Page 5 of One Week With You
I winced and scrubbed a hand down my face. The question I’d been dreading, but it was my own fault. I’d started it.
“So here’s the thing.” Shifting forward on the sofa, I focused on picking at the label on my beer bottle. “I might’ve mentioned I had a girlfriend… called Talia.”
Bracing myself, I spared my best friend a glance.
Expressionless, Leo stared at me for one long, excruciating moment before throwing his head back with a laugh. “Oh man. Of all the names, you pick that one?”
“It just came out.” I couldn’t tell him the real reason. “You think she’ll be mad?”
“I don’t know. Depends on the day. You know what she’s like.”
I did. As much as I’d fought my attraction over the years, something about Talia spoke to something in me. A kinship, a mutual awareness, I wasn’t sure. But a connection was there, and it had lingered long enough to make a mark. Long enough that I thought about her. A lot. Sometimes I’d go weeks, even months, without seeing her and still felt like I knew her to her bones, like we could pick up exactly where we left off. Any time Leo mentioned his sister, I absorbed the information like a sponge, needing any sign that she was okay, happy.
It didn’t help that I knew what she tasted like, how incredible her body felt beneath my hands. Which was why I was in this mess in the first place.
“Do you think she might help me out?”
“Ask her,” Leo said with a shrug, and I was grateful he didn’t seem bothered about it. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
The last time I’d asked for Talia’s help we’d drank too much and shared an unshakeable kiss forever seared into my memory.
“You have no idea,” I mumbled.
* * *
Ten minutes to full-time – fifteen depending on the ref – my phone rang. I groaned, clenching my eyes closed. As much as we had our disagreements, Henry knew only to call me if it was something serious.
But when I caught sight of the name on the screen my pulse quickened:Sunshine. I glanced at Leo; his own phone silent beside him on the sofa.
Why is she calling me and not her brother?
“Doesn’t Henry realise it’s Friday night and some people have social lives?” he said, popping open another beer. The lid clinked and rolled across the floor somewhere.
“Is that what we’re calling this?”
He rolled his eyes. “Tell him to fuck off.”
“I’ve tried. It only makes him more determined and more annoying. I’ll be right back. Record the end for me, would you?”
“You’re kidding.” Leo gestured wildly at the TV, throwing me a look of disbelief as I left the room.
“Talia,” I answered as I entered the kitchen, far enough for privacy but still close enough that paranoia kept my voice low. “Is everything okay?”
“Heeeyyyyy,” she sang. “Who’s this?”
“It’s Rafe,” I said slowly.
“Rafe! Hi. How are you? Why are you calling me?”
The way her voice brightened around my name had me pressing a fist against my smile. “You called me, remember?”
“I did?” She sounded so shocked I almost laughed.
“Yep.”
“Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I’m…” She inhaled so deeply she hiccupped.Fucking adorable. “Carbs weren’t cutting it so I had to have the hard stuff, y’know.”
“I can tell.” The oven clock read 9:30. Somehow, this phone call would’ve made more sense at 2 a.m. I’d definitely hovered over her name in my contacts on more than one occasion in those early hours, especially after a night of drinking. Loneliness hit harder when it felt like the world was asleep. “Are you okay?”
