Noelle looked startled. “No, sorry. I just really didn’t want him to touch me after— shit, I sound horrible. I’m sure you’re a very nice person.”
When nice was called for, sure. “You’re fine, no worries. I kinda want a shower myself.” Which sounded like Allie was making it about her. Fuck. “Again, I am so sorry. I would never in a zillion years have tried to get with him if I had any idea. My partner and I do the open thing but we don’t lie.”
Noelle nodded slowly. “That is so completely different from what he did.”
Truer words might never have been spoken. “Well, at least you have one box to start with.”
“It’s full of my stuff from work. I got home so early because I got laid off.”
Well fuck. This cluster was not Allie’s fault, except maybe she’d been a little too trusting, but damn she felt even worse now. Allie might have taken a woe-is-me break in the bathroom earlier, but she did have a handle on who’d had the more awful day between the two of them.
Noelle brought her hands up to rub her face, pushed her hair back. She had pretty eyes too, light brown. “It’s okay. I’ve only been here for a few months anyway, so most of my stuff is in storage.”
She looked so tired.
“Need help packing?”
Matt almost had it. He was so close! But when Allie’s ringtone sounded, he abandoned all hope of finishing the map of his current level in Etrian Odyssey. The call probably wasn’t about a safety issue. Probably he’d have to put his pants back on and meet her somewhere for dessert to cheer her up about a bad lay.
He seriously did not want to put on pants.
He accepted the call anyway, of course, because there was always a chance it was a safety thing. “Whatcha need, babe?”
“I might not be home until late because I’m helping Noelle pack so she can move out. Not the Noelle I talked to on the phone, the real one. Garland’s a cheater.”
What?
“I know,” Allie said, because living together since college did lend itself to them reading each other’s minds sometimes. “Total catastrophe, but I offered to help box up her shit and get most of it to her storage unit. She needed a drink so I fixed her one and told her to point to which things are hers.”
Allie wasn’t ungenerous, but she usually had to be told how to help people. She didn’t volunteer. If Matt had put the picture together right, the guy whose photo and contact info Matt had in an email from Allie had not cleared his date with his girlfriend. Surely the woman hadn’t then asked Allie to help her move? “Who are you and what have you done with my partner?”
“Shut it, loser.”
That sounded more like the gal he knew. “Excellent, you haven’t been replaced by an alien. I’m slightly confused but I’m proud of you. Are you sure y’all are safe? Do you want me to come over?”
“Noelle says we’re cool. I’ll tell you the whole story later, but her storage unit is up on 183 near the Spicewood Springs exit, so I don’t know how long it’s going to take.”
As long as she was safe and Matt didn’t have to put pants on, she could be as late as she wanted. Tomorrow was Saturday and it wasn’t his turn for a shift at pediatric urgent care. “Thanks for the heads up. Is whoever she’s crashing with already home? If not, you could offer to take her out to dinner while she waits.”
Dead silence. Fairly typical when Alicia Curiel felt embarrassed.
“You don’t know where she’s going to stay, do you?”
“Was I supposed to ask?”
She sounded a little frustrated. Interesting. Normally she wouldn’t have been bothered.
“You don’t have to ask,” Matt reassured her, “and she may not want to tell you. However, if she doesn’t have anywhere to stay tonight, you could offer her our guest room, you know? We could do the same as with hookups, we all exchange info and she sends ours to somebody. Y’all could meet me at Knockdown and we could all hang out for a while first, see if she’s okay with it.”
“If you show up without pants I am locking you out.”
Matt choked back a laugh. “Have I ever gone out in public without pants?” He liked to be comfortable; it didn’t make him an exhibitionist.
“I’m getting ready for the day you try. Anyway, sure, I’ll ask her if she has someplace to go. Hopefully she doesn’t decide I’m a serial killer.”
“Maybe ask her after you get her things into storage.” If this Noelle had accepted Allie’s help rather than calling someone who hadn’t just slept with her boyfriend, she might not have anybody else to call. It would be a shame to spook her and leave her all alone with that project.
“Okay. Thanks Matt. I guess you’re useful for something besides healing sick children.”
“I wish I’d recorded that so I could play it back tomorrow when you’re whining at me about making French toast.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to whine if you’d get up at a reasonable hour and make it. Ever think of that?”
“Go help your new friend, favorite girl.”
“Go finish your dungeon map, favorite guy.” She disconnected the call.
Well. This certainly wasn’t the evening he’d expected when Allie told him about her date plans. Granted, it had been morning at the time, which meant he’d been in the shower and all he could think about was the coffee she was handing him in the travel mug. Too much water splashed into it in a normal mug and Allie always fussed anyway that he was going to break the ceramic and cut himself. Given his usual level of consciousness at six a.m., she probably wasn’t wrong.
Matt put his phone back on the coffee table and picked up the video game controller again. Then he put it back down. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate now; he’d be worried about Allie. He glanced at his phone again, wondering whether he should go get dressed just in case.
Or he could open up the dating app again, just to browse. They were a week away from leaving on their road trip to Denver for three days of music at Red Rocks. There were guys in Denver using the app. He’d checked. Several times.
Talking to a guy before the trip made him a little nervous, however, like he was getting ahead of himself. Matt didn’t even know if what he’d started considering about himself in the past six months or so was real. Wouldn’t he know already if he was anything other than straight? There were queer people all around him. He’d been with Allie for ten years and she’d been tumbling people of all genders all that time. Her sister Vivi was pan too, and their oldest sister Nora had shacked up with a queer guy, Will.
Will was kind of the problem. Not that Matt had a thing for Will. It was listening to Will talk about guys. What he said sounded awfully similar to things that ran through Matt’s head sometimes. Things Matt had always kind of… discounted. Which maybe he was leaning towards not doing anymore.
Actually planning to meet up with a specific guy in Denver, though?
Matt picked up his controller again and waited to see if Allie would call back.
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