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Silence blankets the table. I catch my brother and Jolie exchanging a quick glance. Brent busies himself by grabbing another piece of bread, and Ford sucks on a teething toy.
We’re saved by the waiter coming over to give us the check.
I’m in a foul mood as we leave the restaurant.
Jolie and James insist we take in more of the scenery before we head back down, but I can’t get into the winter spirit.
Eventually the group has had their fill of the top of the mountain and we head toward the gondola. I’m at the end of the line. Maddie is up ahead smiling at Brent. My heart is a raging angry thing. I can’t believe she came to New York and didn’t let me know. We could have seen each other. We could have talked.
The line moves and Maddie’s gaze darts to the enclosed cabins like she’s making sure they’re still there, ready to eat her alive.
The group is about to step onto one all together, and before I fully comprehend what I’m doing, I charge forward and grab her arm, keeping her from getting on.
“You guys go ahead,” I tell the others.
No one can argue because the gondola is already sweeping them away.
Maddie whips around with a fierce scowl in place. “What’d you do that for?”
“Are you guys getting on?” the attendant asks us.
We’re holding up the line.
“Sure,” I say, keeping hold of her arm and leading her into the next cabin.
Either they don’t group strangers together or they can sense that we’re about to get into it, because the attendant doesn’t usher anyone on after us.
We’re on our own with nowhere to go.
Maddie looks panicked, and I don’t think it’s because of her fear of heights. In fact, I know it’s not, because instead of meekly taking a seat, she rips her arm out of my grasp and walks as far away from me as possible. She hits a dead end at the other side. A glass wall separates her from the mountainside. She shivers and turns around, arms crossed.
“You were in New York and you didn’t tell me,” I say, tone hard.
“So what?”
“You stopped responding to my calls and texts months ago.”
“Life got busy.”
“Bullshit.”
Her eyes cut to me, finally showing me what she’s been trying to hide since my arrival earlier today. The brown has been displaced by burning amber. She’s livid.
“I’m sorry, when exactly were you trying to get ahold of me?” she asks angrily. “When you were flying off to Dubai? Spending a few weeks in Paris? Oh right, let me pencil you in for a predawn phone call since that’s the only time we’d both be awake anyway.”
“I don’t buy it.”
Her fists clench at her sides. I think she’d charge toward me if she weren’t so scared of our surroundings.
She inhales a deep breath—on the precipice of saying something—and then she shakes her head and turns away. “Believe what you want. I don’t really care.”
I’m disappointed by her willingness to just throw in the towel like that.
“You never did know how to fight.”
That gets her attention. She rears back, staring at me with narrowed eyes.
“Excuse me?”
“I got the job offer in New York and you didn’t even ask me to stay. You fucking pushed me out the door.”
Her jaw drops and she blinks as if in complete disbelief of what I’m saying.
“I didn’t push you out the door,” she says, talking slowly and enunciating every word. “You left in the middle of a vacation. Or have you forgotten that little detail?”
“I haven’t forgotten a thing,” I say pointedly. “Not the vacation and not what we did the night before I left.”
Our minds both jump to those moments by the pool. I know it because her cheeks flush with embarrassment and she shakes her head, looking down toward where we’re headed, willing the gondola to speed up. So much for that fear of heights. I guess it’s nothing compared to the anger she’s harboring toward me.
“Do me a favor and steer clear of me for the rest of the week,” she commands.
Impossible.Chapter FourteenAidenIt’s late and I’m lying awake, aware that Maddie and Brent are sleeping one room over, together on a bed. I know they’re lying side by side, and I don’t like it. So instead, I imagine Maddie in a jacket, beanie, and two pairs of pants zipped into her own personal sleeping bag. Brent is on the floor in the closet, shivering and alone.
I stare up at the ceiling and strain my ears to hear anything from their room. I have the bathroom door open on my end. If one of them needs to piss, I’ll know it.
I’m aware that I’m not handling this well, but I never signed up to greet Maddie’s new boyfriend with open arms.
I groan and turn over onto my side, facing the bathroom.
