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I handed them each a mug of hot chocolate before grabbing my own and sitting on the floor between Oz’s legs and the growing fire. Oz’s hand reached down into my hair while he spoke excitedly to his friend. I wasn’t sure he realized what he was doing until Zoey cleared her throat and tilted her head toward me.
“Are you going to officially introduce me to your friend?”
Despite looking exhausted, Zoey’s eyes softened when she noticed Oz playing with my hair.
“Oh!” Oz said, sitting up straight. “Sorry. Zo, this is Jake. Jake, this is my best friend, Zoey.”
Even though we’d “met” over FaceTime before, I reached out a hand to her for a shake. She took mine and squeezed.
“Thank you for looking after this goofball for me,” she said with a sincere smile. “I know how high maintenance he can be, but—”
Oz pretended to elbow her in the side and pout. “Am not.”
“Are too,” she teased. I could tell right away that the two of them were close as could be, and it made me feel such gratitude that Oz had someone who loved him the way Zoey clearly did.
“Sorry, Oz, but I’m going to have to agree with Zoey on this,” I said. “One word: Kiehl’s.”
Zoey barked out a laugh loud enough to make Boo jump in her lap. “Oh my god, he already knows you so well. You can’t go anywhere without a tube of the stuff somewhere on your person.”
“So I like my lip balm. Sue me,” he grumbled before narrowing his eyes at me. “And FYI, I don’t hear anyone complaining about chapped lips around here.”
I winked at him and squeezed his leg in reassurance. “I’m not complaining. I love your soft lips.”
“Aww,” Zoey cooed. “Dr. Feelgood’s getting lucky tonight.”
I felt my face heat up and tilted my forehead against Oz’s knee to hide it.
“Dr. Feelgood gets lucky every night,” Oz responded. “But tonight’s about you, Zo-Zo-Bug. Talk to me. Tell me what happened with Paolo.”
I glanced up at her to see if I should leave the room. “Babe, I can go back over to my place if…”
Oz’s fingers threaded into my hair again as he looked at Zoey with a quirked brow.
“It’s okay. You’re just going to tell him everything later anyway, so he might as well stay,” Zoey said with a weak smile. “It’s just embarrassing more than anything else,” she said directly to me.
“How far along are you?” I asked gently.
Her eyes flicked to Oz before settling back on me with a guilty expression in them. “Six months.”
“Six months?” Oz was up and out of his seat, pacing back and forth in front of the fire and waving his arms wildly. “Six months and you didn’t tell me? What the hell? How did I… where was I that I didn’t notice?”
It was like he was in his own little world–one made up of half self-castigation and half disbelief.
I ignored his theatrics and turned to face her more fully. “Have you seen a doctor?”
She nodded. “After I missed my second cycle, I got a home test. Paolo didn’t believe me when I told him, so he made me go to a doctor. They said I was three months already.”
Oz stopped pacing and stared at her, completely crestfallen. “You’ve kept this from me all this time? Why? I would have stayed, or come home early. I would have helped you.”
Zoey’s tears started again, and it set off Oz’s as well. I stood up to gather him into my arms, which was a good thing, since as soon as he was in my embrace, Zoey said something that made Oz slump completely against me.
“Can’t you see that’s why I couldn’t tell you? This is your dream, Oz.”
Oz’s warm tears slid onto the skin of my neck, and I reached my hand up to cup the back of his head. I leaned down to press a kiss into his hair, inhaling the familiar scent of his fancy shampoo.
“She just wanted the best for you, Oz,” I said into his hair. “You would have done the same for her, and we all know it. What’s done is done. The question now is, what’s next?”
Oz squeezed me one last time before pulling back and returning to Zoey on the sofa. He pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her.
“Jake’s right. Let’s talk about what’s next. I’m so glad you came here, sweetie. How did you leave things with Paolo?”
Instead of sitting back down with them, I excused myself to the kitchen while they talked so I could start making something for dinner while the two friends got caught up.
It turned out that Paolo was the jackass piece of shit Oz had described to me several days before. He’d never liked Paolo and couldn’t believe Zoey hadn’t kicked him to the curb long before now. We were sitting around Oz’s small kitchen table finishing a simple veggie pasta dish when she finally spilled the details of what had happened.
