Page 66 of The Catch

“Not like you to be half in the bag by four-thirty,” Dylan said. “Why’d you leave Cat’s?”

“Not like you to ask so many questions,” he fired back. “You coming or what?”

“I’ll call in a couple of burgers at the place down the street, and I’ll be over by halftime, okay?”

“All right, I’ll see you then.”

As promised, Dylan came bearing a full meal just as the marching band took the field on Josh’s television screen.

“You didn’t tell me you drankallthe beer,” Dylan grumbled as he rummaged through Josh’s near-empty fridge, settling for a soda he found in one of the drawers. “Better off anyway. I don’t wanna end up walking home tonight.”

Josh nodded, biting into his burger with the zeal of a man who hadn’t eaten in almost twenty-four hours.

Dylan took the seat opposite and eyed him over the can of Coke he was sipping from. “So, why are we here, man? What’s going on with Cat?”

“We didn’t have a good day,” Josh answered, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“What’s that mean?”

“It means we had an argument, and I came home.”

“You gonna tell me what it was about?”

Josh continued chewing, watching the men on the screen smash into each other, and ignored Dylan’s question.

“Mmm,” Dylan hummed. He looked Josh up and down, lingering on his wrinkled t-shirt and bloodshot eyes. “And you been sitting on your ass draining your fridge of alcohol since you been back?”

“Something like that.”

“Storming off has always kinda been my thing, Josh. Gotta say I’m a bit surprised.”

“I didn’t storm off,” he replied, finishing the rest of his burger and moving onto his fries. “I just thought it better if she did her thing without me this weekend.”

“I see… you still feeling like that’s best?”

Josh set his food down and leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “Maybe not.”

“Well, it’s still early. Why don’t you sober up some and go see if you can salvage the rest of your Saturday night?”

“Drive back there?”

“Or you could just sit here and wallow all night, but it looks like you’ve done enough of that.” He gave Josh another once over, gesturing to his disheveled appearance. “Go take a shower, brew some coffee, and by the time this game is done, you’ll feel a lot better.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Considering all he’d already put on the line in the last twenty-four hours, if he was going to find out he didn’t have what he thought he had, he didn’t need to go rushing toward that realization.

“Josh, you’re shit company right now, and I don’t know how much of this I can take. Go fix it so I can get back to being astounded that you pulled a girl like that in the first place.”

Josh rubbed at his stinging eyes. Listening to Dylan wasn’t something he made a habit of, but he had to admit he’d been trying to put an end to his misery all day, and his way had been unsuccessful.

He pushed off of the couch, taking an inventory of the state of his motor skills, and went to start a pot of coffee. He was the one who left. At the very least, he should make up for that.

No one seemed ready to leave the party, even after the game had ended in an easy win. Cat glanced around at her friends, still chatting and drinking in Emma’s living room, and finished her now-warm bottle of beer. She was ready to be done with the tragedy that was her day, but the thought of going home to her empty house didn’t appeal to her. Instead, she pulled her phone out, deciding to text Dani, the only one of them who hadn’t made it to Emma’s.

Cat: Are you home? Can I come over?

Dani: My date is dropping me off in fifteen minutes. Meet me there.

Cat: Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude.

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