“The worst.” Which was totally dramatic, considering the horrors some people were living through in the world that very moment, but I was wallowing, so shut up.

“Well, I was hoping…” He twisted his hands in his lap. “Never mind. Another time.”

“You were hoping what?”

“Well, considering we did the ‘meet the friends’ thing for you, I was thinking maybe you’d like to maybe do the ‘meet the friends’ for me?”

“Your sex-couple?” I wasn’t sure what else to call them. “Is it getting serious…? I didn’t know that, sorry.” Then I felt a whole lot worse because he’d always been a good friend to me and I’d been so caught up in my own fucking world, I hadn’t thought to ask him how things were in his world.

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I’ve been a shitty friend, sorry.”

His face softened. “No you haven’t.”

To be completely honest, leaving my cocoon, leaving the couch, and leaving our apartment was the last thing on the planet I felt like doing. But this was Angus, and at the end of the day, I’d do anything for him. “You were meeting them tonight?”

“Yeah, well, we talked about it…” He seemed so unsure. He bit his bottom lip and couldn’t look at me, so it was pretty clear he was nervous about it.

“I’ll go,” I said, still not moving my burrito cocoon on the couch. “You make the arrangements, and I’ll wallow a little bit more, then we can leave.”

He smiled, relieved. “Okay, I’ll just go shower.”

“Maybe you should let them see you all covered in paint and your hair filled with plaster dust. You know, the real you.”

He laughed. “Nah. If there’s body-licking involved, I don’t wanna taste like a building site.”

I buried my face into my cocoon and mumbled through my doona. “Too much information.”

His laughter disappeared, and a moment later, I heard the shower start. I took some deep breaths and tried to fortify the resolve to at least sit up.

Small steps.

But who knew… maybe being forced out of the house and being made to socialise might do me the world of good. I’d literally spent the entire day in the basement at work, hiding away from the world, and that had been a blessing. Maybe tonight would be too.

Twenty minutes later, we hit the pavement, our breaths puffs of steam in the cold winter air. I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets. “So, where are we meeting them?”

“Oh,” he replied. “Um, at the Clock Hotel.”

Right across from my work. “Well, on the bright side, Sunan’s will be open and we can get some of his mango fries, spicy beef salad, and green curry to help soak up the fuckton of alcohol I plan on drinking tonight.”