I stand. “Lydia. Wesley.”
“Hey, Nat,” Wesley says.
The nickname lands wrong now. Too familiar from a man who used to know every soft place in me and still chose where to cut.
Lydia’s gaze sweeps over my desk, my yellow dress, the executive floor behind me. Then she smiles like she found exactly what she came for.
“We wanted to bring this ourselves.” She holds out a cream envelope.
I know what it is before I take it.
Their wedding invitation.
Wesley used to call Lydia shallow. He used to say she only wanted things once someone else had them. He used to roll his eyes when she walked into the diner and whisper that I should brace myself.
Then he got new eyes, new muscles, new clothes, and apparently new taste.
My family took one look at the new Wesley and Lydia together and decided they made sense.
Pretty with pretty.
Polished with polished.
And me standing off to the side, holding on to the version of him who used to be my best friend.
I open the envelope with numb fingers.
My name sits there alone.
No plus one.
Lydia tilts her head. “You won’t need an extra seat, will you? I didn’t think so.”
I smile so hard it hurts. “How thoughtful.”
Wesley shifts. “Lyd.”
“What?” she says lightly. “She isn’t seeing anyone.”
Jordan’s office door opens behind me.
My pulse trips.
He steps out, and for one wild second, every terrible feeling in my chest goes quiet.
The suit he put on is dark and perfectly tailored, the crisp lines doing nothing to soften the size of him. His hair is combed back from his face, but his jaw still carries that rough shadow of stubble I have no business noticing. He looks expensive, dangerous, and completely out of reach.
Lydia notices.
Her smile falters for half a breath before she fixes it. Her gaze slides over him, bright and interested, and something hot and ugly twists in my stomach before I can stop it.
Wesley notices too.
He straightens, like posture can somehow make up for the difference between them.
Jordan’s gaze moves from Lydia to Wesley, then drops to the invitation in my hand.
His expression does not change.
