Page 31 of Fish Out of Water

“Fuck off, Jake. Get back to your work before I decide not to count all this time as part of your hours.”

Jake was barely payingattention to anything but his own swirling thoughts when he walked up the front steps that night. He strode across the living room, making for the hall before Isabel stopped him.

“Shoes off at the door, Jake,” she said calmly.

“What? Oh, yeah. Sorry.”

Jake turned back and kicked his sandy shoes off onto the doormat. He started for his room again, but Isabel wasn’t done with him.

“Aren’t you hungry? You were gone for a while tonight.”

“Not really. I’ll probably get up later and grab something to eat, but don’t worry about it right now.”

“Well, there’s plenty of food in this house, thanks to you. You know where to look.”

“Sure do.” Jake smiled absentmindedly.

“Are you okay, sweetie? Did the cleanup go well tonight?”

“Uh-huh.” Jake had gotten all the way to his bedroom door with Isabel following him, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Was Robbie there?”

Jake’s mouth went dry. “Yeah, he was there. He always is.”

“Well, it’s nice to have a friend to talk to, I guess.”

A friend.

“Robbie’s not my friend.”

“Really? I thought that maybe by spending all this time together you would’ve gotten a little closer. That poor little puppy felt like it would seal the deal.”

“There’s no deal to seal,” Jake said a little too quickly.

Isabel finally let him escape into his room, and when he closed the door behind him, he wasted no time in sinking onto the bed and burying his head in his hands. His mind was a jumbled mess. He shouldn’t have let a man like Robbie take it over so easily. He shouldn’t have let what Robbie said today get to him. And maybe a month ago, he wouldn’t have.

Before he thought better of it, Jake opened MatchdUp and found Robbie’s profile. He was still single, he still liked the smell of freshly baked bread, and he was still looking for something long-term. He and Jake were entirely incompatible. The mere idea was preposterous. Robbie didn’t want him, and he didn’t want Robbie—not beyond his body, and even that was questionable.

He opened their conversation. The last time Robbie had messaged him was with his phone number, and the only time Jake had used the number was the morning after the bar fight.He could call Robbie any time, and the man would probably pick up. That was more than Jake could say about himself.

He entered the number, his thumb hovering over the greencallbutton. Part of him wanted to test how quickly Robbie would drop everything to be a real friend. The other part just wanted to keep talking after their strange conversation earlier.

He was about to put his phone down, finally coming to his senses, when his thumb slipped and tapped the button. He scrambled to hang up, but when it rang through once, he stopped himself, waiting to see what would happen.

It rang again. Robbie wasn’t going to pick up.

It rang a third time.Some friend.

It started to ring again.

And then?—

“Hello?”

8

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