Page 87 of Messy Strokes (Wrecked Roommates)

“There a reason he’d be worried about me, Mads?”

Confused, I ask, “What do you mean?”

His grip tightens around the steering wheel, and he lets out a low sigh. “Look, I promise I won’t be angry, okay?”

“Angry?” I question, shaking my head back and forth. “What are you talking about?”

“When we ended things the first time, you had every right to be pissed at me.”

“So?”

“So, I wanna know if you told him. Jos,” he clarifies. “I think me breaking his one rule is why he’s struggling to sell me the place.”

“Told him about what?”

“About you bailing me out.”

Like I’ve been sucker punched, I flinch back as his words register. Unfortunately, I don’t even have the right to be mad about it. Because I might not have told Jos, but I did tell someone who passed along the information to Milo’s boss.

Reading my silence as an admission of guilt, he mutters, “It’s fine, Mads––”

“I didn’t tell him.”

“You don’t have to lie––”

“I’m not lying,” I promise, crossing my arms and shrinking a little further into my seat. “But Josdoesknow. He mentioned it in the interview. He thinks it’s why you’ve been throwing all of your blood, sweat, and tears into Etch 'N Ink. Because you feel guilty for lying to him.”

“So heisholding it against me.”

“No, Milo.” I reach over the center console and rub my hand against his thigh. “He doesn’t care. He told me he doesn’t.”

His muscles are rigid and tight as he presses his lips into a thin line.

“He doesn’t,” I repeat, desperate to soothe his worries away.

“There’s no way he doesn’t care.”

“Yes, there is.”

“It’s hisonerule––”

“And apparently, he felt like you were exempt from it because of the circumstances surrounding it.”

He grunts and shakes his head.

“You didn’t show up at your parents’ trailer looking for a fight. You showed up to save your mom from a shitty situation you were all too familiar with, and it got out of hand.”

“It’s no excuse––”

“It was the perfect excuse,” I argue. “Jos isn’t disappointed in you for being arrested. If anything, he seemed disappointed in you feeling like you couldn’t be open and tell him about it.”

“I thought I’d get fired––”

“And he thought you knew him better than that.”

The veins in Milo’s hands pop as he squeezes the steering wheel tighter. “So, what’s holding him back from selling the place?”

“I already told you,” I remind him. “He wants to make sure you’re balancing your home and work life. To be sure you’re doing something for you instead of sacrificing everything you have and couldpotentiallyhave for the shop.”

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