Page 30 of Sapphire Spring

Naser’s eyes fluttered open, and Mason found himselfstudying dark eyelashes he longed to feel against his cheeks, his chest.

“I brought your phone.” Naser rose to his feet, fighting ayawn.

He’d left his phone with Naser. Had he had a conversationwith Naser? His palms and neck were suddenly sweat slick, but he did his bestto play it cool. “And then you decided to catch some Zs?”

“I took a wrong turn. The door was a surprise. Did you havea dog or something?”

“Yeah, it was more than I could handle.”

Naser’s brow furrowed. “What did you do with it?”

“I drowned it. What do you think I did? I found another homefor it. I’m not a monster.”

Naser glared at him as if it were up for debate, and couldMason really blame him?

Their stare-off continued as Mason groped for something tosay, something that might capture some essence of the apology he’d planned tomake the night before. Had he made one? Had he even tried? But all he couldthink was,Don’tbarf in front of Naser.

“Mason?”

“Yeah.”

“May I leave your laundry room now?”

“There’s a key inside the AC vent.”

“Okay, well, next time I get trapped in here, I’ll be sureto be three feet taller.”

Mason stepped aside, and Naser moved past him swiftly, headbowed and avoiding eye contact just like he’d always done in high school.

When they reached the kitchen, Naser made a beeline for theback door. Even though everything about this situation was awkward to the pointof being nuts, the thought of Naser leaving quickly and without another wordmade Mason want to reach out for the guy.

“Naser!”

His guest spun, eyebrows rising. “Soyou do know how to pronounce my name.”

“Um, listen…”

Naser listened. Unfortunately, Mason couldn’t manage to sayanything.

“What’s the last thing you remember about last night?” Naserfinally asked.

“The Uber.”

“You came home in a cab.”

Mason looked to the tile floor. “The Uber on the way there.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Look, just don’t judge me, all right? I know I need to reinit in a little.”

“A little?”

“A lot, maybe.”

“Don’t judge you. Okay. So don’t make a mean nickname foryou and hurl it at you every time I see you. Don’t shove you and steal thingsfrom you and call you slurs. That kind of thing?”

“Part of the reason I was there last night was to apologizeto you. Fareena said the name, and I put two and two together and…” Mason madea hand gesture foretc.that made him feel like a bobble head. If onlyhe could sit down. But he felt like he should do this standing.

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