Page 40 of Make No Mistake

I was losing it.

“Perfect. Just text me when and where to meet.”

“Sounds good.”

We hung up and I fell back on my bed. Weeks ago I never would have had a second thought about calling him or asking him to hang out. We’d been friends for four years! I should be past the point of embarrassment with him.

Aubrey endedup taking us to a pub we used to frequent our freshman and sophomore years. That was back when we considered ourselves sports fans and hung out here to watch the school’s teams when they had away games.

It took us two years to realize we had no interest in watching sports on TV with a hundred or so of our classmates.

Luckily, tonight it was fairly quiet. There was a hockey game on that the guys were immersed in, leaving Aubrey and I to chat while eating our greasy, delicious burgers.

“Have you decided on what you’re going to do?” She leaned in close to me so the guys couldn’t overhear, not that they were paying attention.

“I told you, the ocean pollution.”

She shook her head. “Not about your project.”

“Then what?”

She looked over to Jay but he was watching the game, yelling out random calls.

“About Sean.”

Oh right. She still thought I should reach out. After talking to Jay, I really didn’t think it would be a good idea.

“I don’t think I’m going to.”

She raised an eyebrow in question.

“I just don’t know what good can come from it. I’m finally really moving on and making progress on my own. I don’t want to step back.”

She nodded and smiled proudly. “Good.”

“Good? It was your idea in the first place.”

“The you of last month would have called him the second I mentioned it. You’re stronger now and you’re moving on. I’m proud of you.”

“You were testing me?”

She shrugged. “I wanted to see if you were really doing better like you said you were.”

I rolled my eyes and tossed a fry at her. “I told you I was.”

“Yeah, but you’ve said that for six months. It’s finally true.”

I shook my head and looked around the table. Our drinks were empty so I stood to get another pitcher.

“Here, I’ll help.”

I turned to see Carter sliding out of the booth. I tried to act normal until we were far enough away from Aubrey not to hear.

“I appreciate the thought, Carter, but this is generally a one person job.”

He smiled, looking a bit nervous. “I know, but I needed to talk to you alone.”

I handed off our pitcher and turned backed to him. “About what?”