Page 71 of Tempting Fate

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jamie

By the time I make it to Sunday, I’m a wreck. I’ve been avoiding Em as much as I can all week—quite a feat, considering we live in the same small house—and I mean, it’s not like I need to avoid Patch, but I’ve avoided the rest of the wolves, which seems like it counts.

I can’t get out of meeting Cecile, though. For one thing, she’ll just come over, and I have the distinct feeling Nick won’t hesitate to let her in. He’s worried about me. About me and Em. Em mentioned in passing that he hasn’t seen Patch since our night together. Not in so many words, but… He’s looked kind of freaked out and out of sorts for days.

I haven’t asked. I feel terrible about that, but I don’t know what else to do. Exactly what I thought might happen has happened—I’ve somehow come between them, and now—

“You look glum,” Cecile says, sliding into the seat opposite me. She already has her latte, which means she’s probably been here for a while. And I didn’t notice. Great.

“I’m fine,” I say, waving her off. I don’t want to get into it.

Luckily, she seems to take the hint. “Okay. Fine. Are you coming next weekend?”

“Next weekend?” Oh. It’s the gym’s grand opening, and Vince… I fumble my phone out of my pocket. Yep. Vince asked me three days ago, and I haven’t bothered to reply. “Fuck. Yes, I’m coming.”

“Cool. Nick said he was, you know. Vince told me. He’s pleased about it. What about Em?”

I look up sharply. “What about him?”

Cecile frowns, blonde brows pulling together. “Have you asked if he’s coming? It’s a pretty open invitation; I think they want to have as many people there as possible so it looks exciting for anyone who passes by.”

“People are passing by?” The gym they’ve created was once an empty warehouse in a sea of empty warehouses. I haven’t been in a while, mind. I guess things could have changed.

Cecile shrugs as she takes a drink of her coffee. “Someone bought up one of the other warehouses last month. Converting it into flats, I think. Means we’ll have to be a bit more careful when we run our more discreet classes, but it still should work. Kieran doesn’t seem worried anyway.”

And he does take that kind of thing seriously, what with how his pack is made up. Most wolf packs are just wolves, maybe with some humans or witches mixed in—Kieran’s is every kind of creature I’ve ever heard of, which means he’s very concerned about security.

“Do I have to work out if I come?”

Cecile laughs. “Yes. A little bit. You can walk on the treadmill if you like.”

I pull a face and she laughs again. I roll my eyes, looking past her, and when the café door opens, I’m surprised to see Nick stroll inside. He smiles and waves when he sees me, then heads straight for the counter.

“What the fuck?”

Cecile pulls a face. “I invited him.”

“What?” I look between the two of them. “Are you…?”

“Oh, no. Nothing like that. He said he’d come to the opening when Vince texted him, and then Vince rang him and suggested he should spend more time with some of us. I was there, so I offered.” She leans in. “It’s okay, right? I just invited him this one time. I know I should have told you, but I honestly forgot.”

“No, it’s fine.” It really is. A side effect of avoiding Em means I haven’t spent much time with Nick, either, and that’s shitty of me.

He walks over with his coffee a few minutes later and takes the seat Cecile pulled up to the table. The smile he gives her is a little wary, but there’s warmth in it. “Hey.”

“We were going to talk about our weeks,” Cecile says, and I scowl.

“No, we weren’t.”

“Well, I’d like to know how your week’s been,” Nick says to me. “Feel like I’ve barely seen you. Been working a lot?”

I groan. He knows what’s up. Even without me telling him, I know he knows. “No. Well, yeah, actually. I’ve—” I freeze. I haven’t told him about the job. I haven’t told anyone I accepted.

“You’ve what?” Cecile asks.

“I got a new job.”