Reconnect

The days flashed past in a blur. As exciting as the potential for new friendships and exploring a new relationship with Emma was, something weighed on me. Mike. We hadn’t talked since Saturday. I figured I would give him a few days and use that time and space to get his thoughts together. When Thursday rolled around, I knew it was time to cross that bridge even if I had to build a new one to do it.

“Mike.”

He jumped, turning to face me. “Oh. Hey, Isaac.”

“Chinese?” I asked, dangling his Achilles heel as incentive. When he didn’t go for it right away, I sweetened the pot. “My treat.”

“Deal,” he said with a grin. A grin that showed I’d been had. Bastard was waiting for that.

Twenty minutes later, we were stuffing our faces with delicious Chinese food and talking as if nothing happened. It seemed Mike was going the, ‘ignore it ever happened’ route, which was fine. If that made him more comfortable, I would gladly play along.

“Did she say anything?” He asked suddenly after a brief lull in the conversation. “A-about me. You know. After I left.”

I was about to say no when I caught myself. It was clearly eating at him and I could understand. His first time was with an attractive hyper-experienced woman and he couldn’t help but wonder how he stacked up. Mike more than others always was hard on himself.

“Not a lot.” He nodded, seemingly resigned. “She did mention how much she enjoyed it.” He seemed shocked to hear that. Of course, I wasn’t about to tell him why she had told me how much she enjoyed it. She had been playing it up for our ‘thing,’ but I think she had enjoyed it. She had been willing to do it with Owen—ugh it still made me skin crawl thinking that—so doing it with someone like Mike, a good guy, must have been better.

“R-really?” He let out a breath. “I feel bad. Like I **** myself on her since—”

“You really think Emma would sleep with someone she didn’t want to?”

Fucking Owen. That day would haunt me for some time it seemed.

Okay, bad example. Hopefully, Mike didn’t remember Emma giving him a chance.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “No. I suppose not.”

Reaching over, I gave his arm a friendly slap. “You did great. A bit more confidence and experience, you’ll be sending chicks to the moon.”

He sighed, slinking back into the booth. “Thanks, dude. This has been haunting me all week. She thanked me and said she enjoyed it when we finished but… I wasn’t sure. You know?”

“Trust me, thumbs up.”

He nodded and I saw the words slowly sinking in. More importantly, he started believing them. Some of the weight he was carrying around in his shoulders seemed to lift.

“Oh, right. Um… You two dating now?”

I grinned. “Yep.”

“Congrats.”

“Thanks. Been riding the high all week. Even after hearing her call me her boyfriend, it still doesn’t feel real. It’s crazy.”

“Sorry for sleeping with your girlfriend.” His smile faded as I stared at him. “T-too soon?”

The chuckle turned into a laugh as I held my stomach. “Dude. Seriously?”

He paused, then shook his head. “Nah. Still weird.”

“Sorry for being a freak.”

“No worries. We can be freaks together.”

We grinned as I grabbed the check.

It was damn good to have a friend who had my back.