Page 94 of From You to Me

I was back home.

My place looked as good as new. Jay had asked Tyler to set up some fancy lock system on my door. Although I wanted to protest, I didn’t because it made me feel safe. He also had new furniture delivered and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Just a week in his place and already being back here felt different. But I was excited, the heavy weight of the debt and truth were now far behind me. I’d actually been thinking about getting a writing job even if the pay was low. I’d applied to several small companies for freelance positions. Though I didn’t have much experience or qualifications, I hoped I would land something with my statement of purpose and high school publications.

It took just a day to clean up my apartment and put back all the things tossed around. A quick inventory told me that the only missing items were Grandma’s pearl earrings, my old cell phone, and some cash I kept in my drawer. The cash was just a couple of hundred, and even then, the other missing items made no fucking sense. Why the fuck did T want my grandma’s pearl earrings that probably weren’t worth anything at all?

A loud rumble broke me out of my thoughts, and I stilled, glancing at the clock. It was around eight o’clock. I wonder who it was.

Strawberry pushed past me and was already sniffing the door, barking loudly.

My breathing hitched up my chest as I revealed the person who was on the other side of the door. “Jay,” I mumbled, stunned.

It was his smell that hit me first. Clean wood. Soap. And seawater. I trailed my eyes down his black leather jacket, side-swept long black hair, and blue eyes.

“Jay,” I repeated, wide-eyed. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, two paper bags gripped in his long fingers that were decked with stacks of metal rings. “Pad Thai or Kung Pao?”

“Wha..” My lips tugged on their own accord. My mind flashed right back to our silly argument all those years ago. And before I could do anything else, Strawberry swept over to me to greet her new best friend.

“Hey, girl.” He dropped to the floor, immediately giving her all the love. “So.” He looked up at me. “Are you going to let me in?”

I shook out of it. “Ah, yes,” I mumbled. “Come on in.”

I closed the door behind me as he sauntered inside like he owned the place. My apartment was too small for his godly presence.

I swallowed the nervousness down my throat. “What are you doing here?” I couldn’t help but ask again.

He turned his attention from Strawberry to me and rose to stand tall, making the apartment seem even smaller. “Don’t friends bring takeout?”

I didn’t say a thing as I stared at him.

He exhaled loudly. “Let’s not talk about our past, the lies, the deceit, or the pain. Let’s not go through that again. Let’s start fresh. Be friends.”

I raised a brow. “And do you think we could do that?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I don’t see why not.”

“What if the ghosts haunt us again? Is that something we can go through? Something I can go through?” The last question was something I asked myself.

“It won’t, I promise. If it does, we’ll work through it. Being friends is a lot different from being lovers.”

It’s one and the same, Jay, when it comes to us,I contemplated inside my head.

“So what do you say?” he asked.

I didn’t think he was actually serious about us being friends. “But you don’t trust me,” I said simply.

“No, I don’t,” he stated, monotonously.

“And you’re not my favorite person at the moment.”

His eyes darkened. “Friends could build trust and start liking each other.”

“So what? We just forget everything that happened between us like it was nothing?”

“No, we just learn to move past it. Let’s just try being friends.”

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