Staring right at us.
Twenty-Three
“OH, HEY,” FINNsaid, giving a wave.
My heart clenched at the sight of Cooper: wearing his suit from last night, too, wrinkled and disheveled like the rest of us, his ice-blue tie hanging open against his chest.
We all took in the unmistakable morning-after vibes.
Just as I, in my walk-of-shame dress, said to Cooper, “It’s not what it looks like.”
Cooper shook his head. “I don’t care.”
I felt a flash of guilt. But I pushed back. If anyone should be guilty, it was Cooper. For his disloyalty, if nothing else! And his bad taste in women! And hissock.
“We’re headed to breakfast,” Finn said then, pleasantly, “if you’d like to join us.”
But Cooper didn’t respond. He just turned, all high-and-mighty, to walk the other way down the hall.
Read the room, Finn.
“Hey,” I said, launching into a high-heeled jog after Cooper. “You never texted me back!”
Cooper just kept walking.
“I needed to talk to you!” I went on, gaining on him. He didn’t just get to make a wrong assumption about me and then walk away.
“I was busy,” Cooper said, not slowing.
Finn didn’t follow us. “Does this mean you’re not having breakfast?” he called.
But he was already forgotten.
Cooper kept walking, and I kept following.
Where were we even going? This direction didn’t lead anywhere but out to a deck.
Next, I said, “You needed to talk to me, too, by the way.”
“Not really,” Cooper said.
“Yes,” I insisted. “You said that twice at the variety show.”
Cooper paused to push open the doors that led outside, slowing to look my way and then glance back at Finn—who was now walking off to breakfast on his own. “It’s not relevant,” Cooper said. “Anymore.”
“What was it, though?” I asked, as he resumed his pace. “What did you need to say?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe it does.”
“Why are you even here?” Cooper said. “You should be having a postcoital breakfast with Gear Guy.”
“That’s what I was texting you about!”
“Don’t text me about that,” Cooper said. Then he added, “Or anything.”
We emerged into the full sunshine of the deck now. And when Cooper realized it, he stopped abruptly, let out a dropped-shoulders sigh, and then did a one-eighty to come back toward me.
