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“I’ll be right back,” I answered and avoided looking at the fucking crime scene he’d created in his diaper.
As soon as my door was open, I kicked the box of oatmeal bath packets out of my way and went next door. When Maci’s door didn’t immediately open, I unlocked it and let myself in, calling out to her as I stormed through her apartment.
But she wasn’t there.
Pulling up her contact in my phone, I tapped on her name and ground my jaw when it went straight to voicemail.
“It’s Connor,” I said through clenched teeth as I locked her door behind me. “We’re talking about this when you get home.”
When I made it into my apartment, Amy was standing in the living room, holding Ben, an expectant look on her face.
“Sorry. I just had to—”
“What’s going on between you and Maci Price?” she asked over me.
“Nothing,” I said as convincingly as I could. “She’s just driving me insane right now.”
She hitched Ben higher up on her hip and pursed her lips at me, and even being twenty-five, I felt something inside me shrink. That look said I knew better than to think she’d believe the bullshit I’d spouted. That look was a reminder she’d been the one to raise me, no matter what house we’d been in at the time, because we’d always looked out for each other.
It was mom mode through and through.
“I know you’re lying to me,” she stated as if her expression hadn’t told me as much. “And why do I have a feeling Maci has something to do with the difference I’m seeing in you?”
Tossing my hands out to the sides, I let my keys fall to the floor before bringing my hands back to grip my hair. “She’s a Price, Amy,” I unnecessarily reminded her on a groan. “They would fu—” I glanced at Ben and tried to filter myself. “Freaking murder me.”
Amy gasped as she dropped to the couch, a massive smile lighting her expression when she asked, “How long has this been going on?”
“That’s just it.” A dull laugh left me as I gestured to the wall that connected my apartment to Maci’s. “Nothing’s going on. Nothing’s happened between us.”
“Connor...”
“Honestly. Nothing’s happened, and nothing will. She’s my best friends’ sister—I can’t touch her.”
And even if there’d been a small chance of something happening between us, I’d apparently done something to destroy that possibility...and I had no idea what.
* * *
MACI
After hours of shopping and decorating both Amber’s apartment and my own, we were finally done. I was deliriously happy due to all things Christmas and exhausted in the best of ways. But even though the music and time of year had kept a constant smile on my face, I’d been distracted.
Because even though I’d vowed to, I’d been unable to scrub Connor or his words from my mind.
Amber flopped down next to me on the couch and admired our work in my apartment. “We did good.”
“That we did.”
She elbowed me. “What’s going on? You’re usually bouncing off the walls, and I can never get you to stop playing Elf or singing Christmas music. But today, you’re just kind of...blah. Is it what Bryce said?”
“Kind of,” I lied. Not that I could forget Bryce’s words if I tried, but he wasn’t the one ruining my day. And I hated that I let Connor have that much power over me.
“Fuck him, Maci. He’s a douche.” Amber made an irritated sound in her throat. “He did you a favor by finally showing his true self. Now you can move on and find someone else.”
It was sad that her words could easily go for Bryce or Connor when the situations had been entirely different.
It was even sadder that I instinctively responded as if she’d been talking about Connor, even though Amber didn’t know a thing about that embarrassing mess.
“I don’t want to find someone else...I just want to forget about him.” Forget the surprising words he’d said. Forget that I’d deluded myself into thinking he might feel something. Forget the other girls in his apartment. Forget it all.
