Page 12 of American Love Story

He nodded and was about to say something when Nesto barreled in from the patio, his loud voice booming in the small living room.

“There you are! P, you gotta come and tell Jude about the time Juanpa and Milo dressed up as Salt-N-Pepa for Halloween. He doesn’t believe me.”

Patrice’s eyes twinkled when he answered Nesto. “Man I wish we’d had smartphones back then because that night was epic.”

Nesto laughed again and pointed toward the patio. “I’m saying. I’m going back out there, but you have to settle this.”

“All right, all right,” Patrice said, his voice full of an easy humor he rarely showed. After a moment, he nodded and started to follow. When he got to the door, he stopped, like he realized I was still standing there.

He looked over at me again and tilted his head toward the patio. “I’m going to go settle this argument.” His voice was friendly, but it was no longer the intimate feel from before. The wall was up again.

Immediately I felt slighted that he hadn’t asked me to come with him, which was ridiculous. I needed to go home and regroup.

I tilted my own head in the direction of the front door. “I’m going to head home. I was at the office at 4:00 a.m. this morning preparing for court and I’m exhausted. Tell Nesto and Jude thanks for me, okay?”

He seemed surprised at the shift in my mood. I’d gone from flirtatious to exhausted and grumpy in a second.

“Okay. It was good seeing you, Easton. Thanks for helping me out with the apartment thing. I appreciate it.” I waved him off and after holding my gaze for a moment, he walked out through the sliding doors and left me there looking after him. Wondering once again, if all the things that I’d felt those few nights we had together last summer were only lust and desperation.

chapter four

patrice

I had a feeling I was being setup.

Except that was bullshit, because once I found out that the building belonged to Easton, I could’ve just opted out and tried to find something else, but here I was right on time and ready to look at the vacant apartment in his building.

I got my phone out of my pocket to double check the door code he’d sent me. He said someone would be waiting for me right outside the apartment which was conveniently located on the fifth floor directly below his own top-floor penthouse.

Just as I was about to walk in, my phone rang. I saw Camilo’s number and immediately felt in a better mood.

“Milo.”

“Oh my god. I am so hungover.” The amount of drama he could work into seven words was always impressive.

I tried not to laugh at his moaning. “I thought you were at a work thing last night.”

“I was! I didn’t even drink that much, but you know I’m trash for free champagne.”

Hewasa whore for an open bar.

“How was it?” I asked, already grinning at the earful of foolishness I was about to get.

Instead there was a heavy silence that could’ve meant anything. One never knew with Camilo.

“It was good, great butternut squash soup. I gave a super tall, hot as fuck guy a blow job in a sitting room, and then Ayako and I went home. You know, average Friday.”

I barked out a laugh. “Oh my god, Camilo. The shit you say. At least the soup was good.”

He snickered at my side-step of the blow job. “What are you up to? Are you and Easton going steady already or are you just still acting like you didn’t move up there for his dick?”

I sighed out loud, because I did not want to get into any of this with Camilo. He’d push me until I ended up saying more than I was ready to deal with at the moment. I also wasn’t sure how to even talk about the apartment. If I mentioned Easton, Camilo would get on his nosy bullshit and I did not want to get into the reasons why I was even contemplating renting the place.

“Oh, I’m just looking at an apartment. The one I got is still not ready for me to move in and even though staying with Nes and Jude has been great, I need my own space.”

“I can’t believe they’re still dicking you around with that.”

After punching the code for the front door, I stepped into the vestibule and pressed the up button for the elevator with one hand as I held my phone with the other.