Delilah is here…
My brain scrambled for a second as I turned to see Michelle standing behind me.
Her skin was tan and her eyes brighter than normal.
“Michelle,” I said.
“I’m only in town for a couple of days,” she said. “Came for a quick visit. Sasha mentioned there was something going on here, so I wanted to come and see it. Come and see you.”
“Here I am,” I said.
“Here you are. You look…”
I laughed. “Trying to find a word that makes me sound like hell?”
“Maybe.”
“You look good,” I said. “Tan and relaxed.”
“It’s perfect out there. Perfect.”
“That’s good.”
Michelle closed in on me. “Let’s get a drink. We have one night, Josh. I know the rules. And you know mine. Well, my new rules. I’ll be gone by sunrise because I have a plane to catch.”
She smelled like honey and sugar. The look in her eyes begged me.
The temptation blanketed me, wanting to pull me closer to Michelle.
She could make me forget about everything. That was the one thing she knew how to do.
I watched her hand reach for my face.
I grabbed her wrist before she could touch me, and I pulled her into the back area of the gallery. She giggled and ran with me, thinking things were going somewhere they weren’t.
“If you came all this way for a quick fuck, you’re in the wrong place,” I said.
“Since when do we do quick?” she asked.
“Michelle, no,” I said.
She looked into my eyes and gasped. “It happened.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“You found her.”
“I found who?”
Michelle covered her mouth and then ran a hand through her thick hair. “You finally did it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Josh, I never asked about her. Or told you about her.”
“Who is her?” I asked.
“Delilah.”
Hearing Michelle say the name put ice in my veins. “What?”
“We had an agreement. I was fine with it. I wanted more, sure. I thought maybe one day you’d wake up next to me and feel something more. But you didn’t. And that’s okay. But there were nights you would talk to her in your sleep. You would talk to Delilah.”
“I talked to…”
“Delilah,” Michelle said. “That’s the person you love. I mean it’s pretty obvious with the way things happened. You have her now. I can tell by the look in your eyes.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Michelle,” I said.
“Have a drink with me,” she said. “Tell me everything.”
I stepped toward her and was an inch away. “No.”
In a strange moment of déjà vu, I walked out the same door I had walked out of the night Amelia showed up.
My phone started to ring.
It was Aaron, one more time.
I decided to finally take his call.
“What the hell do you want, man?” I asked. “I know you’re checking-”
“You need to get over here, Josh,” Aaron said. “Right now.”
“For what?”
“For the reason I’ve been calling you all day. You’re supposed to be in my corner at all times.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Just get here. Now.”
The call went dead.
I sighed and started to jog.
My best friend needed me.
And I wasn’t there.
All I could think about was Toby. And Rae.
Something had happened.
This was why I couldn’t stand the idea of love.
I hurried through the front of Aaron’s house and realized something was very off. And not in the way I thought.
There were people in his house.
Some of them were familiar. Some of them weren’t.
I looked like a damn idiot the way I hurried through the house. I smelled like booze and looked ready to climb into a grave and call it a long night.
As I turned the corner to the kitchen, I saw Toby standing on the kitchen island.
What the…
“And then he asked me,” Rae’s voice squealed as she pointed to Toby.
“Figured she couldn’t say no to Toby,” Aaron said.
“Hey,” I called out.
Aaron looked at me and a big smile crept across his face.
He came running at me and I thought he was going to tackle me.
Rae lifted Toby off the counter and put him on the floor.
Then she came running over too. She raised her left hand showing me a glittering diamond.
“Get the hell out of here,” I whispered as Aaron threw his arms around me.
I put my right arm around him, staring at Rae.
“I fucking did it,” Aaron whispered.
“Yeah, you did,” I said. “And she said yes.”
“Yes, she did,” Rae said.
Aaron stepped back and I opened my arms to hug Rae.
“Yeah, sure, why not?” she said, rolling her eyes.
We hugged, but Rae squeezed me tighter. “Thank you for being his friend. And if you tell anyone I said that, I’ll kill you.”
I backed away from both of them.
Toby cut between his parents.
“Hey, little buddy,” I said to Toby.
“I asked Mom and Dad,” he said.
“I see that. Good job.”
“He did great,” Aaron said, messing with Toby’s hair.
“I’m sure you’ll hear the story a hundred times,” Rae said.
“Greatest moment of my life,” Aaron said.
Rae cleared her throat and looked down at Toby.
“Second greatest,” Aaron said.
“So, wait a second here,” I said. “You two are engaged. But that’s not married. So, I still have a chance to make a run for Rae?”
“Don’t even,” Aaron said, his nostrils flaring.
“You want to run with Mom?” Toby asked me.
Rae laughed and snorted. “Go play with your toys, Toby. Uncle Josh is being goofy again.”
“I’m always goofy,” I said.
Toby put a hand out and took off, screaming like a superhero.
“I’m going to go mingle,” Rae said. “You two stay out of trouble.”
“Hey, Rae,” I said. “Congrats. I mean, this is a terrible decision, but I’ll always be there for you.”
“Now that Toby isn’t here,” she said with a big smile, “I can tell you to go fuck yourself.”
I touched my chest. “You always know the way to my heart.”
“Asshole,” she muttered as she walked away.
Aaron punched my arm. “Are you here to ruin my night?”
“You invited me,” I said. “What did you think I would do?”
“You could have picked up your phone the first time I called,” he said.
I gritted my teeth. “I’m sorry about that.
