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“Yeah, and I haven’t heard from Ryan either.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Really?” I keep worrying about what Ryan may be thinking about me. I’d be devastated if our situation were reversed.
“Yeah, sure. What’s he going to say? You’re getting married to a guy he could never compete with even if someone handed him a bag of miracles.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“But you have to,” she cuts in before I can continue. “Things are different now, Luna, and I wouldn’t be true to you if I didn’t point them out and… encourage you to move on.”
My chest caves. This was what I feared. This talk. And suddenly I’ve lost my appetite. I set the last piece of my cookie on a napkin and frown.
“Luna, please don’t look like that.”
“I can’t help it. How am I supposed to just… unlove Ryan? If I can do that, then it wasn’t real.”
“I don’t mean it that way. Please be realistic here.”
“I am,” I insist, even though I know what she means.
“You’re not thinking about this properly. You and Ryan weren’t even together. To be very honest—and please don’t hate me for saying this—Ryan had years to be with you but chose to be with other girls. It’s not like he didn’t know how you felt. Even if it was just last Christmas that you two kissed, he would have known before. And, at Christmas it was you who made the first move. Not him.”
Everything she’s saying is stuff I’ve thought about at great length and came up with a multitude of excuses to explain away each problem.
“Maybe he didn’t want to ruin our friendship.” How many times have I thought that before? Too many.
I also considered that he didn’t want anything serious with me when he joined the Army because he was worried something might happen to him. I believed that for all of two months after he joined only to be proven wrong when Misty Davis became his girlfriend for two years. After her, it was Rena Coben, a girl I hated in high school, and the list continued.
In the meantime, there was little old me, loving him from afar.
“And maybe he was waiting for me to tell him,” I add, sounding hopeful. “When I told him at Christmas that seemed to do the trick.”
“That’s not really how it’s supposed to be.” Emily pulls in a measured breath. “I’m sorry to be an ass and point out that he never tried to be with you. I like Ryan, and I was happy when I thought that maybe you two could finally be together, but now things have changed, these are events you need to think about. Marrying Hunter Le Blanche is a good opportunity.”
“Not you too, Emily. That mantra may as well become the new family slogan.”
“I’m just pointing out the obvious so you can think through everything. The reason people keep telling you that is because it’s true. I don’t know a woman alive—me excluded—who wouldn’t want to marry Hunter Le Blanche. That man has had all types of celebrities and socialites on his arm. Hell, I even found out that he dated Alexis Winters for eight years.”
My mouth drops. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I looked it up for you.” She nods with conviction and smiles proudly. “Apparently, they were high school sweethearts.”
Alexis Winters is a former fashion model turned philanthropist and humanitarian. She’s been my role model since forever and one big reason I wanted to use my business and marketing degree to work with Mom’s charity.
Mom was a doctor, so her work at the charity was medical and research based. As I didn’t have that background, I approached my career path with the same method as Alexis—minus the fashion model part.
I can actually imagine Alexis Winters with Hunter because she’s incredibly beautiful, but she seems too good for him.
“I wonder what happened.”
“People move on for different reasons. Although she’s getting a divorce now, her husband is a man she’s known since childhood.”
“Maybe Hunter was such an asshole she couldn’t stand to be with him and moved on to someone better.”
“Luna,” Emily chides.
“I did my research, too. I might not have dug as deep as you to find the stuff about Alexis, but so far I haven’t found anything good about Hunter Le Blanche.” I checked online the other night. All I saw were details about how vicious he was in conquering investments. That’s why he’s called the Shark.
