Page 23 of Eternal Hoptimist

TEAM TAP THAT GROUP TEXT

Ty:You scooted out of here mighty quick, E

Austin:Who’s this friend again? You said someone you know from Kansas?

Dom:Who cares about the friend? I want to know what food we’re getting

Ty:Ooh good point. E, donuts?

Dom:Obviously he’s going to bring us donuts. Can you swing by the Indian grocery store in Southeast? I’ll send you a list

Austin:Does that mean you’re cooking?

Dom:Got a new recipe I want to try

Ty:Oh hell yeah

Dom:Could you swing by the international grocery store on Barbur too?

Austin:That place has a great beer selection. I’ve got a list too

Ty:And candy! You know, I think I’m glad Ethan’s heading to Portland for the night. This benefits us all

Austin:How come you don’t run these errands for us? You go to Portland to hook up nearly every weekend

Ty:Please, tell me what specialty grocery store is open between 10pm and 2am and I’ll run all the errands you want after I get my dick sucked

Austin:If you stayed the night with someone you could grocery shop the next morning

Ty:And if you stretched more, you could kiss your own asshole. You know, while we’re sharing ridiculous ideas

CHAPTER 8

ETHAN

As soon as I parked at a garage near Parker’s building, I checked my phone. Fortunately, most texts from the guys were an errands list and Austin and Dom giving Ty shit.Thank god.Leaving the house had been harrowing since they caught me sneaking out with my overnight bag. So much for my plan of saying I got drunk and rented a hotel room. They peppered me with questions about where I was going, who I was visiting, and why I wasn’t planning to come home until the next day. I’d created a cover story about an old childhood friend being in town for a conference. Notentirelya lie.

I hated lying to them, but I wasn’t ready to explain the full situation and why I was spending the night with the guy helping me with Rosie. If I came clean, they would give me so much shit about my deal with Parker. I didn’t want their teasing to ruin what Parker and I had. Thearrangementwe had.

I was so different from the guys when it came to dating. Until Austin met Caleb, he’d worked long hours to avoid relationships. Ty only went for consensual casual sex. I’d asked him once if he identified as aromantic. He said hecouldfeel romantic feelings but didn’t want to. Dom was an entirely different beast—secretive about his sex life. I suspected he had people who were regular hookups but couldn’t remember a time in the decade-and-a-half I’d known him where he’d even openly dated anyone. I didn’t know much about Seth’s dating history beyond Ty mentioning once that he’s demisexual.

The guys knew damn near everything about my love life. If I wasn’t gushing about it because those new relationship feels swept me away, I talked about it because of the compulsion to get their opinions about my latest dating woes. My romantic life had always been a frequent group discussion topic since I’d made the terrible decision to date our RA freshman year.

If I told them about the deal with Parker, they would call me on my shit and tell me I was fooling myself. I wasn’t ready to defend my choices. I needed Parker’s help with Rosie, and if hanging out with an attractive, nice guy was what I had to do to help her? Easy.

I exited the parking garage and walked the two blocks to Parker’s place with my half-empty duffel bag swung over my shoulder. Thankfully the rain had taken a break.

His building was close to the waterfront, which I should’ve guessed by the address. Witnessing it was something else. I stood frozen at the base of his building and took it in. The entire thing appeared to be made of glass. Powerful, intimidating, expensive. It had to be about twenty stories tall, with balconies staggered on each floor. I couldn’t imagine how much Parker’s condo must have cost him.

What had they destroyed to make room for the overpriced condos? An amazing restaurant owned by an old couple who opened it to live their American Dream? A corner market that carried favorites of people in the neighborhood? Maybe a funky bookstore with an incredible selection of books set in Portland.

The building reminded me of Parker’s job in a way nothing else had. When I realized he was one of the lawyers who managed the deal for developing the land Caleb’s food truck used to be on, I struggled for a minute. It would’ve been easy to cut him out of my life out of vengeance for Caleb, but Parker wasn’t actively harming people. It wasn’t a right-or-wrong situation, and with how hard he’d been working to help Rosie, I knew he was a good guy. As I stared at his building, though? I was faced with our differences. The whispers of feelings growing for Parker were mowed down as I remembered we were too different. What would a successful lawyer want with me?

It made me think of the photo I saw of an ex-girlfriend while scrolling Instagram the other day.I really need to unfollow my exes.She’d had the world’s biggest smile as she held out the keys to her new Portland condo with a hand sporting a diamond the size of my pinky nail. Engaged to the guy she’d met right after dumping my ass because she said we didn’t have a long-term connection.News to me.

I needed to keep some distance from Parker before spending the evening together, pretending to be a real couple and then crashing at his place. I still had no idea what my ex meant when she said we didn’t have a long-term connection. Until I figured out where I kept going wrong in relationships, I needed to stay the hell away from them. That included tall, sexy, blond lawyers with bright-blue eyes who looked like they needed to be pulled out of their heads for a bit. A skill I was damn proud of.

As I approached the lobby, an employee in a dark suit opened the door for me and checked my ID against a list. After confirming my identity, he directed me to the elevators. I heard him calling Parker as I walked away.

---