Between Friends & Lovers by Shirlene Obuobi

Author:Shirlene Obuobi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Mal

“Who do we have here?” Kieran said from his doorway, hands on his hips, bags under his eyes. With Kelechi’s due date three months away, he’d been working overtime to get his team of software developers to the end of a project before he disappeared for his six-week paternity leave. Chasing after his toddler was not helping. “You decide you bit off more than you could chew, fraternizing with these celebrities, and now, the moment they stop paying you attention, you come crawling back to us normal people.”

Mal rolled his eyes just as a pair of small feet pattered across the wood floor.

“Uncle Mal!” Harvey shouted, holding out his arms to be picked up. Mal chuckled, placing the plastic bag full of apology beer on the floor before bending to lift the kid into his arms. It had been only a few weeks since he’d last visited, but Harvey was already heavier, his annunciation clearer (last time, he’d been “Uncuh Mah”). Nothing like small children, he thought, to clue you in on how long you’d been neglecting your friends. As usual, Kieran’s ribbing had a kernel of truth to it: he really had disappeared once things with Jo had gotten serious, and also equally true that he’d come crawling back to them the second things got rocky.

Not that he would describe his inability to reach Jo as rocky. Surely there was a reason why her number no longer worked. Maybe her phone had died (doubtful, as she’d updated her Instagram story today with a video of her roommate doing a shimmy in front of a mimosa). Maybe she needed a little space after their admittedly intense conversation (worrisome, but he would have found a way to be okay with it).

“Or maybe she ghosted you,” Kieran said at the door when Mal presented these possibilities.

“Boo!” Harvey said. Then he erupted into a peal of giggles, delighted by his own joke.

“Sound a little less gleeful about it, maybe?” Mal said, making a face for Harvey that made him laugh even harder. Mal wasn’t an idiot. He knew that this was the most likely scenario: that Jo had gotten exactly what she’d wanted out of him and, freaked out by his premature use of the L word, disappeared in a cloud of jasmine-scented smoke.

“You think I’m glad to be right?” Kieran said. “Nah. I’m sorry things didn’t work out. You handling it okay?”

Mal shrugged. Mostly he felt numb. It had been two days since he’d tried to call Jo and been answered by three long, grating beeps and a robotic voice informing him that “The number you have called is not available.” He’d tried to send a text, only to get a red exclamation mark and a Not delivered notification. His DM felt about as effective as a glass bottle pitched into an ocean; she had yet to even read it.

Mal’s initial drop into despondence had been precipitous, a lot of moping around his bedroom and staring longingly at the photo a girl had taken of them at the Summer Concert Series at Millennium Park.

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