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“Oh, don’t worry,” I tossed over my shoulder. “I’m going to.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
Marching toward the lunch line, I balled my hands into fists at my sides and tried to steady my nerves.
Oh my god, Claire, what are you doing?
Abort mission.
Abort mission, dammit!
“Hey, you,” Jamie acknowledged with a warm smile when I reached him in line. “How’s it going?”
“Uh, it’s going good.” Swallowing deeply, I turned back to find Gerard glaring at me. Steeling my resolve, I swung back around to face Jamie and smiled. “Yes.”
“Yes?” His brows furrowed for a brief moment before awareness dawned on him, causing a huge smile to spread across his face. “You’re saying yes to a date with me.”
Was I?
Was I really?
“Yes,” I confirmed with a forced smile. “I’m saying yes to a date with you.”
41
Karma Is a Chess Player
GIBSIE
Motherfucker!
“She’s going out with him, Johnny,” I snapped, losing my patience with the shoelace I was attempting to tie. “She’s going the fuck out with him!”
“Yeah, Gibs, I know,” he replied calmly, stooping down in the corridor to tie it for me. Something I was clearly incapable of doing these days. “You already told me a half-dozen times, lad.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing,” he replied, sounding distracted as he glanced at the screen of his phone before sliding it back into the pocket of his school trousers. “You had your chance, lad. You let her go.”
“I didn’t let her go,” I argued, coming as close as I ever had to blowing a head gasket. “I’ve never let her go a day in my fucking life.”
“I told you this would happen.” He pushed his dark hair out of his eyes. “I’ve been telling you for months, Gibs, but you wouldn’t listen.”
I narrowed my eyes in disgust. “Spare me the I-told-you-so spiel.”
“I did,” he urged, holding the door for a group of second-year girls to pass. “I bleeding told you to pull the finger out and lay your cards down.”
“I wasn’t ready!” I’m still not.
“But you’re more than willing to lay your cards down with Dee.”
“I never laid a thing down with that woman.”
“You’ve laid plenty on that woman,” he corrected before rehashing his earlier statement. “I told you Claire wouldn’t wait around forever.”
“That,” I pointed toward the office, “was a situation that suited me, Johnny!” I gestured wildly around me before adding, “This isn’t suiting me one bit!”
