“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” I counter.
“Fuck the rules, Bri. I’m sure you’ve figured out already that we run that school. Just do what you need to do while you’re there. Maybe avoid things like fucking Nico in a storage cupboard or over your desk. And make the most of the reference that Mrs. Hendrix can give you from the experience. There aren’t many student teachers out there who can claim to have spent time in Knight’s Ridge.”
“Lucky them,” I quip.
He shakes his head at me as he takes a turn that’s not in the direction of my flat.
“Toby,” I warn.
“It’s Friday night, and three of us celebrated becoming an adult this week. We’re partying and you have zero chance of getting out of it.”
“I can’t get wasted with students.”
“I guess it’s a good thing that you don’t teach me, and that the others are currently oblivious as to what’s happening then, huh?”
“Nico isn’t going to want me there.”
“Is that what he told you last night? That he didn’t want you?”
I swallow as memories come back to me.
“No, I didn’t think so,” Toby mutters, taking my silence for an answer.
Before I know it, I’m once again being driven into the underground garage beneath their building and walking toward the lift.
Thankfully, Toby and Jodie live on the floor beneath Nico, so at least I’m unlikely to run into him yet.
He keeps the conversation light as we make our way up, but my muscles remain locked tight the entire time from just being close to Nico.
Maybe I should just go up and attempt to confess all again.
And it would probably go something a little like last night did.
“Tomorrow,” Toby says as if he can read my thoughts. “Tonight we’re celebrating. Show my boy just how good life outside his flat can be and then talk to him tomorrow.”
“Assuming he’s sober.”
“Give him a reason to be so.”
“Are you suggesting I blackmail your best friend by withholding sex?”
“I miss him, Bri. At this point, I figure we need to do whatever it takes to drag him out.
“It’s almost been two weeks since the funeral. He has got to find a way back to real life soon. He can’t keep this up.”
“I think you’re barking up the wrong tree assuming I can be the one to do it.”
“Nah, I’m not. I’ve heard the way he talks about your pussy, it’s fucking golden.”
“Gonna tell your girl you said that,” I tease as we spill out of the lift.
“Go ahead. But you should know, hers is diamond-encrusted platinum.”
“Of course it is,” I mutter. “And don’t you fucking forget it.”
“No chance, Bri. No fucking chance.”
Pressing his hand to the biometric scanner beside his door, he lets us both in but comes up short after placing my bag in the hallway.