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Except now this… this kindness. He let me into his house, for free—well, minus what I promised I’d tell him, if I ever work up the courage—and made me breakfast. He has every right to hate me, but he called us friends. I scroll to the bottom, past his last text, and reply before I can think better of it.
Thank you
For breakfast. For letting me stay over
Sebastian
Don’t mention it, di Angelo
But I can’t make the game later. I have work
That’s okay. Make sure Tangy has water before you leave, okay? There are cat treats in the drawer by the sink, too
My eyes are burning when I reply. Maybe it’s the fact I’m alone. Or exhausted by this summer already, only three days in. I don’t have work tonight, but I don’t want to see him either, not when my body is begging me to ask for things that I don’t deserve from him now and never did in the first place. I’ll just make a mess of things, again, and hurt him, again.
Let him make oatmeal for someone else. Let him leave tickets at the box-office under cute nicknames for some other girl.
Of course, no problem
* * *
Several hours later,I’ve migrated to the couch, bundled up in the blanket, Tangy keeping warm next to my laptop. After I gave in to working at Sebastian’s—I considered going out, but the quiet, blessedly cool house was too tempting to resist—I slowly made myself a sort of nest. Laptop charger. Water, heavy on the ice. My blue light-filtering glasses, the legal pad I’ve been using for notes.The Mindy Projectplays on the television, muted with subtitles. I asked if anyone needed help with the on-campus planetarium later, so I’m going to run a public show about the solar system. The planetarium is far away from the baseball fields, so there’s not even the slightest chance of running into Sebastian.
Working like this is heaven.
My stomach growls, but I ignore it. I should order delivery, since I don’t want to raid his refrigerator, but that would be way more effort than puzzling over one more bit of code.
My phone, which is resting atop the coffee table, chimes with an incoming call. Izzy. After breakfast, I texted to let her know I spent the night in her room. I grab the phone, holding it between my shoulder and ear as I scribble out a quick thought.
“Hi, Izzy.”
“Mia!” She must be outside; the sounds of cars and a crowd fill my ear. “Are you okay?”
“Um, yeah. I’m fine. I’m sorry I used your room.”
“Oh, I don’t care about that. One second.” She breaks off for a moment, continuing to talk, but I can’t catch what she’s saying. “Sorry, I’m grabbing some lunch before I have to be back at the office. Weekends don’t exist in the wedding planning world. Well, not the office, it’s not a corporate thing, but my boss has this nice suite in her apartment that she uses as an office. There’s a separate entrance and everything. These buildings on the Upper East Side are so fancy. Anyway, what are you doing? I haven’t talked to you in ages. I didn’t even get to see you before I left for the summer!”
She finally pauses. I seize the opening, smiling helplessly through it. She’s a whirlwind, but an adorable one. “I just didn’t want to, um…”
“Be around my brother after you ditched him?”
I wince. “Yes.”
“Did you get back together yet?”
“What? No.”
The disappointment in her voice comes through clearly. “So, you spent the night at our house, and you didn’t even hook up with him?”
“I stayed in your room, Iz. Also, we were never—”
“Oh, I don’t care if you fuck in it,” she interjects with a sigh. “It’s not like I get any action there. Cooper and Sebastian make sure of that.”
“That doesn’t seem…”
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
