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That’s it, I’m finding a new best friend.
Only, I thought I had found one. But as it turns out, that was just an assignment.
There I go again, blinking back freaking tears. Why can’t they just stay inside my body?
“I’ll kill him,” Kyle says. “What did he do? Are you pregnant?”
The table erupts with voices after that, everyone confused and asking questions.
“I’m not pregnant,” I say over everyone. “It was never like that.” Coincidentally, it wasn’t even remotely like that, which is why I keep tearing up.
“You’re a stinky diaper pants,” Caden says, pointing at me. Then he closes his eyes as he laughs hysterically at his insult.
He’s not wrong. I do feel like a stinky diaper pants right now.
“Kyle,” I say, now that the table has calmed down. “Nothing is happening between Graham and me. We’re not even friends anymore.”
“Good,” he says.
“What’s your deal with him, anyway?” I ask, sick of this song and dance from Kyle.
He looks at Carrie before looking at me. “He hit on Carrie.”
“What?” my mom, Morgan, and Ryan all say at the same time.
“He hit Mom?” Milly asks, her mouth open, her eyes wide.
Carrie stands up from the table and, giving Kyle an exasperated look, escorts Caden and Milly out of the room.
“What do you mean?” I ask once the kids are out of earshot. “When?” According to Graham, the last time they saw each other was at Kyle’s wedding.
“It was at her bachelorette party,” he says. “She was at a bar with her friends—The Eagle’s Den, I think it was—and he hit on her.”
“With a ring on?” Ryan asks, a disgusted look on his face.
Kyle’s answer is a head nod.
“Wait, like eleven years ago?” I tilt my head to the side, confused. “I’m assuming he found out she was engaged and stopped?”
Kyle gives me a shrug. “He did, and then a few days later at the wedding when she saw him, she recognized him. The man has no morals, Luce. It was more than that. He hit on every girlfriend I had in high school.”
I let out a breath. “I understand that was probably hard for you, Kyle,” I say. “But the man you’re describing and the man I’ve been getting to know sound like two completely different people.”
I don’t know why I feel compelled to defend Graham right now. He did hurt me, after all. But he didn’t play me like how Kyle is describing him. It was different. There were so many times when it felt like he genuinely wanted to be around me.
Until he mistakenly kissed me. A mistake. My gosh, that word feels like a slap across the face.
“But he still hurt you, didn’t he?” Kyle asks, pointing at the tears I’m currently blinking back.
“He did,” I say. “But for different reasons.”
I was just another chapter in his therapy assignment, and that realization stings more than the pain of rejection.
Graham
I FEEL LIKE A TOTAL loser as I sit on the couch in Gloria’s white office.
“You seem agitated,” Gloria says, a soft smile on her face.
