Rush Me (New York Leopards 1)

Chapter Fifteen

“So what do you think about Sophie?” I asked Mom as we emptied the dishwasher the next afternoon. We’d just returned from a lunch out with the doting couple. We’d spent the entire time watching them nuzzle each other’s necks and exchange precious gems such as: “You’re so amazing,” courtesy of my brother, to which Sophie would return, “I know,” with a nauseating giggle.

Mom glanced at me sharply. “You still have a grudge against her from high school.”

“What? No. Why would you say that? I was totally polite.”

Mom snorted, putting the silverware in the wrong slots, like always. I moved around her to sort them out. “I could tell.”

“Oh, come on, Mom.” I turned all the forks the right direction. “They were so gooey I wanted to throw up.”

She laughed. “Yes. That’s true. But. They seem to make each other very happy.”

“How can such an awful human being make David happy?”

Mom frowned at me. “I know she was mean in high school, but she seems like a nice girl now.”

“Yeah, I bet hyenas seem nice too, until they eat their young.”

She shook her head, but I could swear she wanted to laugh. “Don’t you think you’re a tad overreacting? Maybe you’re jealous.”

“Please.” I stacked several plates and shoved them in the cupboard. “Of what?”

“That your brother’s not paying as much attention to you as he usually does. That he’s in a nice relationship.” She shot me a sidelong glance and leaned against the counter, completely giving up on helping me with the dishes. “I still don’t really understand why this boy cancelled on coming over for Rosh Hashanah.”

“Okay, first of all, he was not ‘this boy’, he was just a friend, and I told you, he ended up closer to home. And I am not jealous of any of that. God, Mom.”

She made a disbelieving noise deep in her throat. “I just want you to be happy. I think of you, alone in the city...”

“There are millions of people, and I have lots of friends. I’m not alone. Ugh, I can’t have this conversation right now, okay?” I slammed the dishwasher closed.

That was the other problem with coming home. I lost a decade of personal growth and maturity.

That night, my quartet met up with the remainder of our friends still in Ashbury. While many had migrated out to Boston or New York, rent hurt, and childhood rooms often morphed into post-graduate cells. Within an hour, a dozen of us gathered in the furnished basement of Jeremy Brown. More than I’d expected, but I wasn’t the only one in town for the weekend. My teenage crush Thomas Brewer had dropped by, and soon enough he appeared at my side.

“Hey!” He greeted me with a huge, consuming hug, rather impressive considering his slim arms. Thomas was slim all over, a tall, slender guy with artistic scruff and rectangle glasses. “I didn’t know you would be here.”

“Just for the weekend.” We flopped down on one of the couches. While my heart-rending puppy love had faded, he was still attractive, kind, funny, and achingly familiar. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve got tomorrow off from work, so I thought I’d come down for the long weekend.”

I propped my chin up on my hand and smiled. “How’s the job?”

“Oh, it’s great. We’re working on this new storyline and my boss has pretty much given me free rein. Except he keeps vetoing it when I put in killer penguins. I don’t know why. I thought everyone loved killer penguins?”

I laughed. Thomas worked as the creative architect at a gaming company, and he kept me entertained with stories of plots and tongue-in-cheek descriptions of his coworkers. I listened happily, sitting there in that familiar basement with people I had known my entire life, drinking in the noises and feeling of my childhood.

An hour later, we were still chatting, leaning into each other, when Kate stopped by. “We should head out. I have to wake up early for work.”

“Cool.” He leaned back and included Kate in his gaze. “I’ll see you guys at the reunion?”

“Of course.” Kate threw an almost-surreptitious glance at me before focusing on Thomas. “So, um, are you bringing anyone?”

I managed to keep my wince small.

“No, actually.” A slight grin crossed his face.

“Weren’t you dating some girl from Boston?” Kate asked.