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“Join the club.” Ben laughed. “This is the first time we’ve managed to get him to stay out past seven p.m. in over a year.”
“I’m off the next two days and Lydia’s visiting her mom and took the kids with her. Didn’t want to be deprived of wiping noses and asses for the next forty-eight hours so I’m hanging out with these two cretins.”
“Uh-huh. You wouldn’t happen to know why a woman showed up on my front porch half an hour ago thinking she’d rented a room in my house, would you?”
Will choked on his beer. “Oh shit,” he muttered after clearing his throat.
“No idea,” Brody answered. “Hey, how’s the reno on Jackson going? You thinking about maybe moving into this one after you get it done?”
“Don’t change the subject.” I pointed a finger as I plopped down into the seat across from him. “I know you did this.”
“Told you we should have signed him up for speed dating instead,” Ben said.
My head whipped over to Ben. “You were in on this?”
“You know how he gets once he thinks he’s hatched a brilliant plan,” Will said.
“Et tu, Jockey?”
Will raised his hands in surrender. “We told him it was a bad idea when he first brought it up. He didn’t say anything else about it for a couple of months. I had no idea he went through with it.”
“So you guys are—what?—sitting around cooking up ways to mess with my life?” I asked. My blood boiled at the thought of them all conspiring about how to fix me.
“What life?” Ben said. “You never go anywhere. All you do is sit in that empty old house. No one ever sees you out anywhere except your daily run, where you’ve made it pretty fucking clear you don’t want any company.”
Stop returning good mornings, hellos,and friendly nods for long enough, and even the most steadfastly polite Midwesterners take the hint.
“Seriously though,” Will asked, “how is it no one ever sees you out anywhere?”
By design. Not interacting with anyone meant no one was all up in my shit trying to get me to open up about my feelings. But I wasn’t about to say that, because we did not need to open that can of worms right now. “Becker’s has online grocery ordering, I’ve got a gym at home, and an Amazon Prime account. What do I need to go anywhere for?”
“It’s worse than we thought.” Ben shook his head.
“How is it anybody’s business how I spend my time?” I wasn’t here to have my personal choices dissected and examined in front of the class.
“It’s not,” Brody finally chimed in. “But you’re our friend, even if you can’t get your head out of your ass. And it is our business if you’re still heartbroken and turning into a hermit because of it.”
“Heartbroken?” An honest to god laugh burst out of me. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened. Not recently, that was for damned sure. “You think I’m heartbroken and that’s why I never go anywhere?”
“You’ve never gotten over Gwen.” Brody sounded so certain, I wanted to punch him, even if his meddling was well-intentioned.
My friends were off by a long shot. Yes, things between us ended on an ugly note—all my doing, Gwen was a saint for staying with me as long as she did after the accident and what a colossal asshole I was afterward—but the dissolution of our relationship had nothing to do with my preference for avoiding the outside world.
Shit like this was what kept me working by myself on house flips during the day, and home alone, watching TV or reading, in the evenings. People looking at me the way all the gawkers did when I came into the bar tonight. Looking at me like my former friends were right now. Looking at me like I was a project needing tending to.
“I’m over things with Gwen. She’s moved on and I’m happy for her. It was for the best for both of us.”
“Dude, I was with you when you bought the ring.” Will shook his head. “You can’t act like it was no big deal. Did you even tell her after the accident?”
“No. And it doesn’t matter now. She needed to leave.” I needed her to leave. “It’s ancient history.”
Brody wasn’t having it. “Nope. It’s obvious you’re still not over her, and your withdrawal from society is a symptom of your heartbreak-induced depression.”
“I’m not depressed. I just want to be by myself.”
“Isolation. Prime symptom of depression,” Brody said.
My head dropped between my shoulders as I sighed. “Brody, man, I know you mean well, but your plans are always the worst.” It was a conundrum how the man could give expert advice for soul-searching questions, but his plans were always of the harebrained variety. He miscalculated every time.
