Once they’d taken a sip of their coffee, Rory watched her silently, his lips thinning in discomfort. Mags rubbed her palms over her jeans, cursing herself for the awkward situation she was currently regretting.
“I won’t keep you long. I’m sure you have a busy day, as do I.” She inwardly grimaced at how stilted she sounded. “Because of our long…friendship, I wanted to personally apologize for what happened at the Chamber event.”
He took her by surprise when he covered her hand that was resting on the table by her scone. She tensed and immediately pulled back and placed it back in her lap.
He looked hurt but apologized. “Damn it. I’m sorry. It’s just…fuck, Maggie, I thought…I thought we were bound for more.”
“I’m sorry you felt that way. I’m sorry that you were blindsided. Rory, I?—”
“Don’t say you’re sorry again. I should have told you how I felt. I should have made sure you knew that you had another option besides…” he stopped speaking, his jaw clenched.
His anger was understandable. Jonathan had really taken a bad moment and made it one hundred times worse. Still, she’d been transparent with Rory before sleeping with him the very first time, and she’d been quite a bit younger and much more naïve than she was now.
“There was never, never,” she emphasized, “another option. Not for me.”
He looked like he’d been punched, and Mags felt terrible for hurting him again but not for speaking the truth.
Rory turned his attention to the foot traffic outside the bakery’s bay window. She let Rory get his emotions back under control before she spoke.
“Rory,” she began, gently tapping the top of his hand that was clenching his coffee with two creams and one sugar, “I have always and will always consider you a close friend. If I hadn’t already loved…if I hadn’t…damn, Ro, I might?—”
“Stop, Maggie. Don’t try to make me feel better. This,” he gestured between the two of them, “won’t break me, it just fucking sucks right now. And Jon is an asshole who doesn’t deserve you.”
His attempt at a smirk made her smile. A little.
“He wasn’t at his best, I admit, but in his defense, I never told him who you were, and he was caught off guard. Jon can be a bit over?—”
“Bearing,” Rory finished.
“Overprotective, but both are probably true. He is an?—”
“O’Faolain.”
“Most definitely.” Mags smiled sadly at Rory and got to her feet. “I need to get to work, and I imagine you do too. I hope you find the one woman you can’t live without. I would love to meet her.”
Rory stood facing her. Before he could hug her, she stuck her hand out. They shook, though he didn’t look particularly happyabout it. If Jonathan asked her if she hugged him goodbye—and he would—she could happily tell him no.
Not that that one thing would make the call she was about to place easier.
He answered on the first ring. “Miss me already?”
“You wish.” It wasn’t good to start out on a lie, so she quickly recanted. “I do.”
He must have heard something in her voice because he asked, “What’s bothering you, Mags? Do you need me to come back to Eze’s?”
“No. No, nothing like that. I’m almost to the gallery. I just,” she paused, wishing she could have a do-over where she hadn’t chosen to lie to her boyfriend. “I met Rory for coffee without telling you, and I completely regret it. I’m sorry.”
She expected an explosion.
She got silence.
So much silence that she finally had to break it. “Jon? Are you there?”
“I am.”
The oxygen felt sucked from her lungs. She’d hurt him, that was clear. Mags stopped a block from her workshop and leaned against one of the many solid brick walls.
“I was wrong to do it. I thought I knew better. Eze warned me that I was screwing up.” Mags smacked her forehead instantly regretting bringing Eze into it.
