Free to Love

Chapter 42

Shawn

I woke up early and pulled on a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt. Walking out to the kitchen, I smelled coffee. It had been a long time since I'd smelled coffee that I hadn't had to make myself. It was nice.

Joanna sat at the counter drinking out of a mug, looking at her phone. She smiled at me as I entered the kitchen.

"Good morning," I said as I got myself a big mug of black coffee.

"I hope you don't mind. I've been up for hours," she said. I could tell she'd been crying again at some point, though she seemed okay now.

"I told you to make yourself at home, and I meant it."

"Evans just texted me. He said he's contacting the apartment manager this morning about breaking the lease. Neither of us can afford it alone. We'll lose our security deposit, of course."

Fuck. He was serious about this break-up. You'd think he'd want to give it a few days to make sure this was the right decision.

"You can stay here until you know what you're doing," I told her. "I'm headed back to the house tomorrow. You can have this place to yourself for the week, or you're welcome to join me and the kids. We'd love your company."

She smiled weakly. "You are such a good friend. Do you mind if I just stay here alone? It might be good for me to have time to think things through. Plus, I need to start looking for an apartment."

I put my hand on hers. "You do what you need to do. I'll get you the key. I'll also give you the garage code so you can park in there while I'm gone."

"Thank you."

I stood up. "How about some blueberry pancakes?"

An hour later, we were both stuffed. Joanna went to take a nap since she hadn't slept much the night before. I FaceTimed the kids for a bit, and saw they were having a great time.

I called Andrew to talk about the status of the dance remixes Mark had done. Instead of releasing them as a physical album, it was going to be solely downloadable. The live album from the concert, however, would be purchasable as a CD.

When I got off the phone, I got several texts from Brooke asking about our plans for tonight.

Shit. I'd forgotten about that. I was leaving Joanna for the week, so I really didn't want to bail on her tonight, too. She was pretty vulnerable right now, and I knew she needed a friend.

Me: something's come up and I can't do tonight

Me: I'm really sorry

Brooke: Why am I not surprised?

Brooke: But whatever

Brooke: If you're still interested, we need to talk at some point.

Brooke: But for now maybe we need some space.

She was pissed.

Me: it's not what you think

Me: I'm not avoiding you

Me: a friend needs me

Me: this has nothing to do with us

Brooke: K

Fuck. She just dropped a 'K' on me. I decided to leave it at that. I'd call her in a couple days to explain. I didn't feel like violating Joanna's privacy by telling Brooke everything. They were friends, so presumably Joanna would tell her at some point.