Chapter 13
Henry
The antique clock on the mantel chimed as I entered my condo.
What a difference twenty-four hours made.
When I left there was such promise for the day.
Now I had to figure out how to reach Nick again.
The sun poured through my east facing windows and my stomach growled as if to remind me we skipped breakfast. The plan had never been to eat a lot – Nick had brunch with Alex when we got home – but I figured we’d go down and have a little.
Poor Ms. Hempstead. She’d prepared food thinking she had two grown men to feed.
I’d tried to have a conversation with Nick a few times, but he didn’t engage. Before I could try again, I needed to think it through this time. My stupid, off-the-cuff admission I was keeping secrets from him wasn’t nearly as brilliant as I thought.
No. It was the smart move. The problem had been with the execution. Even after Nick agreed he wouldn’t run off, I couldn’t relax. He noticed I was still off and reacted by drinking way too much. Talk about a slow-motion train wreck.
Under other circumstances, if Nick had gotten drunk, I would’ve kissed him back, ripped off his clothes, and spent most of the night in sweaty sex.
Unfortunately, Uriel called and it messed with my head. Nick got drunk because he was upset with me. In hindsight, I should have gone with the moment. Make up sex might have smoothed things over, and we’d have gone back to good.
Or it could’ve made things so bad there was no hope of fixing them. Things might already be beyond fixing. This was the crux of Uriel’s warning. The way forward was narrow. Get it wrong and we fall off the ledge.
My phone rang, startling me out of my thoughts. I glanced at the caller ID hopefully and saw that it was Trevor. Just what I needed, the angry protector calling.
“Hey, Trevor.”
“Don’t ‘hey, Trevor me,’” he said. “What the hell did you do to make Nick think you dumped him?”
Ignoring he reported to me, I bit down the angry response and remembered how close he was to Nick. “It’s complicated.”
“Complicated?” Trevor scoffed. “Then uncomplicate it. Fast. Nick’s really hurt. Worse than I can remember. He cried when he told me you dumped him. Cried. He hasn’t done that since his first heartbreak.”
Hearing how much Nick hurt was a gut punch that took my breath away. I clenched my fist and silently cursed Uriel. Except it wasn’t his fault. He sounded genuinely sorry when he told me the future he’d seen.
“It’s not that simple. Uriel called me right before we went to dinner.”
“Oh shit. That’s the work call you took?”
I didn’t need Grant to tell me Nick noticed my change in mood. “Yes. He said quite a lot.”
For the next few minutes, I recounted everything Uriel had said. Normally, Trevor Grant wouldn’t be someone I’d confide in, but he was Nick’s best friend and had more insight into Nick than anyone else. I ended by telling him Nick and I were HKarlin.
“Soul mates?” He sounded as incredulous as I had when Uriel told me.
I resisted the urge to gloat, because I needed to be better, but I wished I could’ve seen his face when I dropped that nugget. “That’s what Uriel told me. It also fits how fast we clicked.”
“Yeah. Wow. I’m sorry I thought you were just trying to sleep with Nick.”
Grant surprised me. I expected him to avoid that topic. “We’re good. You were protecting someone you love. I respect that.”
“Thanks. But wow. Uriel didn’t make it easy for you, did he?”
I might respect him for defending Nick, but we weren’t friends. I wasn’t going to bare my soul to him. “No, he didn’t. Getting back to your original question, I thought I was doing the right thing. He’d been upset, then he drank too much, so I told him let’s wait.”
“Fuck,” Grant said in a loud whisper.
I thought he’d be happy I didn’t sleep with Nick when he was drunk. “What?”
“Listen, Henry,” Trevor began hesitantly, his voice low and serious. “There’s something you should know.”
“What?” I asked warily, feeling my stomach tighten with unease.
“You know how Michael told us to make sure he didn’t have a human boyfriend?”
I could see where this was going and the frustration pent up inside was ready to burst like a thunderstorm. “Yes.”
“Well, one of the things we did was manipulate his dates’ minds and have them say things like “let’s wait” or “I want the first time to be special.” Then they never called back.”
My fists clenched at my sides, and I paced around my apartment, trying to work through the whirlwind of emotions coursing through me.
I wanted to rage at Grant, but it was my fault.
He and the others had followed Michael’s orders.
I never asked for specifics when I’d read they made sure his dates never called back.
“Now it makes sense.” I huffed out a breath and rubbed my face with my free hand. “He thinks I was trying to dump him.”
“He thinks you did,” Trevor said softly.
Of course, he did. Now I understood the urgency of Uriel’s call. If he hadn’t warned me, I’d tell Nick the truth and prove it by using my powers. I needed to speak to him, but first I had to figure out how to make this right. “Thank you, Trevor. You’ve been a big help.”
“Hold on. Don’t call him while he’s out with Alex.”
Grant was starting to wear on my nerves. I was the mission leader. “Grant, I appreciate everything you did, but I’ll take it from here.”
“I know, but Alex is a father figure to Nick. The father he wished he’d had.
