“Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “I’m sorry about not responding. I thought… well, it doesn’t matter what I thought.”

“I know what you thought. I haven’t really given you a reason to think anything other than that.” He paused, and my eyes widened. “Look, I want to tell you that I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“All these years, well, I never knew what really happened, but I should’ve done something,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to go through what you did.”

Emotion crawled up my throat. Nothing short of amazing happened. Not only was David removed from my fantasy ‘shit list,’ those two words, such simple words, were like a bright beacon in the middle of the night. My fingers trembled around the phone. I squeezed my eyes shut, but a tear snuck out.

“Thank you,” I whispered hoarsely. “Thank you.”

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I was still in a state of shock most of Saturday, so much so that when I met with Jacob and Brit for our study date with coffee, I couldn’t even remember what the hell I had done with them and then after eating a quick dinner of mac n cheese, I realized that I left my bag in my car, along with my phone.

Too distracted and a little bit lazy, I didn’t even put shoes on as I yanked open my door and stepped out into the hallway, drawing up short when I spotted Ollie coming up the stairs with a case of beer in his hands.

“Hey!” He smiled. “What are you doing out here… in your socks?”

“Uh, I was running to my car to get my bag.” I shifted my weight. “Thirsty?”

Ollie laughed. “While I’m always thirsty, this is not for me. There’s a fight tonight and we’ve got a few people over.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Yeah…” He glanced at his door, switching the case to his other arm. “Why don’t you come over?”

My heart jumped. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Maybe another—”

“Come on, the main fight hasn’t even started yet, so you haven’t missed anything.”

I hesitated. “I don’t know…”

Ollie stuck out his lower lip, and it was so ridiculous, that I laughed. “Cam will be happy to see you.”

“Yeah, I don’t think—”

“Sounds like a plan right there,” he interrupted. “Don’t think about it. Come over. Just for a little while, okay? Maybe we can take Raphael for a walk.”

I laughed again, thinking of Ollie and the poor tortoise as I glanced back at their apartment. Why shouldn’t I stop by? It would be a normal thing to do and Ollie lived there. He could invite me. And if I was honest with myself, I wanted to see Cam.

I… I missed him.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “Okay. Just for a little while.”