Page 138 of The Storm

“We’re going to have dinner,” he says.

“What a fucking terrible idea,” I blurt before glancing at Callum. “No offense.”

“Absolutely none taken. You should definitely stay, though.”

I shake my head. “Thanks, but it’s fine.”

“Sit down,” Nick says.

It would be in my absolute best interest to, for once, not let him get to me, but the moment he says those words there’s only him in this room. Him and a world of hurt and unresolved feelings.

“Fuck off,” I say, as nicely as I can.

“Blue,” he says, and there’s a hint of gentleness in the way he says it. Like he can’t bark it out or bite it out because calling me Blue has too much history behind it for him to say it with any other tone, which means that’s the way he says it, and it’s never supposed to be said another way.

He slides three plates of grilled cheese on the counter. It’s one of the things he used to make me in the middle of the night. The fancy kind with sourdough, gruyère, and onion jam, and it’s so painfully familiar.

It makes me so angry that I still feel this way. It pisses me off that after years of putting in the effort to forget about him, I’m back here and it feels like nothing has changed. Transported back into the past against my will.

I fucked up. I know I did.

But he left without a word.

He left me.

He just… left.

And now he’s calling me Blue, and that’s a dick move. It’s a fucking dick move.

Because now I’m sitting down.

That “Blue” gets my ass in the seat before I can remember that it’s a bad idea and I don’t want to.

I pull the plate in front of me, resigned. Might as well get a midnight snack out of this, I guess.

Silence stretches between us. I sure as hell don’t know what to say to the strangers in front of me. That’s what Nick is by now, isn’t it? A stranger. Might as well be. Six years is a lifetime.

I absently pick up the sandwich and take a bite, then chase the string of cheese with my tongue. When I look up, I find Nick’s eyes on me.

His gaze hardens when it meets mine. All these years, I never remembered the hate. I ached for the soft looks he saved just for me. The love. We used to laugh so much. We used to talk. It’s like when we fell for each other I forgot that long before that there were other emotions. The icy coldness of him loathing me.

And now it’s back.

It feels so much worse the second time around.

I look away and let my eyes wander over the room.

“Nice place,” I say when the silence has really stretched for way too long, with Nick scowling at me and Callum’s eyes moving between the two of us.

Callum turns his attention to me and grins. “It’s stupidly big. The job is still available if you want it.”

I blink at the seemingly out-of-nowhere pivot. I guess that answers the question of whether he knows Nick and I have a history. There’s no way he would hire his boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend, is there?

No. He definitely doesn’t know.

And now it makes so much sense why Nick didn’t want me to work for Callum.

I clear my throat, well aware I’ve been silent for too long. “Is it?”