“Bye,” I said as the door closed behind me. I gave a dumb little wave through the glass, and Ryder just shook his head and walked away.
I mentally slapped myself and headed back to work.
Seven
“I’m going to this art show on Friday, so I can’t go out,” I said to Rory that night as I made dinner. Lucah had to stay late at the office for something, so Rory had come to hang out with me. I missed having her around all the time. I’d underestimated how much it would suck not having a roommate.
“What kind of art show?” she asked, grabbing an olive from the jar I had opened to add to the Greek pasta salad I was making as a side dish.
“Stop that!” I said, smacking her hand away as she went for another one. “Um, I’m not sure.” I wouldn’t have even told her about it, except that we had planned to go out to the bar and watch open mic night.
“Okayyyyy,” she said, drawing out the word and sitting back on her stool. “There is something you’re not telling me.” Oh, there was more than one something.
“Yeah, okay, so . . . Ryder invited me. It’s not a date. It’s just a thing that we’re both going to. As two people who are going to an event at the same place at the same time with no romantic intentions.”
She gave me a look that said she didn’t believe me.
“So, are you telling me, by the look on your face, that you don’t think Ryder and I can go to an event together without it being sexual?”
“Sloane. How many times have you told me you wanted to have sex with him?” A few. Hundreds. But that was before. I’m much more mature and have my head screwed on straight now. For the most part.
“That’s not the point. I can want to sleep with someone and still spend platonic time with them. Hell, the other day he said he didn’t think we should see each other at all. I’m not going to do something to screw that up. Clearly, he doesn’t want any sort of complications right now. I don’t want to mess up his life.” Not when he’d just started getting it back on track. I couldn’t ruin all his progress.
“Okay,” Rory said with a sigh. “I trust you. It’s him I don’t trust. He has that effect on you. I should know. I think it’s in the Blythe DNA.” She’d been completely unable to resist Lucah from the first moment she’d met him. I liked to think I had a little more self-control.
“It’ll be fine,” I said, dumping the olives onto the cutting board and roughly chopping them up to add to the chilled pasta.
“Are you sure about that?” She sipped her glass of wine, and I had to look away from her scrutiny. Rory had a way of seeing bullshit a mile away.
“Honestly? I’m not sure. But I’m going to try really hard to be good. Probably harder than I ever have before.” Most of the time I didn’t see the point in being “good” in the conventional sense. I’d always pretty much done what I wanted and so far things had worked out.
“I have faith in you,” Rory said, raising her glass to me. “Not so much in him, but don’t tell him I said that. And don’t tell Lucah I said that. Though he’d probably agree with me.”
I poured myself a glass of wine. I was definitely going to need it tonight.
“Well, he kept his hands to himself today. Other than invading my personal bubble and a few sexual comments, he was a complete gentleman.” A dirty gentleman. The best kind, in my opinion. He’d open the door for you, but ogle your ass as you walked through it.
“Wow. That must have taken terrific restraint for him.” We both laughed.
“Maybe he’s less sexual when he’s sober. Although I don’t know how many times he was on something when we interacted before and I’m not about to ask,” I said.
“Yeah, I’d definitely avoid mentioning anything to do with his former . . . hobbies.” Hobbies. That was the nicest way to put it. I never asked about his drug use. He’d ended up in the hospital with a pill overdose, but there was other stuff, too.
I told myself it didn’t matter when he looked at me and made me all tingly inside. But really? It did kind of matter. I mean, if he’d been smoking pot, that was one thing. Crack cocaine was something else altogether. I just didn’t see how he could go cold turkey if he’d been in that deep. I wanted to be positive and supportive, so I kept my mouth shut, which was kind of a first for me. I wasn’t used to censoring anything I said.
“That’s my plan.” We clinked our wine glasses together, and then there was a knock at the door.
“Speaking of gingers,” I said, going to answer the door. Lucah was standing on the other side, dark circles under his eyes.
“You look like shit,” I said as he walked in. Dude needed a glass of wine, so I went to get him one.
“Thanks.” He went to give Rory a kiss. “Hello, my love,” he said, smiling.
“Hello back,” she said.
I handed him a glass and he almost downed it in one gulp. “Rough day at work?” I asked.
Rory and Lucah shared a look. “You could say that,” he said. “We’re working on something top secret and it’s taking a hell of a lot of time and energy. Oh, remind me to thank Lilia tomorrow. She was extremely helpful today.”