XPLR | Colby Brock

~145~

I'm a bad person.

I'm a bad, bad, bad person.

Because Colby and I kissed a lot more than that, in the safety of my apartment.

The worst part is, is that I didn't think about Logan once, not until I walked into the restaurant where Alan, Julie, and Colby were supposed to meet me. I knew Colby would be a little late to the Manhattan restaurant, because I knew he wasn't as used to using subways as we are.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah," Alan said, holding his hands up once I told them who was going to be joining us. "He's coming?" Julie asked, sitting back in her seat. "Oh my God, what if Logan finds out?" she asked. "He won't find out, as long as no one tells him," I said. Such much for trying to be honest.

They were both silent for a few moments. "What did you two do?"

"Who?"

"You and Colby. You feel guilty about something, I can see it on your face, Rose," Alan said. "Did you sleep with him?"

"No!"

"You can't. You can't cheat on Logan, because if you did, you'd be doing exactly what Colby did to you," Julie said. Julie was always so insightful. I hate her for being so smart and so rational.

"It'll be fine, okay? I'm sure he's going to go back to LA in a few days," I said, "we kissed, and that's it. And talked, but not about getting back together. And he's just having lunch with us. Just lunch. Now will you guys please calm down?"

"I'm calm, I'm calm. I'm actually in the mood to meet this dude," Alan said, smirking. "But you have to be nice," I said, "Ok-" I started, but then I heard a noise behind me. "Hey," I heard Colby's voice say. I turned around and watched him approach. I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing him in the flesh.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, then held his hand out to Alan since he was sitting across from him. "I'm Colby Brock. You must be Alan and Julie, respectively," he said, shaking both of their hands. "That's us," Alan said. "I saw you in the hallway last night," he said.

"Yep. That's me. I'm Rose's neighbor," Alan said. Colby glanced at Julie. "Is this your-"

"No. He's gay, and I'm Rose's old coworker. It's nice to meet you," Julie said, "we've heard a lot about you."

"I'm going to suspect it's not the best of stories," Colby said. Julie shook her head. "No, not really. Not at first, but we got some good stuff later on."

Nice way to make things awkward, Julie.

The waitress approached us, and we all ordered. "So? Where did you and Julie work?" Colby asked the two of us. "A bar," she answered. Colby's eyes widened, and he chuckled. "A bar? Really? Have you started drinking too?" he asked me. I shook my head, chuckling a little bit as I took a sip of my water. "No," I said. I had told Alan and Julie that I didn't like to drink because my father was an avid alcoholic, and the only time I've gotten really drunk was at Logan's concert, and I woke up in his bed. I won't mention that to Colby, though.

"I'm not surprised at that," Colby said.

Colby is still unbelievably charismatic and charming. He had both Julie and Alan laughing, and he wasn't even telling stories that mentioned me, or Logan, or why he was here. He just told stories about him and Sam, oh, Sam. I miss him and Katrina so much. I made a self note to remember to ask him about them. He even had Alan flirting with him, that was until I kicked Alan under the table, telling him to knock it off.

After we all paid our respective bills, Colby paying mine even though I told him not to, we got ready to go our separate ways. Colby's phone rang, Sam, and he went to answer. "Hey," he said, then paused as he listened to Sam speak, "calm down, I'm just in New York City," pause, "Why else would I be here?"

He walked away from us so he could speak. Alan smirked, leaning in towards me to say something. "Maybe you should just break up with-"

"No, she shouldn't break up with Logan just because Colby is good looking. Rose, has he even apologized properly for what he did?" Julie asked.

"Yeah. He apologized thousands of times right after I was leaving California," he said. I looked over my shoulder at Colby, he was looking at the sky as he spoke. "I don't know. It's not so bad here," he said into the phone.

"Do you love him?" Julie asked.

"I don't know," I answered, looking back at her. "Do you love Logan?" she asked. "I don't know," I answered again, sighing as I pushed my hair behind my ear, as I put my hands in my jacket pocket. It always feels windy here, and we're not even in Chicago.

"Then you need to figure it out," Julie said, then she looked at the time. "I've got to get to the bar," she said, starting to back away towards the subway station. "I've got nowhere to go, I just want to leave you alone with Colby so you can see that you do love him," Alan said, "looks like I'm going to the bar with you, Julie."

I waved to them, and just as I turned around, I watched as Colby came closer to me. "Just Sam. He's still mad I left without telling him," he said, and he put his hands in his pocket and looked around me, around the street, "which I understand, but I don't think he was all that surprised that I came here to find you."

"You have to go school?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, turning to leave, expecting him to follow me. "Have to?" he asked. "Have to," I replied.

"Can't... spend the rest of the day with me before you have to go back to your asshole boyfriend?"

"He's not an asshole, Colby."

"He's not me, so he must be an asshole," he retorted, looking down at me. His faux confidence made me chuckle. He looked down at me when he heard me laugh, and he smiled. "There it is. That smile. I missed you so much," he said.

"I missed you, too," I said, looking up at him and giving him a smile. He gently reached down and took my hand. Holding hand's isn't cheating, right?