Page 51 of Just This Once

Each time I had reached out to ask if he wanted to go to supper, catch a beer, or just stop by and hang, he’d turned down every request.

This new girl of his was really sucking up all his time.

Frowning about the fact that I hadn’t realized just how much she’d been taking of him, I bypassed texting and straight-up called him.

“Hey, what’s up?” he greeted, thankfully not full-on ghosting me.

“Nothing much,” I answered. “Just making sure you were still kicking. Haven’t seen you around lately.”

“Oh.” He seemed surprised. “Yeah. I’ve just been?—”

“Busy with the new girlfriend,” I bit out, my tone a little too hard. “I’m aware.”

There was a significant pause before he said, “Is…everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” I spat. “You tell me. I haven’t seen you in over a month.”

“What?” He laughed. “That can’t be true.”

“Check our message history, bud. It’s true. You’ve been blowing me off for nearly six weeks. So maybe I should be the one asking, is everything okay over there,sport?”

“Jesus,” he muttered, laughing again, but it was more strained and nervous now. “I certainly haven’t intentionally been ignoring you. I’m sorry if you’ve felt slighted. I’ve just been busy lately. But if you really want to meet up?—”

“You know what,” I groused. “Don’t do me any fucking favors.”

I was going to hang up, but Thane cried, “Parker! Whoa. Hold up.”

Pausing, I ground my teeth before muttering, “What?”

“What is going on?” he asked.

I was about to tell him nothing, but then he’d really know something was bothering me, so instead, I said, “How long have you been with this girl?”

“What?”

“Christine,” I gritted out, hating to say her name. It felt all kinds of wrong to me that he was with a Christine. It’d always been Nova. Thane and Nova. I didn’t want him with a Christine.Novawas his other half.

“How long have you two been dating?”

“I don’t know,” he mumbled, clearly not wanting to have this conversation.

“Nine months,” I filled in for him. “You’ve been fucking around with her for nine months. And none of us have met her yet. Whyisthat? You too ashamed to be associated with us or something?”

“What? No way. Jesus, of course not.”

“So thenshejust doesn’t want to meetus?” I countered.

“No,” he insisted before groaning out a stressed sound. “Jesus. Okay,” he relented as if there really was a big, secret reason why we hadn’t been introduced toChristineyet.

I pulled back in surprise, and my mouth fell open because I honestly hadn’t been expecting there to be a reason at all; I’d just been trying to keep the conversation off me.

But what the fuck was he hiding?

“It’s just—” He broke off with a frustrated groan. “When Nova left,” he started, sounding very harassed about having to say her name. “It felt as if I chose you guys over her.”

I scoffed. “Well, that’s bullshit.”

“Is it, though?” he asked uneasily.

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