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“I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t look at my phone.”
“It’s okay,” she says as she draws circles on the bottom of her glass with her straw. “You were busy.”
I wasn’t busy. I was stupid.
Em widens her eyes at me while Claire isn’t looking, but I have no idea what she’s trying to tell me. She’s probably telling me that I’m stupid, but I already know that, Em. Thanks for nothing.
My brows furrow at her as I try to figure out what the hell she means, but then Claire looks up at me again, so I rein it in. “I wasn’t busy. I didn’t think—Can we go for a walk?” Why can I not talk right now?
Claire gets to her feet but shakes her head. “It’s okay. I should probably get going anyway. I have some things I need to do.”
That’s bullshit. She’s in fucking Florida with nothing to do except run like she always does.
Chad reaches for my arm. “I’ll go for a walk with you,” he says sarcastically, and the rest of the table laughs.
Flipping him my middle finger, I don’t take my eyes off Claire. “Let me walk you out.”
She opens her mouth, looking like she’s about to reject my offer but then seems to remember we’re not alone and changes gears. Tucking a stray hair behind her ear, she mutters, “Sure. Okay,” as she grabs her bag.
58
Claire
I wave a quick goodbye to everyone at the table and set down enough cash to cover my part of the mimosas. Em says, “You should come over later if you’re free. We’ll just be hanging out.”
“Thanks, I’ll text you.” I’m not sure how much I believe the words coming out of my mouth. I would plan on going to their house later, but now that I’ve spent the past twenty minutes watching Aiden having a great time with his ex, I feel weird.
Weird.
Not heartbroken.
Not angry.
Just weird.
Like I’ve just eaten at a new restaurant that I thought would be great, but now my meal sloshes around in my stomach. Too soon to know if the feeling will pass, or if I’ll end up getting food poisoning.
Aiden and Sam’s relationship feels like a puzzle to me. Everyone loved them together, but now that they’ve broken up, they all seem to agree it was for the best. His friends are still friends with her, so clearly no one had to pick sides. They say it was amicable, but Aiden moved back to New York. And perhaps most importantly, I seemed to have completely slipped his mind while he was with her.
Which is fine. I mean, they dated for almost two years...and I only reconnected with Aiden three days ago. It makes sense that she’d be his priority.
The logical half of me knows this.
It’s the other half—the emotional half—that feels...
Weird.
Aiden follows me, but I don’t slow my pace or wait for him as I make my exit. Walking under the wood archway of the patio, I’m about to keep going when his hand grabs my arm.
“What?” I ask, turning to face him.
He pauses, taking me in. “You’re upset.”
“No, I’m not.” I notice my arms cross as I say it, and I drop them.
“Then why are you acting like this?” Those blue eyes that see right through me search for an answer.
Adjusting my bag on my shoulder, I say, “I’m not acting like anything.” It isn’t true, but denial is my strongest line of defense right now.
