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“I understood myself for what felt like the first time. There had been this…this terrible feeling in my chest for so long and it was just gone. And I knew what it was like to be free.”

Her words were so beautiful I almost wanted to cry.

She laughed. “And then I had to make up for lost time, so I was a giant slut for a while. It was awesome.”

A startled laugh burst out of me.

“And then I calmed down a little bit and had a girlfriend for about a year.”

I didn’t know why she was telling me everything, but I found that I wanted to know. Wanted to hear about this James that I hadn’t met. So different from the girl I’d gone to school with.

“What happened?”

James blew out a breath. “She got into grad school and I couldn’t do the long-distance thing and I wasn’t going to go with her. We just weren’t right for each other. It was a very mutual breakup, if you can believe that. And then I graduated and did the slutty thing again, but I got sick of it pretty fast. And then I moved back here.”

She’d lived a lot of life since I’d seen her last. I’d had no idea.

“Does your family know?” Connor had never said anything, but he was shockingly self-centered so that wasn’t a surprise.

“I mean, they know in the sense that I came out to them, but it didn’t really take. Like they didn’t want it to be true, so they just pretend that it isn’t.” Ugh. That was horrible. I had no doubt if I ever came out to my parents (not that I would), they would probably throw me a party with a rainbow cake.

James really deserved better parents. And definitely a better sibling.

“I’m sorry.”

She finished her coffee and stood up. “Not your fault.” James picked up all the dishes and set them next to the sink.

“I should probably get out of your hair. You’re visiting your parents today, right?” Shit, I was. I’d completely forgotten. They were expecting me in a few hours for lunch, and I still needed to pick up the food and some flowers.

For some reason I didn’t want to drive her home. It was nice having her here. Having another human in my apartment again. She’d done her duty by getting me home and she probably had other things to do today that didn’t involve saving me from my loneliness, so I couldn’t keep her here.

“Yeah, just let me change and we can go.” I still had my bar outfit on from last night.

“Sure.”

I threw on a pair of joggers and one of the T-shirts I’d designed before shoving my feet into my sneakers and grabbing my keys.

“I like your shirt,” James said, pointing at it.

“Oh, thanks.”

“I have the same one.” She grinned at me as we left my apartment and I locked the door behind me.

“Wait, you do?”

The stairs were wide enough that we could walk down side-by-side.

“I ordered a bunch of things from Between the Sheets.”

She had? “When?”

She told me it was a few weeks ago.

“Larison must have packed the order and didn’t even notice.”

James nodded. “I was kind of hoping you might have gotten it and seen my name. That was when I was still trying to apologize to you.”

I made a face. “Please don’t start that again. I’d like to move past it if we can.”