Not Even Close (A New Generation) by Elizabeth Reyes (books to read in a lifetime txt) 📗

reassure her mom or sister that she wasn’t expectingtoo much from this. That she was perfectly fine with his being even busier nowthat they’d finalized a deal for the shop’s reality show. Which meant he’d beeven busier. He only hoped her answering like she did, meant she was still feelingthe same ridiculousness he’d been feeling this whole time.

“Hey.” He smiled big. “Missed your call.”

“Yeah, I’m getting ready to leave to the market to pick up whatI’ll need for you tonight.”

Glancing at the clock on the microwave he saw it was near closingtime already. “What time you getting here?”

He heard her hurried footsteps and then what sounded like thechains on her dorm room doors lock. “I’m literally walking out—”

“Hey, Vannah glad I caught you.”

The guy talking had to be close because Byron heard himperfectly. “Who’s that?”

She didn’t respond at first and the phone was muffled for amoment. While a bit inaudible, Byron still made out what she said. “I’m in ahurry right now, Richard.”

Whatever Richard said Byron couldn’t make out, but he didmake out what she said. “I can’t right now.”

Richard said something else Byron couldn’t make out and then thephone was unmuffled and she spoke into it this time. “Byron, let me call youback.”

“Richard, your ex?”

“Just . . .” She huffed a bit then went on in a lowered voice.“I’ll call you in a little bit when I’m in my car, okay?”

The phone clicked, and the call ended. Byron glanced down at thephone instantly feeling hot. The hell?

Instinctively, he almost hit send to call her back—demandanswers—but he didn’t. Instead, he took a deep breath. Nine’s theory about youngcollege girls had long been something he’d stopped rethinking. It didn’tpertain to her anymore. Not after they’d gotten things straight that first nighthe’d had dinner with her parents. Not after everything that’d happened sincethen. Savannah couldn’t just go home with a clean slate anymore. That was nota family you brought a different guy to every few months.

Just like at her grandparents’ barbeque there was likely aperfectly good explanation for this. Richard was a common name. What were theodds this was even the same guy? The guy didn’t even live in the area. Despitethe inner debate trying to persuade him to let this be, twenty agonizingminutes later he was just about to give in and call her when his phone rang.When he saw her name on the screen, he picked it up. Even if this was adifferent Richard, she’d hung up on Byron for, he took a deep breath andwilled his patience to hang in there.

“Hey.”

“Sorry about that.”

Byron pressed his lips together and he closed his eyes but noddedas if she could see him. Of course, there was only one thing on his mind now.“Who’s Richard?”

“My cousin Chava and him stopped by as they drove through LA, andI thought they’d left but he came back a few minutes later as I was walking out.”

Pressing his lips together even tighter, now that she’d justconfirmed this was the same fucker, Byron squeezed the empty water bottle inhis hand and threw it in the trash a little harder than he’d intended. “Oh,yeah? What for?”

“To talk. In private while Chava waited in the car. He umm . . . brokeup with his girlfriend.”

Byron stopped in the middle of the room when he realized he’dbegun to pace. “So?”

“Obviously, he’s aware I’m hanging with someone new now. But Iguess he was wondering if I still had feelings for him, like . . . he said he stillhas for me. But of course, I told him no.”

Hanging? This close to asking exactly what she meant bythat, Byron decided he wouldn’t be a girl about this. She’d told the guy shedidn’t have feelings for him anymore. That’s all that should matter, right?

“Listen,” she said before he could respond to that, and Byronheard what sounded like a car door opening then the beeping sound as if she’djust put her keys in the ignition. “I’ll likely be about a half hour at themarket but then it’s okay if I go straight to your place after?”

Double checking the time on the microwave to be sure he hadn’tmistaken what felt like an eternity between the time she hung up on him and now,Byron confirmed it had been over twenty minutes.

“Are you just now getting in your car?”

“Yeah.” She huffed like she had earlier when she’d soundedlike she really didn’t want to give Richard any of her time. “Richard can belong winded. I told you I hadn’t talked to him in a while, so we caught up some.But I’m on my way now.”

Biting his tongue because he didn’t want to start this. He didn’twant to demand to know what they were catching up on and why the hell she hadn’tstuck to her initial, I don’t have time, response. Despite it being over twomonths since their agreement, it was still too damn early in theirrelationship—if in fact this was what their hanging out was—to startarguing over petty shit. Byron wouldn’t ruin the night over this. But they’d begetting back to the topic of her catching up with Richard for damn sure.

He went back to her previous question telling her it was fine ifshe came over right after she stopped at the market. Of course, it was fine. Hecould hardly wait to see her again. Bottom line no matter how serious she mightstart to take this relationship, he once again reminded himself of the facts. It’dbe at least four years before he could even begin to envision a real futurewith her. For now, he had her reassurance that what they were doing wasexclusive. She’d of course told Richard she had no feelings for himanymore.

Back the fuck up and just enjoy this for what it’s worth.

Once back at the shop after getting off the phone with Savannah, Byrontried to shake the edginess her calls had put him in. It wasn’t until almostforty-five minutes later, when he saw her car pull into the parking lot of theshop, that he finally eased up. Just seeing her smile when he walked out, andtheir