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A little piece of me dies.
Whirling away from a smirking Gabe, I squeeze the phone tight enough to mask my trembling as I lift it, and meet Mason’s furrowed gaze.
As soon as I come into view…well, I don’t quite know what to make of the emotion rippling across his face. He looks almost…relieved. But surprised too. Like…like something caught him off-guard.
“I’m right here,” I say.
“JJ,” he says into a smile.
“Don’t call me that.”
His grin widens, and my breath hitches, my heart dropping somewhere in my stomach.
I swallow hard, wishing Gabe wasn’t here right now. He’s blatantly watching me, eavesdropping on our conversation. When we first met, he told me he has boundary issues. Said it’s because he’s a from a big Italian family where butting in is their love language.
I told him I’m used to being smothered.
But, while true, I’m not used to being this exposed when said-smothering is happening.
And yet, for some reason, I don’t shoo him out of here.
“Who was that?” Mason asks.
“My roommate. Gabe. He has boundary issues.”
A snort flits across the room, and Mason’s smile falters slightly. Why, I have no idea. But he quickly covers it up.
“You really did it. You went off to college.”
I nod. “And you went off to rehab.”
He winces just as I do. Shit, why did I say that?
“Sorry, I didn’t mean?—”
“No, no,” he says quickly. “It’s true.” A short laugh escapes him, the sound of it rusty.
Still, I can’t help but catalog all the changes in him since last I saw him. Gone is the ashen paleness and the hollow cheeks and drooping eyes.
He looks healthy.
Sad, but alive.
“You look good,” I find myself saying before I can stop it.
His mouth twitches, and he glances down. “Thanks. I feel…good.”
“That’s…that’s good.”
Jesus Christ.
Gabe’s eyes are practically boring a hole in my head from where he sits on my bed.
Ignoring him, I adjust the phone, and quickly say, “When did you get out?” hoping to eradicate some of the awkwardness.
Mason’s eyes gleam with amusement, like he knows what I’m doing. But he humors me anyway. “This morning.”
Mason was originally only supposed to go for three months. But he ended up extending it for two more. Something I was well aware of, just as I was well aware today was the big day he finally came home.
