Page 109 of The Fix

“That’s a loaded fucking question.”

He just huffs and stares at me as if expecting me to answer.

I want to seal my lips, swallow the disappointment down to where no one can touch it ever again.

I want to scream in his face that he’s the last one I wanna see right now.

I do neither.

“It’s different than what I was expecting,” I admit and turn toward the elevators.

“How so?”

“Is everyone inside?”

Diversion.

Doc wouldn’t approve.

But I can’t handle anything else right now.

“The band, yeah,” he answers. “Everyone wanted to see you when you got home and I thought here would be easier. Then you could escape if you needed to.”

My head bobs with a nod as I knuckle the call button. “Thanks.”

The dings of the elevator indicating each floor we’ve passed feels like my head is stuck to the speaker that amplifies Mac’s drum kit, hitting too hard and too fast this close.

She’s not up there.

The elevator still opens to the correct floor and Leo still strides right up to the door he opens without pause.

She’s not in there.

I follow him even though all I want to do is turn around, find Anna’s apartment, and bang on her door until she agrees to at least acknowledge my existence.

That we had something.

At least, if I knew that she felt something, at any point in our time together, then I might be able to stomach an existence without her.

As long as she’s happy.

I could live with that. Anna being happy.

So long as no other man lays a hand on her, I think I could live with that.

Rounding the entryway into the main living space, the faint noise of people conversing over the sound of music playing hits my ears like static.

“Broby!”

Mac vaults over the back of the couch and tackles me around the torso, knocking me off balance. We tumble to the solid marble beneath us with a thud I feel in my bones.

Hello floor, I’ve missed you, too.

“Ow,” I growl out, but he just uses my shoulders to leverage himself back to his feet.

A chorus of greetings echo around me as my family fills my vision, most of them snickering at me.

“Who does that?” I ask from the floor with my arms spread out wide, causing Rex to shrug and Fin to shake his head.

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