Page 79 of Go Back to December

And the mountain of flan in the bowl on my lap.

“Dinner,” I say without apology.

“Dessert,” he corrects.

“It’s eggs. Protein. Nutrients.”

“I thought you didn’t like eggs.”

I swirl the spoon over the bowl. “They’re well-disguised with all the sugar and milk.”

Baz shakes his head and serves himself an equal-sized portion of flan. He hops with one crutch to join me on the end of the couch where he can elevate his leg.

A crashing sound from a slamming closet door reverberates from the spare bedroom.

“Can’t fucking believe her,” he grumbles around his flan.

“I’ll stay at Manny’s tonight.”

“No.” He shoves his spoon toward the ice storm pelting the windows. “No one’s going out in that mess.”

“It’s your last night with the boots.” I lower my voice. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Do you think for one second I’m going to trust Luiza with my physical freedom?”

I can’t suppress the smile that stretches across my face, or the menacing laugh that rumbles from the back of my throat.

Baz shakes his head. “I’m reserving you a spot next to me and Dooley in hell.”

“You upset her today. That wasn’t sibling button-pushing. You ignored her, and it bruised her feelings.”

“She needs to grow up.”

As I stare down at my disappearing flan, vanilla and sugar linger on my tongue, staving off the sour taste of fear. I want the strength to ask him exactly what he meant by those touches during the pool game.

“Consider what happened from Luiza’s perspective,” I say. “She’s downtown and sees Dooley’s post; she stops at Q. Extraordinary, given she’s never crashed your social scene before.”

“It was only to harass me about going to the lake for New Year’s.”

Hence, the heated blowup in the bedroom. I avoid that trap in favor of the other unexploded bomb lingering. “Alicia also follows Dooley’s feed.”

He flinches.

“The two of you—”

“We never dated,” he says quickly.

“But you were together.”

“Once. A long time ago. Before I joined B&S.”

It should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. “So Alicia sees Dooley’s post, which includes a prominent picture of you.”

“You were in the photo too.”

“Ah, but Alicia isn’t aware we’re fake dating. And having received word of your near-death experience at the station, she definitely wants to decipher why Melody from Downstairs is hanging out with two of Blackhart & Steele’s Gentlemen Esquires.”

He grunts in disagreement.