Page 31 of Freeze Frame

SIXTEEN

JOSH

I’d avoidedthe dog park. Avoided my phone. Avoided Lukas’s house. My sister. Hannah. Everyone. It felt like the universe was against me. It dangled probably the most perfect man in my entire dating history in front of me and then yanked him away.

I’d talked to Asher about it. And Hannah. And not Violet. Asher and Hannah were a team—call him back. Violet would try to set me up with another eligible—in her opinion—bachelor. It wasn’t fair for her to be single but be so focused on my love life.

But then three days ago, David had gone silent. No more texts. No more voicemails. The idea that he’d given up made me sick to my stomach, so I hadn’t bothered leaving the house. I’d ordered food and took Nitro for his walks, and that was the most I did. I had hours of footage to edit, but instead I spent my time in my pajamas watching BL dramas on my laptop.

In short, I was a mess. So it was a good thing it ended now before I got invested for real. Because if I was like this after a single date, how would I be if we’d gotten serious? Would Isurvive a breakup with this man if being ghosted—through no fault but my own—after one date was enough to bench me for days?

Tomorrow, I told myself. Tomorrow I’d call Lukas and ask for a shoot. I’d get back to work editing in the meantime, and I’d forget all about David.

Nitro’s ears perked up and he started to bark. It was his standard response when someone was at the door. I shushed him so he wouldn’t annoy my neighbors and went to answer the door. I didn’t remember ordering anything, but then again I’d been a bit of a flaky disaster the past couple days, so anything was possible.

I yanked the door open and came face to face with David, who stood there, a bouquet of flowers and an envelope in his hand.

“I—”

“You weren’t expecting me. I know. Don’t shoot him, but Asher gave me your address. It took some coercion, but—can we talk?”

My apartment was currently a shithole. Dinner dishes and take-out containers littered the sink and the counter. My laundry had made it as far as the couch where it had lived in a heap for the past few days. My room was a tornado of messy bed linens, dirty clothes, and, shamefully, some trash.

“It’s—God, David. My place is a mess.” And yet I found myself opening the door wider, letting him inside. “I’m a mess,” I mumbled.

Once David was inside, I shut the door and filled my lungs with a deep breath before turning around.

He looked good. Better than good. He was in faded jeans and a black shirt with the sleeves pushed up. I squinted at him. “Did you get a haircut?”

He smirked. “I did. Yeah. I—these are for you.”

He thrust the flowers at me first. A bouquet of carnations in rainbow hues. Then came the envelope. “This is for you too.”

I tucked the envelope in my pocket and winced as I went to the kitchen. “I’ll—ah—find something to put these in.”

When a quick search turned up nothing resembling a vase, I resorted to using a large water glass. Shame kept me from looking at David. For sure he was going to look around at the state of my apartment and decide that I wasn’t worth the trouble.

Except, he wasn’t even looking at my apartment. Not the dishes or the laundry or any of the other mess. David was crouched low, petting Nitro and looking at me.

“You stopped calling,” I said, stupidly hurt by that fact. Not that I’d been answering, but it had been reassuring somehow to get those phone calls. Even when they went to voicemail. It made me feel like he thought I deserved the effort.

“I did some thinking.”

“That’s ominous.”

David’s brow furrowed. “Is it? I mean, I did bring you flowers.”

“Maybe they’re apology flowers. Like sorry for wanting nothing to do with you. It’s not me, it’s you.”

“I don’t think that’s an occasion that would call for flowers. Maybe you should open the envelope.” David’s gaze never wavered from me. He never faltered. He looked like he would have crouched there all day long, waiting patiently for me to get my shit together.

“I—can I get you anything? I think I have a couple beers in the fridge. Maybe a soda or two.” Coffee was out of the question unless I wanted to do dishes first. I did not.

“Josh. Open the envelope. Please.”

My breath quivered out of me, wavering like my shaky resolve. I’d tried to be okay with the idea of David walking away, but even scarier was the idea that he might not.

I pulled the envelope out of my pocket and carefully opened it. David had nice penmanship, the capital J was handwritten and had extra curls, giving it a fancy look. Inside was a short letter with the same swoopy cursive and then a song list.