'M' is For: [Ch19] A Familiar Stranger - Part 2

Apparently, James had spotted me at the bar talking with Thomas, and my friends didn’t let me hear the end of it. After I wrapped up with Ines, I was left completely at the mercy of their relentless teasing. At first I protested that nothing had happened, but finally, I gave up; sometimes there was no reasoning with their antics. I caught sight of Thomas once across the way, watching us as he shared a drink with another guy, whom I guessed to be his friend. He straightened up like he was going to come over, but then Kiara appeared with a tray of shots.

“Who wants one?” Kiara cried, and instantly we were surrounded by enthusiastic partygoers. Edward grabbed one, downed it in one smooth draught, and then pulled me into a kiss. His lips pressed down on mine, his hands warm at my waist. My mouth tingled with the aftertaste of vodka.

“And? Care to explain what that was for?” I asked archly when he released me.

“I’ve always been prepared to step aside gracefully whenever you got a boyfriend, and I sense my time might be ending soon,” the English gentleman replied, perfectly unabashed. “But I’m not one to pass up on a final opportunity to make my affections known.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes drolly. “That would be a whole lot more convincing if I hadn’t seen you plastered to three different women tonight.”

“What can I say? I’m an equal opportunity lover,” Edward said with a gleaming smile, and I punched his arm in mock indignation. When I raised my eyes to where Thomas had been standing, I saw that he had disappeared.

I thought that would be the last I saw of him, but as I was passing through the cramped hallway on my way back from the bathroom, I heard my name. I turned. Thomas stood there, half-cast in the shadows like something summoned from a particularly sinful dream, and I felt a tingling sensation in my stomach that reminded me that I wasn’t as immune to him as I liked to pretend.

“Hey. What is it?” I asked.

“Before you go…can I have your number?”

That was not what I had been expecting, and I felt my eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Yeah, of course. Did you get a new phone?”

I accepted the phone that he handed me and typed in my number.

“I had deleted it,” Thomas said in a low voice.

His words cut me in a way I hadn’t anticipated, and I stilled. “You what? Why?”

Thomas looked away. “My head was a mess after Missy and I split. I wanted a clean break from everything. One night when I had a little too much to drink, I went through all the contacts on my phone and did a purge.”

I bit my lip. Some part of me had already known that he’d deliberately tried to shut me out, but hearing him confirm it was another thing. “But now you’ve changed your mind.”

“If I haven’t totally fucked things up between us by now, I want to take you up on your offer for friendship,” Thomas said simply.

For a moment I was completely confused—until I remembered the last conversation we’d had, when I had tracked him down with some half-baked notion of convincing him to walk away from Missy. As memory served, he had thrown that offer right back in my face.

I gave a humorless half-laugh. “Right.” I took a deep breath, my response gathering itself in my throat, when I looked into his eyes. That’s when I saw the wariness in his eyes. He had no expectation of my forgiveness, but still he’d steeled himself toward honesty, knowing that it might drive me away. Just like that, my anger vanished.

I had meant what I said back then on the rooftop; how could I fault him now for taking me up on it?

I swallowed, my blood pounding in my temples like I’d had too much to drink. “You’ve got a lot of work to do,” I said softly.

“I know,” Thomas replied, equally soft. “Believe me, I’m just getting started.”

I exhaled and handed him back his phone.

“Maybe you can take me out next weekend,” I told him. “Then, if you really mean what you say, we can call it even.”

Momentary surprise, quickly replaced by a charged emotion I couldn’t place, overtook Thomas’s expression. He pocketed his phone in his jeans. “Deal.”

As soon as he had walked out of sight, I sat down abruptly at the foot of the stairs. After everything that had happened between us, I could barely believe what had just happened. I fought the impulse to laugh, or cry, or both.

“Fuck,” I said aloud.

❖❖❖

To keep things safe, I insisted we meet next weekend at a local diner for lunch. Out of sheer nerves, I got there ten minutes early, and then it took everything I had not to pace the pavement in front of the diner like a restless caged lion. Fortunately, Thomas didn’t keep me waiting long. He broke into a jog as soon as he saw me standing at the door.

Given the way our last conversation had gone, I’d braced myself for it to be awkward. And it was awkward for the first five or so minutes, until Thomas pulled out his phone and showed me the sheep-counting game he’d made, complete with his first foray into pixel art; then I recounted the misadventures of my latest story, which had taken me all the way to Atlantic City. With that, the floodgates opened. The next hour proceeded to fly by as we filled each other in on the details of the last few months since we’d seen each other, and I caught myself thinking, That’s right. We used to be like this.

Mindful of all the other customers gathering at the front, waiting for a table, we left as soon as Thomas paid the check. But I found myself lingering outside the diner, not quite ready to part ways…and I noticed that Thomas seemed to be doing the same. I suggested a walk in the park nearby, and Thomas instantly agreed. One hour turned into two, which bled into three. We made stupid, corny jokes. I persuaded Thomas to ride the park carousel with me. Afterward, he lent me one of his earbuds, and we listened together to an album by a new artist he’d recently discovered as we wandered. Finally, when the sun had dipped behind the buildings and we were about eight miles from where we’d started, I knew we had delayed our goodbyes long enough.

“Well, this was fun,” I said, smiling up at Thomas. The dimming rays of the setting sun caught the side of his cheek and his shoulder, limning his tall silhouette in a golden glow. “I’m glad we were able to hang out.”

“Me too,” Thomas said. There was a familiar expression in his eyes that I hadn’t seen in a long time as he bent down towards me. Before I knew what he was doing, he kissed me lightly on the cheek. “Get home safely.”

“You too,” I managed to say around the sensation of my heart thrumming to life in my chest. As soon as he was safely out of sight, I pressed a hand to my cheek and felt the warmth blooming beneath my skin. I shook my head and gave a soft laugh. That man was too dangerous for his own good.

Walking back to my apartment, I felt at peace. Maybe we weren’t the same idealistic people we’d been a year ago, eating lunch and laughing on a rooftop, but it was going to be okay.