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“Oh no. So, where are you staying?”
“In the only room that’s habitable.”
“Is that safe?”
“Safe enough. But showering and sleeping are about all I can do here.”
She lets out a low whistle. “Where do you eat and… fuck?
I laugh, surprised and pleased she asked. “Eat at the diner or wherever I can grab something quick. And I fuck… in the library.”
“You took Etta there, too?”
Her question takes me by complete surprise. I’d forgotten all about Etta, but I remember the way she’d looked when she saw us that night at Corks.
“I take it you’re not a fan.”
“She was Duke’s…I don’t even know what to call it. Fuck buddy?”
Etta left out that inconvenient detail. “No shit? Wow, well she’s my realtor. She was showing me around town, helped me get the contractors for the place lined up, and I bought her dinner to say thank you. But that’s all.”
“I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business,” she says, in a hasty dismissive voice.
“You can ask me anything.”
When she doesn’t answer I pull the phone away from my ear to make sure the call is still connected. “You okay?” I ask when she still doesn’t speak.
“Carter…” she begins in a heavy, reluctant tone. “What happened in the library, we can’t do that again, But I hope we can be friends.”
I'd anticipated this, but I still hate to hear it.
“Well, my dick and I both think that’s a terrible idea.” I laugh to cover how fucking serious I am.
She’s silent again. But this silence is bursting at the seams with indecision.“Don’t you care, at all, that I’m engaged?”
My gut tightens but I answer honestly. “Only as much as you do.”
“Wel
l, I care. And I’m not the same girl you knew back then, Carter.”
“I’m not the same either, but my feelings are exactly what they were.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I can’t know anything else,” I push back.
“Carter, please.”
She was trying to let me down easy, and I should let her. But I wish it was more of a struggle for her. I wonder if she’s chewing her lip, trying to think of what to say. "Let’s switch to a video call.”
“No—”
I press the camera button anyway and after a few rings, she answers. I can barely make her out in the dark of her room.
“Turn on the light.”
“No. I sleep with this mask thing, and I look like an alien. I only answered to be polite. But you look…nice.”
