And, apparently, he did know that because he didn’t even bother sighing or getting his feelings hurt by how detached I was speaking to him. “I’ve been better,” Noah responded like I genuinely cared.
I didn’t want to waste my time rolling my eyes, but I did anyway because was he fucking for real? “Do you need something? Peter’s busy right now, but I can get him to call you back when he’s done in an hour.” Not that he actually would.
“I don’t need to talk to Peter,” my childhood best friend said, his tone weird and annoying as hell. “I heard something interesting.”
I closed both my eyes, grabbed my stress ball from the drawer, and squeezed the fucking shit out of it as he kept talking.
“Who’s the guy that’s been showing up to the gym?” he asked casually in the time it took me to do that.
Noah had been my best friend. We’d grown up together. We’d studied judo together at the same club for fifteen years.
And for a couple months, I had thought I’d been more than half in love with someone who couldn’t see me as more than what I had been to him: the girl who he’d grown up with. His kind-of sister. His friend.
Then one random day, I had taken a look at him and decided yeah, no.
It might have been the day after I overheard him bragging about having sex with one of my friends, but it happened. Just, nope. Nah. And as I’d gotten older, I had realized that I hadn’t loved him. Not like that. It had just been… a lapse of judgment. Hormones maybe.
But I had stuck around after I’d come to my senses. Because maybe he could be a douchebag, but he’d been my friend. He’d known me back then better than just about anyone other than Peter and my gramps. He’d been my friend.
Or so I thought.
Then, many years later, after we had both grown up, I got pregnant, and he suddenly lost his shit and left.
And now he was here. Calling me, asking about something that had nothing to do with him. Not anymore.
I “hmmed” into the receiver, forcing my index finger to click the mouse so I could open the most recent email I had gotten. “Pretty sure that’s none of your business. Was there something else you needed or...?” Can you fuck off now? I wanted to ask but barely managed not to.
“Lenny.”
I blinked and moved my tongue across my upper teeth, telling myself again that I wasn’t going to let this bullshit-ass call bother me.
“Who is he?”
I squeezed my stress ball. “I don’t feel like talking to you anymore, Noah, but if there’s something else you need, or if this new gym that you’re at has questions about anything, they can give me a call,” I told him, hearing the sarcasm dripping from my voice.
“Don’t be like that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Have fun in Albuquerque.” Then I hung up.
All righty, I could have done without that.
Shoving my chair back, the fucking hint of a tension headache creeping up on me right between the eyebrows, I got up and headed to the doorway. I stopped there, clapping my hands as obnoxiously loud as I physically could. Under normal circumstances, I would never, ever interrupt anyone training.
But I wasn’t fucking playing around.
The trainers could get mad at me if they wanted, but I didn’t care.
Just as I expected, just about every head in the gym turned toward me as everyone stopped what they were doing.
“I don’t know which one of you snitched, but whoever comes in and out of here is none of your business. It isn’t anyone else’s either,” I said in a voice just slightly louder than my speaking voice. The room projected everything perfectly like I knew it would. “Got it?”
Silence replied to me at first.
And there was only one person who vocally replied. “Wasn’t me. I can’t stand Noah.”
The fact he even knew I was referring to Noah confirmed what I had expected.
No one else had anything to say. I did see one guy turn to look at the man next to him—Carlos, it was Carlos— and I knew what his kind of body language meant. My gut said that fucker was the one who had told Noah. It didn’t surprise me. Before he’d left, he’d spent a lot of time with Carlos.
I sent that guy a long, deadeye stare, the kind I’d perfected over the years.
The kind that said he better watch his tires because having to be a role model now wouldn’t stop me from doing certain things.
I almost slammed the door shut behind me on the way back in, but I just barely managed to close it softly. I didn’t want me slamming it to come across as me being pissed off that Noah knew because I was hung up over him leaving. Everyone knew why he’d bounced.
God, I hoped someone kicked his ass again sooner than later. I was glad he’d lost his last fight. He’d deserved to lose.
I had barely closed the door when the work phone started ringing again.
“Maio House,” I answered, mentally preparing myself for the possibility it might be Noah again but being pretty sure it wasn’t. He wasn’t the kind of person who would call back after getting hung up on.
“Good morning, Lenny.”
Jonah. I wasn’t sure if it was slightly better than it being Noah or the same. ”Hi.”
There was a pause. “Is this a bad time?”
I blew out a breath and reached for my stress ball again. “No,” I told him, hearing the aggravation in my tone. I let out another breath, attempting to relax. I tried again. “Do you need something?”
There was another brief pause. “Oi. I can give you a ring at a better time.”
Oi.
I shouldn’t have started smiling at it, but I did because it was just that kind of day where he’d be the lesser shithead. I squeezed my stress ball and sighed. “No. Now is fine. Did you want to go see Mo? She’s at daycare right now. My grandpa dropped her off this morning.”
“She doesn’t have a nanny?”
I squeezed the ball in my hand tight, the smile he’d started to cause melting off. Did this bitch have any idea how much a nanny cost? “Grandpa Gus is her nanny. No one can or will take better care of her than he will,” I explained, choking the nonexistent life out of my small gift.
We hadn’t really talked much on the rest of the walk on Sunday. Plus, I hadn’t missed his comment about needing to call his manager or lawyer. I shouldn’t be surprised he hadn’t told anyone about Mo. Had he by now though, or was he still… waiting?
“Twice a week he drops her off at daycare for a few hours. Sometimes my friend’s father-in-law keeps her for part of the day too. She comes to the gym a couple times a week too. It changes. We wing it.”
“Oh.”
I blew out a breath away from the receiver before reaching up to pinch the bridge of my nose for a moment at the sudden sting there. “So did you want to go see her?”
“Yeh, but I was asking because I called about the paternity test. It isn’t much notice, but they can see us this afternoon if you can get away. Next available time they can fit us in is two weeks from now.”
“At what time?” I asked, even though I damn well knew I could leave whatever time I needed to.
“One.”
I let go of my nose. Now, or two weeks from now, or months from now? At least he wasn’t waiting. “Yeah, sure. I can get away. What’s the name of the place?”