Page 44 of Minor Trouble
“It’s good to know Seth’s finally got someone in his corner.”
Honestly, I hoped he still wanted me there.
After we’d finished eating, we chatted some more. I agreed to go out for drinks with her and her friends later in the week. It would be good to have people in my corner too. We said our goodbyes, and I went back to my apartment.
Having Seth and Noah there last night had brought it to life, and now being back there on my own, the place felt empty and sterile. I checked my phone. My fingers itched to send Seth a message, to see if he’d found Noah, to see if everything was okay, to make sure we were fine. But I knew we weren’t, and I didn’t want to make things worse by reaching out when Seth wasn’t ready. Trying to listen to Lyla’s assertions that I had to wait, I spent the afternoon cleaning. I changed the sheets on both beds, dusted and vacuumed, and even rearranged the second bedroom again to give the desk a better outlook from the window. By the time I had finished, I was bone tired.
I curled up in the same spot on the sofa I had last night, a huge glass of wine in one hand. The television blared in the background, creating white noise as I thought about what had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
Everything over the past few weeks had been building up to last night, no matter how much I wanted to deny it. I wasn’t a one-night kind of girl either, and the more I got to know Seth, seeing inside of him and his life, the more I wanted him.
Admitting it to myself properly was the first hurdle.
The next one was finding out whether he felt the same way.
Nineteen
Seth
Maddox waited at the bottom of the stairs to my apartment. He sat on the bottom step, looking at his phone and typing something, until he heard me come in.
“Is Noah here?” I asked.
He nodded, getting up and stretching like he’d been sitting there for hours. “I think you’ve got a lot of work to do though, bud.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. This conversation would be tough.
I started up the stairs, but Maddox caught my arm, and I turned back to him.
“Wait,” he said. “Before you go up there, make sure you’ve got it straight in your head. What youwantto happen next. Not what you thinkshould.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“Lyla’s with Ainsley.”
Shit.
No doubt I was already being called all the names under the sun for how I’d acted that morning. Now I understood Maddox’s cryptic comments.
Did Iwantto make a go of things with Ainsley?
ShouldI back off for Noah’s sake?
Hefting a huge sigh, I raked a hand through my hair. Regret at the things I’d said to Ainsley earlier seeped through me. She didn’t deserve a single one of them. She didn’t deserve a deadbeat like me. “What did she say?”
“That they’re getting brunch at the deli in town.” Maddox held up his hands. “I’m not getting involved. You called me to come over and check whether Noah was here. I’ve done my bit.”
Not knowing how Ainsley felt gnawed away at me. But I had to focus on Noah first. He was theshouldpart of the equation before I could even consider the other element. And I’d always been total shit at math.
“Thanks, Maddox. Appreciate it, buddy.” I had to do the next bit alone. “Are you going to hang around?”
He gestured to a car I knew had been bothering him because he couldn’t work out exactly where the problem was. “Gonna take another look at this. Who knows how long Lyla’s going to be?”
“Cool. I’ll see you later.” I took the stairs up to the apartment two at a time, like I was heading up to a guillotine.
From Noah’s room, I could hear the sound of a video game. Grateful for Pepper’s tip-off, I gave a gentle knock on the door before heading in. Noah sat up in bed, fully clothed but under the covers. He had his gaming headphones on and appeared totally absorbed in his laptop screen. I had to wave at him to catch his attention. Despite the fact he saw me standing there, he completely ignored me.
“Noah, can we talk?” I asked.
