Page 100 of Strictly the Worst

“Of course.” She could have asked me that tomorrow, but I assume she’s woken up disoriented. Maybe not as excited about sleeping in a strange apartment as she made out. “Everything else okay?”

“I’m gonna head up.” Linc walks up the rest of the stairs and along the Mezzanine, disappearing through his bedroom door.

“Can you talk me back to sleep?” Zoe asks.

It was something I used to do when Jared first moved out. Despite my best attempts to make everything smooth for her, she suffered from anxiety. Her therapist explained it was natural for her to be afraid. The rug of security had been taken from under her. She’d never thought her dad would leave, and now she was questioning everything.

Time and her growing older has helped. But I’m guessing tonight has gotten her a little edgy.

“Sure.” I follow her into her room. She climbs into the large queen sized bed and I lay next to her. “What shall we talk about?”

“Is Linc your boyfriend?” she asks as she rests her head on my shoulder.

My stomach tightens. I wasn’t expecting to have this conversation quite so soon. “He’s my friend,” I tell her. “I wouldn’t call him my boyfriend.”

“But you like him?”

Damn thirteen-year-olds and their perceptive ways. “I do like him, but he’s just a friend. Kind of like when there’s a new girl at school and you think she’s great but you need to take your time before she’s part of the circle.” It’s the best analogy I can think of, but it’s not exactly great.

“I like him,” she says. Her voice is sleepy now. “He’s funny.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“And he’s kind. He bought everybody’s pizza, did you know that? Maisie messaged me to say her mom went to pay our check and Linc had already paid it.”

“He’s a gentleman.” Okay, maybe that’s going too far. I find my lips curling. I’m going to tell him I said that.

“I’m okay with him, if you want to date him,” she says, her eyes closed now. “As long as you don’t do all that kissing stuff in front of me.”

“I don’t know where this friendship is going,” I tell her honestly. “All I can tell you is that you’ll always be my priority. That I’ll always be here for you.”

“Like the Gilmore girls.”

“Exactly.” I lean down to kiss her cheek and all of a sudden I’m remembering the day we brought her home from the hospital. She was sleeping in her car seat and I remember Jared putting her down and asking me, “So what do we do now?”

I’d laughed and replied, “I guess it’s our job to get her to adulthood without doing anything stupid.”

Is wanting to be with Linc stupid? I’m not sure, but what I do know is that if everything ends then I’ll be okay. I have to be.

I’m not going to let Zoe see her mom go through pain again.

There’s a light rap of knuckles on my door as I step out from the shower. Then Linc opens the door, his eyes darkening as he takes in the towel wrapped around my damp body.

“Everything okay?” he asks me. “Zoe all right?”

I nod. “She’s just… a little discombobulated.” I take a deep breath. “She wanted to know if you and I are…” I trail off. Saying she asked if he was my boyfriend sounds wrong. Like I’m asking for myself. “Anyway, I told her we were friends. I think it calmed her.”

“Friends,” he says, his voice low. He slides the lock on my door closed. “Do you swallow all your friends’ cum?”

I open my mouth to answer and close it again.

“Do you grind your pussy against all of their mouths?” he asks, stepping toward me.

My cheeks pink up at the memory. “No.”

“Then in what possible fucking way are we friends?”

“I want to be your friend,” I tell him honestly. “I like you. You make me smile. That hasn’t happened in a long time.”

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