Page 25 of The Map Home
“Possible, possible. I got a picture, but it’s at the wrong angle. But then he exited stage left and she came around the corner. I trailed her to The Chron building, so I went in too and quickly drafted a story about the craft fair and tree ceremony. She completely ignored me the whole time, which is about par. When she left, I waited a bit, watched what direction she was heading from the window, and followed her. I didn’t want her to see me so I kind of hung back and lost her right around the park. That’s when I found the Santa outfit.”
“Surely you don’t think she threw water on Santa and he melted? Or,” Dakota continued, “someone threw water onher, and she melted? That would be perfect.”
Tad narrowed his eyes. Dakota was trying not to laugh and not being very successful about it.
“No, I fucking don’t, asshole. But I do want to know what she was up to. She was definitely acting furtive. And don’t think I’ve forgotten my original question, which is why don’t you want to save money and get an apartment together? Am I that bad a friend?”
“No! You’re my best friend,” Dakota said forcefully.
“Okay, and…? Am I in your business too much? Do I not shower enough?” Tad raised an eyebrow. “I know for a fact that I am tidier than you are.”
Dakota sucked in a big breath of air, held it for a minute, then released it. The TV was still yammering in the background. Looking out one of the windows, Tad noticed that it was snowing again.
“I know I should just agree with you. Because, as much as it pains me to admit it, you’re right about saving money and all that crap. My one and only argument is that the studio is the first real thing that’s just mine. I have the key and I can walk in there at night or whenever I get home and think to myself, this ismyspace. No one has been digging through my stuff. The cash I tucked away for pizza or whatever is right where I left it. I don’t have to pack up and leave—because I signed the lease and I pay the rent on time. It’smine.”
Tad felt like a fucking idiot.
Because he was one.
He liked to think he knew Dakota best, better than anyone else, and maybe he did. But there was still so much he didn’t know. So much that Dakota hadn’t told him, either on purposeor because he pushed the memories aside and didn’t want to think about them.
“Dude, I’m sorry.”
To cover his blunder, Tad shoved the last cold piece of double pepperoni into his mouth and began to chew. If his mouth was full of pizza, he couldn’t say anything stupid, right?
He’d been worse than stupid, and now he was embarrassed and crushed that he’d been so relentlessly oblivious.
We’ll just move in together to save money and the next step will be Dakota “accidentally” falling in love with me.
Fucking nonsense.
Optimism was Tad’s Achilles’ heel and always had been. It tended to put a rose color on his interactions with other people—or at least, that’s what his mom always said.In general, Tad didn’t think there was anything wrong with being optimistic and thinking that tomorrow would be a better day.
But Dakota had lived a very different life than Tad.
Dakota was watching him closely now, and Tad shifted uncomfortably while he over-chewed the last bit of pizza.
“What?” he finally managed.
A smile emerged, the smile almost no one but Tad ever saw. “You. Tad Gillespie. You crack me up. Just… let me have my crappy little studio with the broken microwave?—”
“Your microwave is broken? Have you talked to management? Are they not fixing it? Because?—”
“Tad,” Dakota growled his name. “Honestly, I don’t care about the microwave. I usually grab coffee at CCs or the station. But thank you for wanting to help.” Rising to his feet, Dakota grabbed the empty pizza boxes and walked them into Tad’s kitchen, where he tossed them onto the recycling. “As I’m sure you know, my lease is up at the end of February. Let’s circle back to this conversation then, ’kay?”
It was a close thing, but Tad managed not to choke on his own spit out of sheer surprise.
“Really?” he squeaked as he coughed. “Okay.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, fine. Just fine. Um, hey.” Tad glanced around, wondering if he dared to bring up the other thing.
“What?”
“Never mind, it’s dumb.” Oh boy, his cheeks were so red they could probably be seen from space.
Something in Dakota’s expression shifted. He moved from the kitchen doorway to stand in front of Tad, whose butt was still glued to the couch. Dakota crossed his muscled arms over his chest, accentuating his biceps.
