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“Ben?” Nova repeated again.
“Yeah, yes. Sorry. Drifting.” He managed to hold back a yawn, but only just.
Nova chuckled, the sound low and comforting. “Rest, gorgeous. Tomorrow will be here soon enough.”
It would. And Ben’s only two regrets were that he wouldn’t be waking up with Nova beside him and that instead of being able to have him the way he wanted, he’d be committed to another date with the last person in the world he belonged with.
fourteen
The sudden sensationof his phone vibrating ripped Ben from his lazy doze, but his entire body felt like it was asleep when he tried to move.
“Ow! Fuck!” Ben toppled off the couch and smacked his temple against the coffee table as he tried to get up. He managed to crawl onto all fours and find the damn thing, which had slid halfway under the couch, and he answered without looking at the screen.
“Yeah? Yes?”
“Is that a new greeting in academia I’m unaware of?” It was the last person he expected to hear from that week.
Ben sat up so fast he got dizzy. “Aaron?”
There was a long silence, which Ben knew meant Aaron was processing his guilt. He waited, knowing Aaron didn’t respond well to force or badgering. Then his brother cleared his throat and made a soft little “ah” sound.
“Is this call for excuses or an apology?” Ben asked.
Aaron cleared his throat again. “That depends on how your last date went.” His sentence sounded more like a question than a statement, and Ben rolled his eyes so hard it hurt.
“Do you want a blow-by-blow of how it was or just a general ‘these are the worst dates I’ve ever been on’ sort of statement.”
“Come on. They can’t all be—”
“One guy got busted having sex on FaceTime in the bathroom while I was at the table waiting for appetizers,” Ben snapped. “The staff called the cops.”
He could all but hear how heavily Aaron swallowed back his words. “That was just one—”
“One guy stole my phone and then bit me when I tried to take it back,” Ben rushed on. “One guy was a high school bully and still liked to throw people in trash cans.”
“Okay, okay. I get it,” Aaron said, sounding contrite but a little tired.
“I’d give you more details, but I don’t have the emotional energy. And I’m starting to wonder if maybe this app is for, like, future serial killers or people who want their ownDatelinespecial.”
Aaron sighed. “Maybe it’s just people on apps. I mean, you know the rule about how you have to get through the muck to find the treasure, right?”
Ben bared his teeth, but he couldn’t bring himself to be too angry. Not now. Not after last night and Nova’s promises of what was to come when it was all over. “Why did you ignore me all week?” he asked instead.
“Because I felt like shit,” Aaron said from behind a short breath. “It was obvious from all your messages you weren’t having a good time. At first, I thought it was just you self-sabotaging because you didn’t want to end up with another cheating fuck-face, and I wanted you to give it some time. I still think you shouldn’t give up just because the first couple of guys were awful.”
If by first couple, Aaron meant six in a damn row, then sure. And the very fact that he was using that as an excuse pissed Ben off even more. “Did Idosomething to you?”
Aaron was quiet for a short second. “Did you do something to me?”
“Have I done something wrong? Something to piss you off? Do you have some sort of vendetta against me that made you sign up a bunch of absolute dickheads to torture me for an entire holiday?”
“Ben…”
“I’m serious. If this is revenge, then I guess I’ll have to take it. But I’d like to know what I did wrong.”
“No. I…fuck’s sake,” Aaron said. “You haven’t done anythingwrong. You’ve been through hell and back with that…that…asshole,” he spat like he couldn’t find a curse word bad enough to describe Taylor. “I just wanted you to be happy.”
Ben sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Iwashappy. I don’t need to be in a relationship for that.”
