Alec
I walked into the apartment and was immediately assaulted by lilacs. Or, the scent of them, anyway. There was a vase full of them on the table that we never used. And that smell…
"Was Navi here?" I asked, hating the way hope made my voice shake. Please say she was here. Please say she was here.
"What? Why?" Bryson asked, focusing really hard on the dishes he was washing so he didn't have to look at me.
The way he'd answered was suspicious. Like maybe I should stop hoping so desperately that she'd been there recently. "I smell her lotion." Yeah, I was pathetic. I recognized the smell of her lotion the second I walked in the room.
"Oh. Right. Yeah, we had lunch together. I made fettuccine."
"You—you had lunch together?" My stomach twisted and the dryness in my mouth made it hard to swallow. "Why?"
He didn't look at me. "She's hurting, Alec. Konstanz and I are trying to get her through this. It wasn't a big deal."
I ran a hand over my face and stared at his back through my fingers. "What are you saying, Bryson? That's two days in a row. Are you guys, like—" I couldn't even say it. Three days after she and I had that fight, and she was dating my roommate? She said she hadn't been able to get over me in the four years we'd been apart, but three days later and she forgot I existed and dated my roommate.
The world did not make sense.
Bryson finally emptied the sink and turned to face me. "No. We're not together. It's really hard to date a girl when her best friend won't let her out of her sight. I'm just trying to be a friend. That's all."
I dropped my keys on the table and shrugged out of my jacket, fighting to get the sleeve over my cast. "Fine. Fine, so you're bosom buddies now. That's awesome. Why in the hell are you bringing her here when you know how I feel about her?"
Bryson frowned, coming around the kitchen counter. "You called her a whore, Alec. You said she was a demon. I figured you were pretty much done with her."
"I didn't mean any of those things!" I yelled. I stared at the ceiling for several long seconds before I could force myself to look back at him. "We are done. Navi and I won't ever be together. But that doesn't mean you need to bring her back here." That doesn't mean I'll ever get over her.
"Okay. Sorry. I didn't know it would bother you. We'll hang out at her place. Hey, have you eaten yet?"
I glared at him, trying to comprehend what had just happened. There were future plans? I didn't want him to have future plans with her.
"It's just awkward at her place, you know? We have no privacy. She doesn't even have her own bedroom. Did you know that?" Those words nearly sent me to my knees. I fought to stay on my feet as the room spun. I did know that. I didn't want to know how he knew that, though.
He continued without waiting for me to answer. "And again, I ask. Are you hungry?" How could he be kind and considerate after he just blew a hole through my chest?
I jerked away from him. "I'm gonna go take a shower."
"Wait!" Bryson called as I stormed across the room. "I have leftover fettuccine!"
"No thanks," I muttered as I shut the bathroom door behind me.
After that, I saw very little of Bryson. He spent every waking moment with Navi and Konstanz. He came home late and left early. Normally, that would thrill me—less time with the roommate who seemed to live to torture me? Hell yeah. But when I knew he was gone because he was with her, it drove me absolutely insane. Not seeing her, only hearing bits of conversation between them or smelling her lotion when I walked in, and I still felt the same agonizing pain I had the first day I'd lost her. I was instantly sick—like a migraine and the stomach flu and maybe a couple knife wounds all rolled into one. It wasn't getting any easier. In fact, it was worse every single day. So I threw myself into work. I didn't know what else to do.
"Alec, you back here again?" My boss looked over his desk as I strapped on my tool belt.
"Yep. Just stopped for dinner." If I kept this up, I would make so much money I wouldn't even need a roommate. I'd be able to move out of my apartment and buy a house.
"You worked over eighty hours each the last three weeks. Did you know that?" Did I know that. Of course I knew that. I knew it because the week before, I'd gone home at night, and Bryson was gone, and I knew where he was. Then I'd come home the next night and had just walked out of the shower, and Navi was at the door, telling Bryson she would wait for him in the car. Another day, I'd happened to walk past the window to see her jeep in the parking lot below. This was after the week of trying to drown my sorrows in alcohol—and been arrested for being drunk in public. I'd also thrown up in Josh's car, so he wasn't very fond of me. Finally, I'd just decided to stay at work. It was easier here. The weekend was coming, though. I wasn't sure what to do with that.
My phone buzzed. I glanced down, praying it would be her, knowing it wouldn't be. "Hey Mom," I said, putting the phone to my ear.
"Hi Alec. We haven't seen you for a while. Thought I'd better check on you."
"I'm good, Mom. Just working a lot. How are things there?"
There was a couple seconds of silence—enough that I knew she was dissecting my words and tone to see if there was anything to worry about. "Fine, fine. We're just busy. Dad is trying to coach Jack's little league team, but between you and me, he's not much of a sports man." She chuckled and even I couldn't help but smile. "And Jack has his first baseball game this week. Do you want to come?" If my mom had been closer, I would have kissed her.
"Of course. Hey, maybe Dad needs an assistant coach?" I could hear the hope trembling in my own voice, so I knew she picked up on it. Mother's intuition and all that.
"Or maybe he needs to be the assistant. Hey Jack, how would you feel if Alec coached your team?"
I heard him whoop in the background. For the first time in several weeks, I could feel a smile trying to crack its way through. "I'll be there Friday night, as soon as I get off work." Suddenly, the weekend couldn't come fast enough.