Page 85 of We Met Like This
I looked around the room, where each set of eyes seemed to be frozen in anticipation. And then I pushed publish. I was officially an agent.
CHAPTER 25
“What day is it?” I asked Sloane as I dragged myself into the kitchen a few mornings later. She was pouring coffee, dressed for work, but Miles was sitting at the table. I had thought it was Monday, but Miles usually only stayed over on the weekends. Her work clothes said that wasn’t the case this time, though. I hadn’t worn work clothes in over a week and it felt weird. I kind of missed it.
She laughed but then looked at my face. “Oh, you’re serious. It’s Tuesday.”
“Tuesday?” I looked at Miles. “It can’t be.”
“It is,” he said.
“Since your internal calendar is obviously messed up,” Sloane said, “I need to remind you that I’ll be out of town starting Thursday for that film festival.”
“That’s this weekend already?”
“Yes.”
I slid around the counter to where she’d been standing and pulled a mug off the mug tree.
“Where has Oliver been?” Miles asked.
“Yeah,” Sloane agreed. “He seemed a bit standoffish on Saturday. Did something happen?”
I hesitated with Miles in the room.
“I’ll tell him later anyway,” she said.
“Fine, Friday night I told him that we should just have sex and get it out of our systems. I think it hurt his feelings.” I’d been analyzing how he’d been on Saturday too, and the fact that we hadn’t hung out since. That was the only logical conclusion I’d come to.
“You did not!” she all but screamed in my direction. “Why?”
“I don’t know! Because we should.”
She lowered her brow. “Are you still trying to pretend he’s wrong for you?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Sloane. My life is a mess and maybe now isn’t a good time to start something,” I said, thinking about what Audrey had advised. “I’m pretty sure Oliver agrees, anyway. The more he hangs out with me, the more he’s learning I’m not right for him. I’m too chaotic, too complicated.”
“Is that what he said?” she asked.
Hehadsaid he thought he was complicating my life even more. Which implied he thought it was complicated to begin with. And he’d read those drunken texts I’d sent to my sister.
“Didn’t he learn your last name for the first time on Friday?” Miles said, before I could respond. “He probably googled you while sitting on the couch and definitely thinks you’re complicated.”
Sloane backhanded him across the chest. “Wrong answer.”
“Oh,” he said. “I mean,you’renot complicated… but yoursister’s kind of out there, and for a guy who’s all but invisible online that kind of notoriety might scare…”
Again, Sloane leveled him with a look.
“What I meant is,lifeis complicated and finding a person to navigate the rocky path with makes it feel much smoother,” he said in a singsongy voice.
I took a sip of coffee that burned my tongue. I sucked in some air, then said, “Thanks for the wisdom, Miles. And I’ll let my sister know you’re a huge fan.”
Sloane squeezed my arm. “Sorry to leave you in the middle of this crisis, but I have to get to work.”
“It is Tuesday, after all,” I said.
She kissed my cheek. “Have a good day, honey.”