He’s going to talk this out with Alex. If you butt in, he’ll resent you.
Trust me, I know. Besides, this is a conversation you need to have in person.
If you wait until he gets home, Nick will have cooled off and you can talk to him easier. ”
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. Grant was right again. If nothing else, this was something we needed to talk it out face-to-face. “Alright. Do you know when he’ll be home?”
“Come by around three. If he gets home sooner, I’ll text you. Oh, and don’t park that Quattro anywhere he can see it. If he does, he might spend the night at Alex’s.”
A jealous burst filled me at the thought of Nick staying with anyone other than me. It was stupid, but it was something I’d better get used to. We were HKarlin. I wouldn’t let anyone else have him ever again. “I’ll take an Uber.”
Sitting on the sofa in Nick and Trevor’s apartment, my heart felt like it was caught in a vice. Anxiety clawed at me as I waited for Nick to get home. The noise from Trevor cooking in the kitchen made it hard to concentrate. I’d searched for the perfect words, but nothing felt quite right.
I took in the modest surroundings, feeling out of place among their mismatched, assemble yourself furniture. This was the home of someone who only had the money he earned. I’d grown up in a mansion furnished with sturdy, hundreds of years old pieces, and never needed to work for money.
Grant’s family also had money, but he had to pretend he only had the money from his job. He’d been upset having to babysit Nick at first, but he seemed happy with his life now.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door unlocking. My heart skipped a beat as I heard Nick’s footsteps approaching. I stood up straighter, mentally preparing myself for whatever came next.
“Trevor? I’m….” Nick froze in the doorway, holding a half dozen shopping bags.
I waited for the flash of anger, a sneer, or annoyance. Something to tell me I’d been wrong to come over unannounced.
Nothing. We just stood there, our gazes locked as if time had stopped. In the kitchen, Trevor shut a cabinet, but he never rounded the wall to intrude. Nick and I needed to deal with our issues without anyone’s help.
“Hi, Nick,” I managed, my voice barely above a whisper. It felt like an eternity had passed since we’d last spoken.
“Uh... Hi?”
A thin layer of perspiration formed on my palms, and I wiped them discreetly on my pants. Nick mirrored my unease, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Whatever his feelings, he didn’t want me to leave. Pulling courage from that, I said, “I’m sorry about—”
“I’m sorry,” Nick said at the same time, our words overlapping in a clumsy mess.
Despite the tension, our laughter intertwined, filling the room with the sound of shared anxiety. It was a small comfort – a fragile bridge connecting us despite our recent distance.
“Listen,” I began, but Nick also spoke – again.
“Sorry, I–” We stopped again, each gesturing for the other to continue. The awkwardness between us felt like a living, breathing entity, threatening to swallow us whole.
I held up my hand and pointed to myself. “Let me go first?” Nick nodded and his expression softened enough for me to continue. “I know you were upset last night, but I couldn’t think of a way to make things better. I figured if I tried, I’d just mess it up worse. Which is exactly what I did.
“Things got awkward after I told you I couldn’t tell you everything about my family.”
“Ya think?” Nick said with a grin. He set the bags down to the right of the door and moved closer.
I smiled back, because he looked happy again, or at least he wasn’t upset. “Yeah, and that’s on me. The call from work left me on edge.”
“About that. Was it really a work call?”
Something in the way he asked told me this was at the center of his anger. “Of course. It was my uncle. He called to remind me I couldn’t tell you about the family.”
“That’s…. Why would he call you out of the blue like that? Has he ever done that before? I…. Sorry. Trevor says I ask a billion questions at once.”
“You do!” Trevor shouted from the kitchen.
We exchanged looks and I was sure we both had the same thought.
“Do you want to go somewhere and talk?” I asked.
“Please.” He glanced toward the kitchen. “The apartment evidently has ears and a mouth.”
Trevor rounded the wall, drying his hands, and gifted Nick with an exaggerated, fake scowl. “C’mon. You knew I was here and that I could hear everything.”
Had we thought about it, we would have remembered he was there, and had we thought about it, we would’ve gone somewhere else to have this talk. “Thanks for the reminder, Trevor.”
“Any time, cuz.”
I fought to hold back a grimace. We were cousins, but it was so far removed, we never considered ourselves such. Turning to Nick, I raised my eyebrow. “Since dinner didn’t turn out like either of us hoped, can we try again? There are some good restaurants around here.”
“Can we get takeout and eat at your place? As my best friend reminded us, we don’t need an audience to talk out what happened.”
The way he maneuvered the conversation to get an invite to my place was almost innocent. Almost. “We can, but tomorrow’s a workday. Maybe you should bring a change of clothes?”
The slight blush in his cheek was all the proof I needed of Nick’s true intent. “That obvious?”
“Oh, please.” Trevor leaned against the wall. “People on the moon saw what you did.”
Nick’s face reddened more, but Trevor’s interjections help cut the awkward tension. I had no illusions this was for my benefit. Once I told him Nick and I were HKarlin, his attitude had changed. This was for Nick. He wanted his friend to be happy.