22
Izzy
Itexted Lucas as soon as I got to the club, then I disappeared into the crowd. It was dim enough for people to lose their identities under their masks, but I still found my friend at the bar in all white with a feathered white mask around his eyes.
He handed me the black one and said, “White and black swans. Somehow, I think it’s poetic.”
I chuckled as I slid mine on. “Probably not.”
“Let’s get Izzy Bizzy a drink,” he murmured. “I want that look on your face gone.”
“I should probably just let you have fun and take one for the team. I’m not in the mood.”
“This is what I mean.” His shoulder bumped mine as we took a seat at the bar. “Something’s up with you. I should have brought the damn candy canes so we could talk it out.”
I pulled my hair from the tight ponytail I normally wore to work and shook it loose around my mask. Then I leaned over and unbuttoned his white suit. “We’re not at the office. Candy canes don’t work now.”
His lips pinched at the corners as they thinned, while his blue eyes bored into me. “They work about as good as we’re going to get, considering we don’t have the real thing.”
I studied him. “Are you good?”
He sighed and wiped a hand over his face. “You know you don’t always have to be my sponsor, right? And I’d tell you if I was at my breaking point.”
I picked at a nail. “I’m not saying that you wouldn’t. I’m just—”
“You’re not sure you’d tell anyone if you were about to go off the deep end? So you’re projecting your own hypothetical actions onto me?”
Scratching my forehead, I looked around the bar. A blonde bartender with a peacock mask carried over a mojito for me and stared at Lucas with lust in her big green eyes. Poor girl had no idea that Lucas would never sleep with her, but I had to admit, Lucas in a white suit was a sight to see. Even so, he liked brunettes with beards, and she didn’t have either of those attributes. “You want a drink now? On the house?”
He chuckled and pulled my stool close like he wanted her to believe we were together. I knew the drill. I laid my head on his shoulder and saw her face fall almost immediately. “I’ll have an old-fashioned.”
“Great.” She hurried away to make his drink.
I gazed up at him lovingly. “Would you like me to act like your girlfriend all night or just for the next minute?”
He pinched my side, and I yelped. He laughed as he said, “If I did like women, you’d be the perfect one.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m a mess according to...” I almost said Cade but then cleared my throat. “Gerald.”
“You finally get hit by the sad bus and are depressed you lost your shit boyfriend now?” He pushed his lip out, and I flicked it. “Fuck, Izzy. That hurt. I’m only teasing you because you’re not sad about that and you know it.”
“Well, technically I am sad,” I admitted but waited for the bartender to drop off his drink before I continued. “Am I sad about Gerald?” I hummed for a second like I was thinking about it. “Probably not. He’s finally stopped texting.”
“No shit. Do you know why he stopped now?”
“Not really.” I glanced away.
“What aren’t you telling me? You came back from that trip like you had a broken heart, but...” The freaking lightbulb in his head must have gone off. “Do you have a broken heart, Izzy?”
I took a swig of my mojito, staring into my drink. He paused so long that I glanced up.
The thing about Lucas was he knew my quirks, my tells, my everything. That’s what you got when you worked so closely with someone. It was funny, my twin sister may not have been able to pick up on them, but someone I worked with forty hours a week and then hung out with on the side certainly knew me best. Perceptive colleagues who spent the majority of their time with one another could easily learn more than was intended for them.
“You’re fucking Cade? Is he the one who broke your heart?” my friend bellowed.
“Jesus! Be quiet.” I smacked his arm. “I’m not fucking him. Not anymore. And it was mostly hate fucking. Honestly, most of the time, I really despised him... except when I didn’t.”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Izzy Bizzy.” His tone sounded soothing and concerned.