Page 26 of Waiting on Life
That froze me in my tracks. “You wouldn’t.”
He held up his phone and gave it a little wiggle. “I have the number saved in my contacts, and I put it on speed dial.”
He was such an asshole. Why I thought Toby would care, I didn’t know. Wait, why I should care if Toby cared, I didn’t know. Yet, I did.
I slumped back down onto the couch. “He confuses me so much.”
Pete took a seat next to me. “And by ‘he,’ I’m assuming you mean Toby?”
“Yeah. I mean, okay, so I’ve accepted he’s straight. But I’ve never seen a straight guy who’s so… caring, I guess.”
“You didn’t see the way he was looking at you when I got to the bar to pick you up. I have never seen anyone watch another person so intently. I don’t know if he’s straight or not, but he definitely cares what happens to you.”
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Take it slow. Don’t jump to conclusions about what he is or isn’t. Now, what did he have to say?”
“That I should get some sleep and that he’d check up on me when he got home.”
“I gotta say, I agree with him. You’re paler than usual. Head still hurting?”
A twenty-piece band was stomping around in my skull, all while wearing steel-toed boots with cleats. “A little.”
“Go get some sleep. If he shows up, I’ll be sure to come get you.”
Well, two guys told me to take my tired ass to bed, and who was I to argue? I got up and shuffled into my room. I stripped to my pants, then realized I simply didn’t have the energy to take anything else off, so I flopped down on the bed and closed my eyes.
Sleep claimed me moments later.
Chapter Eight
Toby
I stood outside Kyle’s apartment with two bags filled with boxes of takeout items from Outpost. I knew he had said that Pete was vegan, but he’d never told me if he was. I grabbed some vegan breakfast burritos, some Joey’s Famous Tofu sandwiches, two tofu bahn mi sandwiches, and a couple of Beyond Burgers. The intermingling scents floated up and tickled my nose, which caused my stomach to growl. I was hungrier than I had been in a long while.
From my apartment, the sounds of a kitty in his death throes issued loudly. There would be hell to pay later, I was sure. I rapped my knuckles against the door, and a moment later, it opened. Pete stood there, giving me a big smile.
“Hey, Toby.”
“Hi. How’s he feeling?”
“He’s still sleeping. I checked on him a while ago, and he was out of it.” His cheeks pinked. “Listen, I wanted to apologize to you for my comment when we met. I didn’t think about what I was saying, and—”
“And I took it the wrong way,” I finished. “My fault, really. I’m so used to people looking down on me, that it’s sort of my default setting.”
“I can promise you, Kyle doesn’t look down on you at all.”
That warmth filled me again, and I couldn’t figure out why.
“How about if I leave this with you, and you two can enjoy?”
“You brought food? For us?” Pete asked, clearly shocked.
“He brought food?” came a sleep-filled voice from deeper inside the apartment.
When Kyle’s heavy-lidded eyes came into view, I wanted to insist he go back to bed for a while, but he needed to eat. His eye was black and puffy, and he looked wiped out. The problem for me? He was shirtless, and I couldn’t seem to stop staring at his pale chest. One dark freckle stood out above his pink bud of a nipple. It took a lot of effort to drag my gaze away from his skin and look him in the eye.
“Yeah, I stopped at Outpost. I didn’t know if you were vegan too, so I only grabbed vegan things from their menu.” And now that I thought about it, I didn’t want to upset him if he wasn’t. “If you want, I can go back and get you something.”
