Page 22 of Jalen & Colby

Colby swats my knee. “Don’t push,” he warns.

But Andreas is grinning, even if there’s perspiration on his brow. He takes a deep breath and drums his hands on his knees. “I’ll start off by saying this is all refundable. But…I might have had a couple of glasses of red wine last night, thrown caution to the wind, and booked a flight back to the UK for Christmas.”

I can’t lie. My heart drops. “Oh,” I say, trying to sound cheerful and failing miserably. “You’re, um, going back home.”

Without us.

He blinks, then something seems to click for him. He shakes his head and leans a little closer. “I bookedthreeseats on that flight. I’m asking you both to come and spend Christmas with me and my family in England.”

Time screeches to a halt. I’m vaguely aware that my jaw is hanging open. My ears are ringing. Colby’s gripping my hand so tightly that my fingers are starting to tingle. I’m not sure who grabbed for who, but we’re clinging to each other now like a life raft.

“You…how…what?” I manage to utter.

He’s looking between us. “I had a shit ton of air miles,” he says like he’s trying to calm a wild animal. “They were going to expire, and I thought: why not? You guys kept saying you wanted this holiday to be special, and I figured you might enjoy a white Christmas. Or at least a gray one.”

“You want us to fly around the world to spend Christmas with your family that you haven’t seen in five years?” Colby asks in a strangled voice.

Andreas inhales slowly, then nods. “I know we only just met, but for the first time since I moved, I finally feel like I have familyhere.Our talk on the beach the other day made me realize I don’t want to put off going back home yet another year, but I hated the idea of you both staying here by yourselves. So I want you to come with me. On an adventure.”

The whistling in my ears suddenly breaks free through my mouth, and I’m squealing in unbelievable excitement.“Madonna on a moon buggy!Are youserious?Really? You want to take us toEngland?”

The first hint of relief washes over his face. “I really, really do,” he says.

I look at Colby, who’s still very stunned. “LONDON!” I yell at him, shaking him by the shoulders.

“Actually, we’d only make a short stop in London,” Andreas explains. “Then we’d go down to Brighton to my parents’ house. They’re hosting.”

I shake my head faintly. “I have no idea where that is, but it sounds amazing.”

“It’s by the sea,” he explains kindly.

Colby blinks like he’s coming back to life. “By the sea? We’d still be able to go to the beach on Christmas Day?”

Andreas laughs. “I mean, Brighton Beach in the winter is mildly terrifying, but yeah. Sure. Whatever you boys want.”

Colby’s breathing heavily. I don’t blame him. I feel dizzy. “Oh,” he says, his expression suddenly falling. “What about my job? They’d never let me take time off over the holidays, let alone at such short notice.”

“Quit,” I say without even thinking. “Quit. Leave. Walk out. You hate it, and they treat you like dirt.”

He bites his lip and looks back at me. He knows I’m not wrong. “But what about our rent?”

There’s a pause where Andreas seems to be holding his breath before he shakes his head and lets it go. “I can cover that, sweetheart. If that’s all that’s stopping you from joining us on this trip, I can help.”

I expect Colby to say he couldn’t possibly accept such a generous offer, but he looks like he’s thinking it over. “If I screw over my current job, they might give me a bad reference for my next one.”

“Ah,” I say. He has a point there.

We all frown for a minute before Andreas hums. “How much does this job know about your personal life, Colby?” he asks gently.

He raises his eyebrows. “Pretty much nothing,” he admits. “It’s such a hostile environment they actively try to stop us from making friends.”

“Excellent,” Andreas declares before realizing what he’s said. “I mean, excellent for our diabolical plan. Do you think that you can convince them that it’s a family emergency?”

I watch Colby turn that over for a second. “Yeah,” he says slowly. “One of the guys disappeared without warning over the summer because his mom got cancer. They let him come back once she was settled into her new chemo routine.”

Personally, I think Colby should use this as an opportunity to walk away and never look back, but we can discuss that later. Right now, I just want to convince him that telling this little white lie for the sake of an adventure of a lifetime will totally be worth it.

“When’s the flight booked for?” I ask Andreas.

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