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I feel something awful rush through me, my whole body going hot and then tingly, not at all in a pleasant way.
Push her away, push her away…
For a moment Mark doesn’t move, and then he rests his hand lightly on Erika’s back, letting the kiss linger.
I want to die.
The crowd whoops, and they break apart. Erika gives a joking curtsey, and everyone laughs.
Everyone but me. And Mark, although he doesn’t look the least bit bothered by the fact that he’s just kissed his ex-girlfriend full on the mouth.
I can’t do this. The two glasses of wine have made me weird, and I need to…
I need to get out of here.
“You know what?” I tell Hugh with a sheepish laugh. “I’ve got this annoying headache that just will not quit. Want to finish the wine for me while Erika makes your martini?”
If she can stop kissing her ex long enough to be bothered.
“Oh! Sure,” Hugh says, his blue eyes concerned as he turns to me. “You good to drive?”
“Yeah, I haven’t even touched that one,” I say, nodding at my full glass and fishing some money out of my wallet. “Tell Erika to keep the change, ’k?”
“Sure. Are you—”
I pretend I don’t register that he’s still talking, and lift my hand in farewell.
A half dozen people stop me on the way out to wish me a merry Christmas and ask me how I am and blah blah blah, but finally, finally I make it outside, and the frigid air is exactly what I need to clear my head.
Okay, so I’m jealous. We’ve established that. What we haven’t established is why. We haven’t established that because I don’t know.
I feel like I don’t know anything right now. I don’t know if I’m jealous because he kissed her, or because they’re close enough that he told her about my stupid ex thing—yeah, my ex thing feels really stupid right about now.
I rub at my forehead with one hand, dig my car keys out of my purse with the other.
Maybe the plan feels not so much stupid as…far away. Like I can’t seem to focus on tracking down Adam or Colin because Mark keeps getting in the way of my brain.
But wait—I don’t even have to track them down. I can just have perfect Erika’s cousin track them down.
Barf.
She doesn’t want to help me. She just wants to keep me out of her way.
“Kelly.”
I hit the unlock button on my car door and ignore the voice.
“Kelly!”
Mark’s voice is closer now, and though I wish I was badass enough to get in the car and peel out of the parking lot movie style, there’s way too much snow and ice still on the ground.
And I’ll never walk away from my best friend, no matter how mixed up I feel right now.
“Damn it, Kelly, would you wait—”
I hold up my hands in surrender and turn around. “What? What, Mark?”
He’s jogging across the parking lot, wearing black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt that isn’t nearly warm enough given the freezing weather.
