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Our glasses clinked.
“And some long-overdue new ones,” I added on a whim.
We drank, and I continued drinking him in. I could see him checking me out, as well. We’d been apart for so many years, I guess it couldn’t be helped.
Adrian patted a soft leather couch, and together we sat down. It was easy to catch up, but hard not to look at him. I kept getting distracted by how intimidatingly good-looking he’d become, while trying to remind myself this was the same person I’d grown up with. The same friend with whom I’d shared most of my childhood experiences with, up until the moment we drifted apart.
He told me a little about his job, which sounded absolutely magical, and I told him something about mine. We’d taken radically different paths, apparently. Adrian’s job had him traveling all over, and to some very exotic places. Mine had me chained to my computer desk like a prisoner, my eyes locked on multiple screens full of letters and numbers instead of staring up at a clear blue sky.
“What made you come?” he finally asked.
“You really wanna know?”
He laughed. “No. Lie to me.”
“I ran into Jax.”
Adrian’s smile turned into a smirk. “Really? Jax?”
“Yeah.”
“And he told you to come here?”
“Hell no,” I shot back. “But he mentioned you lived in his building, and it felt incredibly wrong not to touch base with you. Especially after what he told me.”
He leaned back and set an arm on the back of the couch. “You mean he told you about Erika.”
“Yeah. But called her—”
“The queen of demons.”
“Well, she is,” I said defensively. “It’s one of the only things that asshole and I actually agree upon. Queen of demons, demon queen… tomato, tomahto. Whichever way you slice it—”
“You don’t have to say anything else,” Adrian interjected smoothly. “I’m not denying it. Not now, anyway. Back then of course, when I thought I was in love with her? It was hard to see.”
“Hindsight,” I agreed with a nod.
“She was awful,” Adrian went on. “Is awful, actually. But my greatest regret is how especially bad she was to you.” His voice went low. “You never deserved that.”
“Well, it’s not like I didn’t give her a chance,” I agreed. “Do you remember the last thing she said to me, all those years ago?”
He looked down for a moment. “Yes. Unfortunately.”
“I mean, after that how could we still be friends?”
Watching him carefully, I drained the rest of my wine. I wasn’t blaming him entirely for what happened, and I never had. But I wanted to know if he blamed me for pushing him into Erika’s general direction.
“We all make stupid choices,” Adrian eventually murmured.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We do.”
I looked up at him, and butterflies erupted in my stomach. His eyes told me he knew exactly what I was talking about. We were both thinking exactly the same thing.
“I… I was scared a lot, back then,” I added. “I hardly ever pulled the trigger on anything.”
“No,” he smiled. “You seldom did.”
“What we uh, did together that night…” I started awkwardly. “I, ummm…”
