Page 32 of A Minute More

“I mean, you like dick. Cassidy doesn’t have one…”

“Stop obsessing about this. Cassidy’s cool. We are gonna get married and have babies.”

“Yeah, but she said you left her at the party. Where did you go?”

Jude shrugs. “Found something I was interested in at the time.”

He waggles his eyebrows at me, and I wonder if that something was a dick, but I don’t have a chance to ask because he’s pushing me out of the house, Ollie loping beside us like a gazelle.

“Where we going, guys?” Ollie asks. “Did we make a decision?”

“Out to drink,” Jude replies, but I shake my head, remembering how vehemently Simon was against this, how upset he seemed. I don’t want to disappoint him more than I already have.

“No. No drinking.”

Jude stops and shoots me a look. “Well, then what the fuck are we gonna do this late?”

“Cosmic bowling?” Ollie suggests, and Jude’s eyes light up.

“Oh, yes. Let’s go bowling.”

* * *

“Man, you’re off your game!” Ollie says, juggling a bowling ball in his hand. He’s already dropped it twice like the goober he is, but it hasn’t deterred him in the slightest. If he loses a toe in the process, I won’t be surprised.

“Yeah, I suck tonight,” I murmur and move up to the edge of the lane, rolling the ball sideways and watching in disappointment as it crawls into the gutter.

Jude and Ollie rib me endlessly, but I just shrug it off. I mean, how can I bowl a good game when my mind is ten different places? Well, one specific place, but who’s counting?

My ass hits the hard plastic swivel chair, and I pull out my phone, turning the screen on out of sheer anxious habit. Not that I expect Simon to have messaged me, but I can’t help but check.

My phone clatters onto the sticky table in front of me when I see that I have a message from him.

Simon.

Oh fuck.

Quickly, I scramble to open it, my eyes skimming the message before reading it once more word for word.

Simon:

Can I come to your place so we can talk?

I stand up, replying back to him before I can even think.

Me:

Yes.

Simon:

Can you meet now?

Me:

Yes.

My legs carry me out of the bowling alley, leaving Ollie and Jude calling out after me, but they go ignored. My heart is thumping loudly, a rush of white noise in my ears. By the time I arrive at my place, I’m panting. Fuck, I’m nervous. I want to talk to him, to apologize and explain in person.

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