Jonah sighed and ran a hand over his unruly hair. It needed cutting, but he lacked the enthusiasm for a trip to the barber. “You were right about office romances.”
“Ah ha! I knew it. So it wasn’t a one-night stand?”
“More like a three-night stand, or four…I can’t remember.”
“Are you in love with him?”
“What? No. Of course not. I just…”
What? How are you going to explain this?
Jonah had no idea, so he went back from the start and vomited out every encounter he’d shared with Sacha until he came to the part where he’d stormed out of the breakfast café.
Lily whistled. “Wow. That sounds dramatic.”
“It really wasn’t. I left for work, he followed half an hour later.”
“How do you know that?”
“What? That he followed me? It stands to reason as we work in the same building.”
“I meant the fact that you know exactly how long it took him. Are you spying on him at the office? Because I have to say, even if things were going well, that’s creepy. Let the man live.”
“I’m not spying on him. I just happened to be near the door when he walked through it.”
“I’m not convinced.”
“I don’t care.”
“No? So answer me again. Why are you blowing up my phone in the middle of the night?”
“I told you why.”
“You told me what happened. Not why it’s upset you so much.”
I’m not upset. But Jonah’s heart wouldn’t speak the words, because they weren’t true. “I’m just…confused, I suppose. We were supposed to be friends with benefits, but the friendship part seems to freak him out.”
“Which part? Specifically?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t realise it was making him uncomfortable until this morning.”
“When you asked him if he was okay?”
“Yeah, I mean, I wasn’t trying to dissect him or anything.” Jonah drifted to the window and gazed out over the city, noticing the Christmas lights more than he ever had before he’d met Sacha. “He just looked like he hadn’t slept all week, so I asked him if he was okay.”
Lily sighed. “You’re too sweet, boo. It always gets you in trouble.”
“It does not. We’ve never had this conversation before.”
“Not exactly, but you are never going to be in a room with someone you care about and not let them know. True story. So if Sacha doesn’t like that kind of attention, you’re always going to clash.”
“So what do I do? Ignore the fact that he looks like shit?”
“Yes, if you want to respect his boundaries and carry on with whatever you’re doing with him. And double yes if he wants to forget the friendship part and go back to being a casual hook-up.”
“He was never a casual hook-up. He was my fake boyfriend for my parents’ winter ball.”Dear god, don’t say that out loud again. Like, ever.It was Jonah’s turn to sigh. “I get what you’re saying,” he said. “I’m just messed up by the whole thing. I never meant to make him uncomfortable, but I didn’t say anything to him that I wouldn’t have said to a friend I wasn’t fucking. Sacha—”
“Mr. Gray?”