Page 32 of Bear with Me
"You first." I grinned. "How do you like your new place?"
He chuffed a laugh. "You're going to hate me. I moved to the apartment we looked at a few years ago."
"The one in the old run-down building two blocks from here?" The building's gothic architecture intrigued me, with peaks, stained-glass windows, and portcullises everywhere. It was stunning, but the owners had been lax on their upkeep.
He nodded. "It's not as run-down now! The owners renovated. It's really nice."
I held up my mug and touched it to his, careful not to spill any. "Congratulations."
"You should come see it. I have the studio in the peak, the one with the image of the raven on the window."
"The one where we found the giant rat?" I blinked at him. "You're braver than I thought."
"Hey, I lived with you for three years."
I deserved that. "I'm sorry I made your life so hard these past few months."
"No." Vic shook his head. "This isn't about me. It's about us. We're codependent." He pointed at his coffee. "I swore I wouldn't hang out with you for at least a month, and here I am, asking you to coffee on our first day back to work."
"You're right. We were codependent."
"Ahem. Are. You're sitting here, too."
He wasn't wrong.
"It kinda hurt when you didn't text me at all while you were gone." He fumbled with a chip in his mug's handle to avoid my gaze.
"I didn't think of you."
He winced.
"That's not completely true. I avoided thinking of you. I wanted to move past my grief, and there you were, piling another loss on top of it all. I didn't want to be angry with you for two weeks, so I just … didn't think of you."
"Thanks, I guess." He met my gaze with a quick grin before returning his attention to the chip.
"I met someone."
He cupped his fingers around the mug's base and leaned forward. "Yes! Tell me."
"His name's Ollie." I told Vic about our encounter on the plane, about how Ollie stole my cab, and then how we ended up together at the cabin.
"And then you fell in love?" Vic batted his eyes at me. "How romantic!"
"It's not like that. We're in different places in our lives. I'll only drag him down if I don't get my shit together, so that's what I'm doing."
"Starting where?"
That was the big question. "Therapy, for sure. Downsizing the apartment, probably. I won't last more than two months without a roommate."
"Why not ask him to move in with you?"
"He owns his house. He built it."
"Ooh." Vic waggled his eyebrows. "Good with his hands. I like him already."
I nudged his shin with the toe of my boot. "Hush."
"When will you see him again?"
