Page 44 of Protecting the Nerd

He shook his head, then winced. “Not hungry. I have a migraine.”

I’d suspected as much, which was why I’d kept the lights low. “Can I get you anything else? Some tea, maybe?”

“No, thank you.” He fiddled with the headphones. “I’m sorry you had to witness that.”

“Don’t you dare apologize for that.”

“All I’m saying is that it’s not what you signed up for.”

“York, stop it. I mean it. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

He grunted as he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “I didn’t mean to make such a spectacle of myself. I’ve always imagined that if I ever confronted them, I would do so in a civilized, calm manner.”

I snorted. “I don’t know how much experience you have with confrontations, but they’re rarely civilized and calm. My mom has been known to throw plates at my dad. He’s gotten good at ducking over the course of the years.”

York opened his eyes. “That’s a figure of speech, I’m assuming?”

“Nope. She actually throws plates. It’s why they stopped buying the expensive ones.”

“But why?”

I shrugged. “She’s Italian and has a temper. I take after my dad, but my sister Emily is a carbon copy of my mom. I did the toast for her wedding and told her new husband to always watch his back and duck if needed.”

“You’ve seen what my mother looks like when she’s upset. It’s always about her being disappointed.” He swallowed. “Nothing I ever did was good enough. I’ve wished so often it had been me who’d died instead of Essex. That would’ve made everyone happier.”

“York…”

“But I no longer feel that way.”

“Good, because I can name a whole bunch of people who would miss you terribly.” Including me, but I left that part out. Any illusion I’d had that what I felt for York was mere friendship had vanished after today. I’d never been so upset on behalf of someone else.

“They came because of me.” York’s voice was filled with wonder. “Auden and the others. They were there to support me.”

“I know.”

He slowly shook his head. “I didn’t tell them until last year, you know. I ran into Tiago at the high school reunion, and somehow, the truth came out. That was the first time I’d ever told anyone other than Fir. But it was so much easier with Fir because Essex had bullied him as well. I was so scared Tiago wouldn’t believe me, but he did, and then he let the others know.”

“How did they react?”

“They believed me. Right off the bat, they believed me. Auden apologized. Said he’d seen things he should’ve called Essex out on but never did, and he wanted me to know how sorry he was. But they’d never been aware of how bad it was. If they had, they would’ve stepped in.”

I didn’t know his friends as well as York did, but I didn’t doubt he was right. In my line of work, you learned to read people, and my impression of all these men was that their moral compass was solidly pointing north. “I think you’re right. They’re good men.”

“I never expected them to show up.”

“Why not? They’re your friends.”

He shook his head. “No, they were Essex’s friends. At least, that’s how I’ve always seen them. And when they started inviting me last year, I reasoned they did it because they felt guilty or sorry for me. But this…”

“They like you, York. They like you for you.”

“That’s a hard concept for me to wrap my head around. Until Fir, I never had friends. I’m not a social person.”

He kept saying that, but I was starting to suspect that wasn’t the case at all. He was far more socially skilled than I’d initially given him credit for. His interactions with Gabe and Matt were just two examples. No, the problem wasn’t that he wasn’t social. The problem was that he was scared—and now I understood why. His brother had betrayed him, so he’d closed himself off from others, and who could blame him?

“You told me you thought we were becoming friends as well,” I said.

“Are we?”

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