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Too late. The phone had gone dead.
* * *
The challengewith commercial installations of security equipment was that one had to do them while people weren’t working. Which meant Saturday installations. Not as if I typically minded working on weekends, but today I found myself distracted, thinking about Addison and the debacle of last night.
When I saw Craig pull up in his van, I went out to help him unload the cabling.
“Good morning,” he greeted.
“Morning. Addison doing okay?”
His face scrunched up. “I think so. I didn’t see her this morning at the apartment, but I assumed she was still sleeping.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Do you believe in love at first sight?”
Jesus. “Emphatically no.”
He frowned. “I’m crazy about Malorie.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. It had been a week. “You barely know her.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m falling for her.”
“Does she feel the same way?”
“Not sure yet since we haven’t had the exclusivity talk, but we spend every night together.”
“Maybe have a talk before you go saying the ‘I love you’s.” I didn’t know jack about romance or relationships, but I didn’t want to see my friend get hurt by jumping in too quickly.
“Yeah, good idea.”
The rest of the day was spent wiring up the six-thousand-square-foot space. With a dozen guys working nine hours, we got the installation accomplished. As I was leaving the site, I checked my phone for the hundredth time and sighed when I saw no messages from Addison. Not that I’d expected any, but I’d hoped for a window to apologize when she was listening.
When I replayed the night in my head, I knew I’d reacted poorly. In my defense, my balls had been on fire, but that was no excuse for acting like an asshole. What made my behavior even worse was it had followed the terrible evening she’d already had and had added another unhappy story to her less-than-stellar dating history.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t exactly go over to her apartment, not with her roommate dating Craig. Assuming she’d even see me. Annoyed with the distraction, I made myself stop thinking about her as I drove home. I didn’t need this stress in my life.
On Monday morning, I purposefully went into the office a half hour early, shocked to see Addison in the kitchen, already brewing the coffee. “Good morning.”
She glanced over, quickly averting her gaze. “Good morning.”
This was not a good sign if she couldn’t make eye contact. “Can you come to my office when you have a chance?”
“I, um, sure. Just need a few minutes.” The way her shoulders sagged showed how much she dreaded it.
Once in my office, I took a deep breath, fighting my nerves regarding this personal situation. I typically had the finesse of a bulldozer, but with this, I needed delicate. Needed to stow my gruffness and go for sincerity and empathetic. Yeah, empathetic. As if that word would ever describe me.
Picking up the phone, I dialed Dominic. Of my two brothers, he was the most sensitive. No answer. Next, I dialed Gabe. Although my oldest brother would never be considered empathetic, he could give decent advice.
He answered immediately. “Hello, Leo.”
“Hey. I need some advice. Quickly. It’s, um, of a personal nature.”
“And you called me first?”
“Actually, I called Nicky, but he didn’t answer.” If you couldn’t be honest with your brothers, who could you be honest with?
