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Chapter Eight
Alex
I don’t know what I was thinking. I’d gone fucking zero to sixty, fallen head over heels for these two, and I didn’t even know them. They’re basically strangers that I’ve spent some hours and swapped some bodily fluids with.
But they don’t feel like that. They feel like more, and that’s what makes it feel so completely shitty to learn that neither one of them wanted anything serious. I wasn’t much more than a pity date.
I can’t stomach the thought of going back to my empty house, and there’s only one other person I can think of who’d be up right now. So I head for the house of one of my closest friends, Nora.
When I pull up to her house, I don’t see a light on, so I shoot her a quick text asking if she’s home and awake.
I get a quick response assuring me that she is and asking what’s wrong. I decide to just call her instead.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Nora, sorry, I didn’t wake you up or anything, did I?”
“Not at all, I’m binge-watching Gordon Ramsay screaming at hotel owners. You see his butt in like every episode of this show.”
Despite my sour mood, a laugh bursts out of me. “Sounds riveting,” I reply drily.
“It has its moments,” she says, “But I know you’re not calling me at this hour to talk about my TV habits.”
“No, I’m sitting outside your house right now,” I admit, “Can I come in? I know it’s late, I just…I don’t know, I need someone to talk to.”
“Of course, the key’s under the fake rock, you know where it is. Come on in,” she replies.
I get out of the car and head inside, letting myself in. Nora has made herself quite the nest of pillows and blankets on her couch, a cup of tea half-drunk on her coffee table. Her television screen is frozen on the face of Gordon Ramsay mid-yell, presumably tearing someone incompetent a new asshole.
Nora herself is nestled in the center, wearing a baggy t-shirt and some loose yoga pants, her brown hair twisted into a loose braid that hangs down her shoulder. She’s a beautiful woman and all, even in a messy state like this, but I appreciate her looks in the same kind of way I’d admire a pretty painting or a cute puppy.
There’s never been a drop of chemistry between us, but we immediately bonded in a friendship that felt like family. Sometimes she feels more like a sibling than my own brother.
“Hey, you want a drink or something?” she asks, “Help yourself to anything in the fridge.”
My first impulse is to decline, but I realize my mouth feels like a desert. So I go to the fridge and fish out a bottle of water, cracking it open and glugging down about half before I come up for air.
Closing the fridge, I return to the living room to find the pillow next expanded, with Nora sitting to one side and making a space for me. As if it weren’t clear enough, she pats the spot when I step into the room.
I sit down next to her. “All right, what’s going on?”
I sigh. “Well, you know how I had that date tonight?”
“Yeah, yeah, your second date with the people from the dating app. Josie and…” she hesitates for a moment, “Leo?”
“Close. Theo,” I correct her, “And yeah.”
“So what, did it not go well? Did one of them do something? Do I need to go for some kneecaps?”
I laugh. “I don’t think you need to go that far,” I tell her, and I explain the events of the night.
When I’m finished, I’m expecting her to rail against them with me, to commiserate and threaten violence, but to my surprise, she’s frowning at me. “So you just stormed off?” she asks.
“Well…yeah, what more was there to say? They aren’t interested in what I want, and I’m not really interested in being with people who didn’t even want to go out with me to begin with.”
“Okay, first of all, just because they didn’t set out wanting something serious doesn’t mean that couldn’t have changed. I mean, think about it, they told you about some pretty serious shit they’ve been through. Getting cheated on would rock anyone’s trust, can you really blame Theo for being hesitant to jump right back into something serious?”
“Well, no, but-”
