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“I made Dallas go to a horse farm to witness the birth of a foal for a promo op,” Hemi says. “The family has a son with a serious medical condition who idolizes him. It was a great opportunity.”
“The legal hoops were absolutely worth it,” Shilpa adds.
“Oh my God, that’s terrible and awesome at the same time.”
“I know. He passed out. It was glorious.”
“The paperwork would have been a nightmare if you hadn’t caught him going down,” Shilpa says.
“I’m so glad they caught that part on camera.” Hemi smiles evilly for a second before her smile softens. “But there’s a brand-new foal in the world named Dallas Bright, and a very happy boy, so I feel like the embarrassment of fainting on live video is worth it. Dallas doesn’t totally agree with me, but I’m okay with that.”
“You really can’t stand him, can you?” I muse.
“Nope. Not at all. It’s my life’s mission to make his as miserable as possible, one embarrassing promo op at a time.”
We order a pile of appetizers—no tacos or refried beans—and dig in. While I was gone, Tally let the bad kisser down without having to tell him he’s a bad kisser, and Hammer has decided to go into sports-team PR because she loves her internship. Shilpa is considering letting Ashish knock her up. It’s been a weekend.
Flip shows up while we’re paying the bill. I’m not in the mood for any kind of I-told-you-so conversation. “If you’re here to rub this in my face and tell me I’m an idiot for dating Tristan, you can save your breath.”
He purses his lips and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “That’s not why I’m here. Can we talk? Just us?”
“Not if you’re going to make me feel shittier than I already do.”
“That’s not my plan.”
I sigh. “Fine.” I shrug into my jacket, hug the girls, and follow Flip into the cold Canadian evening.
We make it half a block before we duck into a coffee shop. I get the most expensive decaf latte on the menu, and he gets a black coffee. “I need to apologize,” he begins.
“For?” I take a seat across from him and wrap my cold hands around my hot coffee cup.
“A lot of things. I was an asshole about you and Tristan.”
“You were, but it’s over now.” I focus on my coffee because saying that makes my heart hurt. “And you were right anyway. He’s a fuckboy, and I should have known better than to fall for him.”
Flip sighs. “He’s not great at relationships, but he’s not really a fuckboy. Or he wasn’t until I moved in with him. I should’ve curbed my extracurriculars while you were living with us. Especially after finding out you could hear every detail. And I shouldn’t have brought home Tiff and Trinity after I found out about you and Tristan. It wasn’t the right way to handle things.”
“It was a particularly shitty thing to do, but so was sleeping with Tristan behind your back,” I admit. “I honestly didn’t think it would go on for as long as it did, or that I would develop real feelings for him. The longer we were in it, the harder it was to be honest about it, especially knowing what I know about how things went down with you two and your fuck friends.”
A pair of teenagers glance our way. Flip is wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie, nothing team related, so he mostly blends in. “I was hurt more than anything,” he says. “And maybe pissed at myself for not seeing what was right in front of me. But I could have dealt with it a lot better than I did. Tristan is a good guy, but he’s got a lot of baggage, Rix. A lot. What happened with his mom really screwed him up. When he said he changed his mind about talking to you, I don’t think it’s because he didn’t want to. I think it’s because he’s scared that you’re going to tell him to go fuck himself. So maybe give him a chance to explain. He’s bad at feelings, and he has a lot of them when it comes to you.”
“I don’t get why he would fly all that way just to turn around and fly right back home.”
“Neither do I, to be honest. But he’s miserable without you and scared to admit it. Before you write him off, at least let him explain his actions.”
“Who says he’s even going to try?”
“He’s waiting for you at your apartment.”
“What? How do you know that?”
“Because I dropped him off before I came to see you. Hollis let him in the building.” He stands and looks at me expectantly. When I don’t make a move to follow his lead, he sighs. “I need both of you to stop being miserable, and the only way to do that is by talking. So please go home and deal with him.”
