Page 75 of One Day Like This (Excess All Areas 1)

Matt shrugged. “It’s not like I’m doing this every night.”

Ben grinned. “Listen, I’m not judging. If Chaya wasn’t here, might have done the same thing.”

Matt reached for the coffee Ben had placed on the desk and accidentally knocked over the glass of water Izabel had left there. “Fuck me,” he muttered and lifted his laptop off the desk.

“I’ve got it,” Ben said, dashing into the bathroom. He returned with a towel and began to move the papers out of the way, drying as he went.

Matt put the laptop on the bed. When he turned, Ben had Izabel’s necklace hanging from his finger. “Please tell me it’s not Izabel you’re fucking.”

Somewhere between lack of sleep and shock and fear of what would happen next, Matt couldn’t even find a lie.

“She was wearing this last night. I thought it was unusual. She’s the chick you’vebeen chatting with?”

Matt took a deep breath. “Ben, it’s way more complex than chatting.” He grabbed his coffee and laid down on the bed, resting the coffee cup on his chest.

“That’s why you kept staring at her when she was talking with Niles.”

“Ben, please.”

“Are you fucking brainless?” Ben glared at him, Iz’s necklace still in his hand.

“Obviously.”

“How long?”

“A month. Physically. Much longer, mentally.”

Ben slumped down into the desk chair. “Fuck me, Matt. You can’t do this to Luke. No woman—I don’t care if she has a golden pussy—is worth your friendship. It’ll kill him.”

Matt sipped on his coffee. It was finally cool enough to drink, and hereallyneeded some caffeine. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

Ben studied the necklace in his palm. “This from you?”

“Birthday present.”

“I’m guessing Luke doesn’t know.”

“I still have my balls and the band is intact, so that would be a negative on Luke.”

Ben leaned forward and rubbed a hand over his face. “What are you going to do?”

Matt leaned back on the bed and rested his coffee cup on his stomach. “I was hoping we’d ride this wave of success we’ve been having, get us to a more secure position. Then tell Luke.”

“You honestly think where the band is at will make a difference in how he takes this? You know how he was after Jase.”

Unable to get comfortable, Matt sat up again. “Do you know howIwas after Jase? It fucking broke me. All these years I’d been carrying a torch for Iz, torn between my feelings for her and my promise to my best friend, and Jase just blows the doors off. And I couldn’t say a word.”

“I had no idea, Matt.”

“Yeah, well. No one did. Not even Izabel.”

“Why didn’t you try and talk with Luke about it? You two spend so much time together.”

“When was I supposed to tell him? He’s my best mate. He told me to stay away from his sister. I valued his friendship.”

Ben scoffed. “Not so much now then, eh, mate? Alex seems to think it was more than a one-night thing for Jase. Like not that he slept with her more than once. But that he fancied her for ages too.”

Matt chugged the rest of his coffee. “Something Izabel said would concur with that.”

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