Page 2 of Maneater

I gasp, whirling around to face him. “How could you think that? You’ve known me since the eighth grade, bro. You know how I roll.” I huff. “I’m insulted.”

I don’t say it with much heat, but I am pretty insulted. Cheating is a hard no for me—coming from either side.

Kade holds up his hands in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it. I know you guys were at odds for months, but you never said you were breaking up with her until it happened.”

I shift my position on the sofa. “Uh, yeah. About that. I wasn’t the breaker-upper.”

Kade gasps. “Dude. She dumped you?”

“Seriously? That’s how you word it?” I growl in aggravation. “I wouldn’t call it being dumped. Just…things weren’t working out. We weren’t headed in the same direction, like I told you. That’s all.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Totally opposite directions.” Kade sighs. “I gotta be real and say how surprised I was you made it to almost two years with her.”

“You didn’t like her?”

We’d always gotten along as a group pretty well, and Kade never acted as if he didn’t want her hanging around with us.

“No, she was cool. But my guess is you basically had a hard-on for her and nothing else.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “We did have things in common, you know. I wasn’t only after her hot body. She’s super smart and funny, we love the same kinds of movies, that sort of thing.”

Kade pursed his lips. “Match made in heaven. Except for the part where you weren’t in love, and you have completely different lifestyles.”

My jaw goes slack. “Who says I wasn’t in love with her?”

“You, if you're being honest.”

I avert my eyes. I’m sure Gia discussed every aspect of our failed relationships with her girlfriends. But Kade and I aren’t like that. He might be my closest, longest friend, but we don’t sit around his apartment sharing our deepest feelings. And as it turns out, it doesn’t seem it was necessary.

“Okay…sure.” I rub the back of my neck. “It wasn’t that kind of madly, passionately in love kind of thing. I still really cared about her though, and I know she cared about me.”

“So what reason did she give for dumping you? All I ever got was the amicable breakup, fit for publication, story.”

I groan. “Must you keep using the word ‘dumping’?”

Kade chugs the rest of his beer and belches. “Sorry. How about unloading you? Setting you free? Uninviting you to the rest of her life?”

“Enough!”

First, Kade chuckles, then I snort, then we both burst out laughing. I don’t know if I’m laughing at our conversation or releasing a buttload of tension. I’m wound up pretty tight from all the abrupt changes and the impending major move.

After we bring ourselves under a modicum of control, I continue. “Look, she basically said out loud what I’ve been feeling for a long time. I never brought it up because I didn’t want to hurt her. Even though I knew I was going to have to. She beat me to the punch, that’s all.”

“See?” Kade smacks my arm again. “That’s what I meant about knowing it wouldn’t work out with you guys. It’s nothing to do with Gia, she’s cool. But she’s like wild party girl at night and serious business finance student during the day. She’s all about designer fashion, trendy restaurants, and the most popular dance club.”

Kade gestures to me. “Then there’s you. Plant boy. Loves staying in with his herbal garden and those annoying grow lights, watching movies, or playing video games. That is, when you’re not trudging up some dusty trail in the Los Angeles National Forest or camping at the base of Mt. Whitney. There are—or should I say were—dried up old weeds hanging upside down in Chuck’s kitchen so you could concoct whatever weird witch brew you had in the works.” Kade grunts. “I bet Chuck’s going to really miss that.”

“Oh, brother.” I roll my eyes. “It would be warlock, not witch, and it has nothing to do with that anyway. I’m an herbalist, hope to be a naturopath someday. I want to help heal people using the earth’s natural resources. How many times do I need to explain it to you?”

I’ve never said this to Kade, but his blind spot about what I want to do with my life gave me the final push to leave. Initially, the expense of having my own practice in LA was prohibitive. I’m only twenty-four, so I haven’t established much in the way of credit. And my barely above minimum wage job in the nursery department of a big-box store won’t inspire anyone to give me a loan.

Once Gia broke up with me? Yeah. It was time. I’ve been researching the Arkansas side of the Ozarks for a while, along with several other states with National parks. And now it seems as though everything in my world has synchronized to give me the final push I needed.

Kade has his head buried in the refrigerator door again. He straightens. “We need a final toast, and I won’t take no for an answer.” A beer comes flying toward me, and I barely catch it before it breaks my nose or chips a tooth.

I smirk. “I think I’ll hold off on opening this for a minute.”

Kade shrugs as he opens his own can. “As if I’ve never drenched the sofa in beer before.” He lands next to me again. “Enough of this nature boy talk. Let’s enjoy your last hours in LA. Should we race again or shoot zombies?”