She stood up and brushed herself off, checking her ponytail to make sure I hadn’t pulled any of it loose. I quickly conjured up the most disgusting images I could think of: fish guts; centipedes; that scene inMiserywith the sledgehammer. My erection made a hasty retreat just in time for Brad to appear in the doorway to the garage.
“There he is!” Brad dropped his suitcase and hurried across the garage, wrapping me in a big hug.
“You said you weren’t flying back until Sunday,” Erica said. She was trying to sound aloof, but to my ears she sounded defensive about it. “If you had told me you were coming home, I would have picked you up…”
Brad pulled away from me, but still grasped my forearms. He grinned from ear to ear. “When you told me Hunter was back in town, I decided to change my flight and come home early. I took an Uber because I wanted it to be a surprise. I’m glad you’re both still up!” He patted my arms. “How the hell have you been, Hunter? You look good.”
My old best friend was very obviously the older brother of Erica: he had wavy blond hair, fair skin, and the same baby-blue eyes as his sister. But there were dark bags under Brad’s eyes, and he wore a sunken look like someone who’d had a rough couple of months.
“You look good too,” I said with a grin. “Only alittleuglier than senior year.”
Brad laughed and gave me a playful punch in the arm. I winced as he hit the wound that Erica had bandaged up.
“Oh damn, what happened there?” Brad asked.
Before I could tell him, Erica hastily said, “Hunter cut himself while working on the Mustang! He’s trying to get it up and running again. The way Dad would’ve wanted.”
Erica doesn’t want him to know I got in a fight over her.That was interesting.
“No shit?” Brad smiled. “Dad would’ve loved to know you came back to work on it. I can’t think of anyone better to try. Hey, is it too late for a beer?” His eyes noticed the one on the workbench that Erica and I had been sharing. He walked by it to the beer fridge and grabbed a few more. “Stay up and have another one with me. We have so much to catch up on.”
I shared a look with Erica as we followed him inside to the kitchen.
Brad pulled bread and a jar of peanut butter out of the pantry and began making himself a sandwich. “I haven’t eaten since lunch. I should have been home a couple of hours ago, and I thought we would go get dinner somewhere. But when we landed, the airline couldn’t find my bag. Typical, right? I waited and waited while the luggage carousel spun, watching everyone collect their luggage. So then I went over to the United counter and waitedsome moreto file a lost bag claim. When I finally finished and was walking away, I spotted my bag sitting up against the wall. Someone must have pulled it off the conveyor by mistake. Jerks.”
He bit into his peanut butter sandwich. “Then, on the ride home, my Uber driver got pulled over because of a broken tail light. Cop was a huge dick about it, and took his sweet time writing up the ticket. If not for all of that, I would have gotten home an hour ago.”
I shared another look with Erica. If he had showed up an hour ago, I wouldn’t have poured my soul out to her. Yeah, fate was definitely punishing me.
“Better late than never,” I said, taking a long pull from my beer. I was way too sober to have this conversation right now. “Erica said you were traveling for work?”
Brad bobbed his head up and down. “When I moved back home with Mom and Dad, my company let me transfer over to the software sales department. Half the time I travel, and the other half I can work from home. Most of my base pay is commissions, and I’m not very good at it yet, but I’m slowly getting the hang of things. This last trip was good.”
“Yeah?” Erica asked. “Better than the last one?”
“Much better. Next week’s paycheck should be chunkier than before.”
Guilt grabbed me by the throat and tried to choke me. It broke my heart to hear about Brad and Erica’s money problems. Especially considering I was more comfortable financially than I ever expected to be.
As if Brad had read my mind, he tilted his beer can toward me. “Erica mentioned you’re here doing YouTube videos. We can’t take your money, pal. Even if you did just call me ugly.”
“It’s a business expense for me,” I insisted. A wave of déjà vu hit me as I rehashed the same discussion I’d had with Erica a week ago. “I can write off the entire thing as an expense. Plus, this is still cheaper than the hotel I was staying at.”
“I don’t know,” Brad said. “You’re hanging out here and fixing up dad’s Mustang. I can’t take your money.”
“I’m actually thinking of doing a video on the old Mustang. Some fresh content for my channel. I should be paying you for more than just rent, honestly.”
I was afraid I would have to be more forceful, but finally Brad nodded. “All right, all right, if you insist. But I’m taking you out to dinner tomorrow, just the two of us. Somewhere nice. Your channel is doing good, then?”
“It’s doing very well,” I said. “Total subscribers and viewers keeps climbing every month.”
“I watch every new video you release, every single Tuesday,” Brad bragged. “Don’t I, Erica? I even make sure to watch all the way to the end, since that helps you out. I read an article inWired Magazineabout the Google algorithm.”
“That’s right,” I said with a smile. “Quitting a video halfway means people aren’t engaged, and the algorithm detects that. The more people who watch a video to the end, the more the algorithm promotes it to new people.”
Brad shook his head with wonder. “We always knew you’d be successful. Didn’t we, Erica?”
“Yeah, we did,” she said.