Chapter 20

He avoided his phone for two days, turning it off and stuffing it inside his backpack as he buried himself in statistical analysis at the library. It was better that way, he told himself. He had been placing too much importance on a relationship that really wasn’t much more than friends with benefits. They both had lives outside of a couple dates and some phone calls. It was healthier to remember that and focus on what truly mattered to him, not obsess over whether or not Fess had finally come to his senses and was using work and auditions as an excuse not to see him again.

That didn’t mean he didn’t check for messages as soon as he got home each night. The first time, his pulse leapt when he saw Fess had followed through on his promise to call, but then it crashed again as he listened to Fess talk about another audition rather than asking about when they might see each other again.

“I’m an idiot,” he said to Stacy when he called her to whine. “I knew it was too good to be true.”