booth by the back and sank into the vinyl seat across from him.
We caught each other up on work shit until we’d placed our orders, then Cliff leaned his forearm on the table and cleared his throat. “So, I talked to Skye,” he started.
The urge to spill the truth was strong. It was a truth that had become more and more clear as the week had gone on. Every time I went to bed without her, and the menace, I thought about them.
I’d never felt this way about another person. I couldn’t deny that.
“And?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his answer but I needed to anyway. I needed to know what I’d be sacrificing if I sought her out. Being busy with work I was able to resist the urge but with every one of her posts that came up on my social media I was getting closer to the inevitable.
And man, those posts were not helping.
Yesterday she’d uploaded a video of Kyle stealing deli meat out of a camping cooler while she laughed in the background. I’d watched it six times.
Six.
That cat had somehow become emotionally significant to me. Which felt like a real low point.
But I had realized something this last week that I could no longer deny.
That being, I choose her.
Living with my best friend hating me would be hard if it came to it. What I couldn’t figure out was how I was supposed to walk away from someone who fit into my life that easily.
Cliff cleared his throat again. “She mentioned that she had a thing for you, but thought I would have a problem with it.”
“She did?”
He nodded. “I gotta say I am really pissed off about the whole thing.” I swallowed hard.
His wide shoulders were tucked up by his ears and he was clutching his hands together until the skin paled. “I’m really pissed you two are putting me in some sort of dad role, as if I have to rubber stamp this thing.”
