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Xander
The knockat the door was unexpected. No one visited me at my apartment except delivery people bringing me pizza or Chinese takeout, and I’d cooked my own meal this evening.
“Just a minute,” I called, running the towel through my hair again. My shorts hung low on my hips as I padded to the door and opened it. “Yeah—Peyton?”
My heart almost exploded out of my chest. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?”
“I… uh, yeah… come on.” I stepped aside and let her pass, sticking my head outside to make sure no one had seen her. My eyes landed on the familiar car backing out of the parking lot.
“Hughes brought you here?”
“He gave me a ride home from work. I asked him to make a detour.”
Jealousy burned through me, laced with something else. Something I didn’t want to think about.
“What are you doing here?”
Peyton winced at the sharpness in my voice, but she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were fixed firmly on my chest, her cheeks burning bright red. But it was nothing compared to the fire I felt searing into my skin as she drank in her fill of my body.
“I’ll grab a shirt,” I murmured, making a beeline for my bedroom.
What the hell was she doing here?
I hadn’t stuck around at the party after Bryan discovered us outside in the alley. It was cowardly, running away like that, leaving her to deal with the fallout. But I knew if I stuck around, I’d end up doing or saying something I regretted.
So I left.
Being caught was a sobering reminder that this—us—was a mistake. If Bryan told Jase… I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen.
But the fact Peyton was the first one to show up here suggested Hughes had kept our secret. For now.
“Can I get you a drink?” I said, stepping back into the living room. Peyton looked all kinds of awkward standing there.
“I didn’t come because I needed a drink, Xander. We need to talk,” she said, lifting her chin slightly, determination glittering in her baby blues.
“Yeah, I guess we do.” I motioned to my couch, and she sat at one end while I took the other.
“Bryan isn’t going to tell anyone.”
“That’s… good.” I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s good.”
“Yeah.” She gave me an uncertain smile. “And now it means we’ll have someone to cover for us.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. Because surely she didn’t mean…
“He gets it,” she said. “He’ll cover for us. I can say I’m hanging out with him, and we can… spend time together.”
“Back the fuck up, you asked him to do that?”
“Yeah, I mean… I thought… You’re angry.” Disappointment washed over her as she pressed her lips together.
“I… shit, Peyton. I don’t know what to say. Bryan finding out wasn’t a blessing, it was a reminder that this can’t work.” It could never work, and I was a fucking idiot for thinking it could. “If he tells Jase or—”
“He isn’t going to. We talked. He understands.”
I scoffed at that. “And why do you think he agreed?”
