Page 57 of Take the Plunge

Me:Okay, I’ll see you soon.

I tap my phone against my lips. It was only a few texts, but it sounds like he needs a hug. I read the short exchange again. I don’t want to skip out on my friends, but every fibre of my being wants to go to Jett to make sure he’s okay. What does that say about me?

I send Aria a text.

Me:I’m sorry, but something’s come up. I can’t make it.

Aria:Not again.

Me:Sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

Aria:Pub quiz on Sunday?

Me:I’ll be there.

Aria:You’d better be.

Me:Love you.

Aria:Yeah, yeah. Love you too.

I send another message to Jett.

Me:Change of plans. I’m on my way now.

Jett:Thank you.

I turn around and walk back in the direction I’ve just come from, towards the bus station. My thoughts are full of Jett and what could be wrong as I make my way to his flat. By the time I get there, my stomach is quivering with worry.

The moment the flat door is shut, Jett pulls me into his arms and presses his face to my shoulder. I embrace him and kiss his temple.

“You need a hug,” I say.

“I really do. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. It’s what I’m here for. I am your personal stress reliever, remember?”

He laughs against my shoulder. “What would I do without you?”

I don’t have an answer to that. For a moment, his words give me a glimmer of hope that he might choose to be with me. Being bisexual doesn’t mean he’ll want to be in a relationship with a guy. He might not want to be in a relationship with anyone after whatever happened with Erica. Casual might be all he wants and needs.

“You said you’d explain why you had a bad day,” I prompt.

He sighs. “One of the smaller teams decided it was a great idea to launch an online product today.”

I frown. “Why is that a bad thing?”

“Never release something new on a Friday because there’s no one around to mop up if it goes to shit over the weekend. There was a bug in their code. My team had to stay late to fix it.”

“Wait. What’s it got to do with your team?”

“We have more experience in bug fixing and more people to throw at the problem.”

“Did you fix it?”

“We didn’t have time, so we stuck a patch on it. The plan is to monitor it over the weekend and work with the product team to do a proper fix on Monday.”

“Are you monitoring it?”