Page 50 of Midnight Wishes

‘And the rest?’

‘She’s been to my house, remember? Party planning? Celine’s met her. To your second point, she’s an attractive woman. I’m not going to hide that I think so. And I call her that to mess with her. That’s it.’ Alex shrugged, hoping it would hide his defensiveness. Weeks before, he’d told her that if this exact situation happened, he wouldn’t lie. But from the moment she’d opened up to him at the bar, let him see the soft, insecure partsshe’d been trying so hard to hide, he’d been gone, doomed to do anything that would make her happy.

‘Okay, forget all that. So I didn’t see you pawing at her when we went to Neon?’ His brother’s grey eyes hardened into steel discs. ‘Really weird that you two disappeared around the same time that night too. Right after you told me you were taking someone home.’

‘What makes any of this your business?’ Alex winced internally at his outburst, knowing what Erik would read into it. A second later, his fears were confirmed.

‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ A deep sigh blew across the desk. ‘You promised Abby you wouldn’t fuck with any of her friends.’

‘That’s not exactly what I said.’

‘Alex, I realise this is yourthing, but can you stop and think about other people’s feelings for one second? If you hurt her—’

‘And what makes you so sureI’mgoing to hurther?’ Alex thought back to her face when he’d asked her to dinner. The disappointment that had crushed his high after so completely letting go with her.

If Erik noticed the emphasis, he didn’t let on. ‘Because when have you ever taken anything seriously, Alex? Least of all your relationships with women.’

Alex leaned across the desk, even as Erik’s reaction pressed on a bruised part of his psyche that had been plaguing him for days. ‘You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, Erik. Three months of you spending the night occasionally doesn’t change the fact that you were barely in my life for almost a decade. And before that, you were too wrapped up in someone else to ever notice what I was going through. Don’t assume youknow everything about me.’ He nodded to the door. ‘Thanks for the food. Get out.’

Ever thankful forhis skills at compartmentalising, Alex managed to get through the rest of the day ignoring that he was pissed at his brother. But when he trudged through his front door a little after six—interdepartmental drinks meetups that he could abscond from came in clutch occasionally—and found Erik reading at his breakfast nook, it came flooding back.

‘I wasn’t expecting you to be here.’

‘I wanted to talk,’ Erik said, setting his book aside.

‘Yeah, that went really well for us earlier.’ He rummaged in the freezer until he found a portion of the lamb curry Maggie had cooked the previous week, and held it up for Erik, who shook his head.

‘Abby’s on her way. She’s bringing food.’

‘Great. Can’t wait to fight with both of you.’ As he spoke, he pulled a bottle of whiskey from the cupboard, poured two glasses, and pushed one towards Erik before opening a bottle of Abby’s favourite wine to let it breathe.

‘Actually’—Erik winced—‘I wanted to apologise. Upon reflection, I may have been a bit of an asshole earlier. I’m sorry.’

‘A bit?’

‘A lot,’ Erik conceded. ‘You know I have tunnel vision where Abby’s concerned. Everything in me is geared to protect her, to give her what she wants… And Sarah’s become my friend too. I don’t want to see her get hurt. But I shouldn’t have— I shouldn’t have suggested you would. I definitely shouldn’t have doubled down on being a dick. You’re right. We’re so much closer nowthan we were as kids, I sometimes forget that less than a year ago, we were barely speaking.’

Of course he did. Because in the months since Erik had been back, he’d filled Alex in on every moment of his life that they’d been mostly out of touch, without realising that Alex was sharing significantly less.

Silence settled as they both drank. After another few minutes, where Alex volunteered nothing, Erik spoke again. ‘So are you two dating, or…’

‘Friends with benefits.’ Alex let loose a sharp laugh. ‘Or not, because according to her, we’re not even friends. It’s just sex.’

‘You don’t sound thrilled about that.’

One of the fun similarities of their brains was that Erik, like Alex, tended to hyper-focus. So while it was true that Erik could be switched off to what was going on with others when his mind was occupied, he became annoyingly observant when he dialled in.

‘It’s good sex.’ Alex shrugged. ‘She handcuffed me to her bed.’

Erik raised his eyebrows. ‘Kinky.’

‘Says you. You know the restraints hanging out the corners of your bed aren’t subtle, right? And for someone who hates plastic so much, you sure get a lot of packages fromContainers Plus.’

‘Abby’s in a healing period. I’m helping.’ A grin spread across his brother’s face before suddenly dropping off. ‘And stop deflecting. Where does that leave you?’

A bitter smile stretched Alex’s lips when he recalled her reaction to his dinner invite. ‘Fucked. I’m f—’

‘I come bearing pizza,’ Abby said loudly, as she pushed into the room carrying a giant paper bag. After a surprisingly briefhello kiss to Erik, she set two pizza boxes down in the middle of the island and a foil tray that surely contained a family-sized lasagne in front of her fiancé, and asked, ‘What are we talking about?’

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