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And then I got a text from Wyatt that was just a picture of his penis, followed by a hasty sorry that was for someone else and I decided the plan was back on.
* * *
“So,when are you actually going to approach her? Or are you going to spend the rest of the summer just… lurking?” Linley said that Friday night as we sat in the Pine State Bar and Grill and I kept one eye on the bar as I scanned my menu. During the tourist season, it changed weekly with what was available, so there was always something new to try.
“I’m working on it, okay?” I said.
Our waitress, Dawn, whose daughter Amanda I had hooked up with in high school in a frenzy of I don’t know what during the Fourth of July, came over to take our orders. I blushed whenever I saw her because she and Amanda had the same eyes and smile. Amanda had run off to fashion school in New York and had kissed this town goodbye. She was apparently dating an up-and-coming actress who’d just landed a starring role in a show, so I’d probably never see her again. Missed opportunity right there.
“I’ll have the summer shrimp salad,” I mumbled, and Linley got the same.
I was about to ask her where she wanted to go after this (we still hadn’t come up with a concrete plan other than “going out to appease her mother”), when she gasped.
“Oh my god, don’t look now, but Wyatt is here.”
I couldn’t escape that fucker, I swear.
“Seriously?” I said under my breath, keeping my head down. If there was enough room, I would have crawled under the table.
“Yeah, and I have some bad news. He’s with Gretchen Johnson,” she said.
My stomach dropped into my shoes.
“Of course he fucking is.”
It was totally normal that he had moved on from me to the girl who had once shoved a used tampon in my locker in high school and made my life a living hell, but never got caught because her dad was a county sheriff and everyone was scared of him.
“What are they doing?” I asked. Linley looked around me to the front entrance.
“Keep your head down,” she hissed, trying to shield me with the dessert menu. I froze as I heard Wyatt’s voice and then Gretchen’s laugh. Heinous bitch.
They walked right by me, so close I could smell Wyatt’s deodorant. He’d never worn cologne, or any other scent, and I’d always liked the way he smelled. Wyatt and Gretchen seemed completely wrapped up in each other as they took a high-top for two in the bar area and she draped herself all over him.
“Do you want to leave?” Linley asked. “I’m absolutely fine with going somewhere else. We could even get the salads to go and eat them at my place.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not letting him drive me out. If everyone in this town had to avoid their exes, there would be no one left.”
Linley snorted. “True enough.”
All I had to do was avoid drawing his attention or having him look over at me for any reason. Easy.
“Do you want to switch places?” Linley asked.
Just as I was about to say yes, Wyatt zoned in on me while Gretchen was checking something on her phone. He gave me a little nod of recognition and then a rakish wink.
I gave him one of my fingers in the air and he just laughed. Gretchen said something to him and he shook his head.
“I’m going to murder him,” I said. My hands shook with how mad I was.
“No murdering,” Linley said, taking my hands and squeezing them. “Let’s go, come on.”
“No. I’m not leaving.”
Instead, we switched places so that I wouldn’t have to see his annoying face.
Dawn brought our salads, but even food couldn’t distract me from whatever he was doing with Gretchen. It was like he’d planned this, even though it was impossible for him to know that I’d be here with Linley. Nearly everyone local here knew that he and I had dated, and that he’d dumped me.
No doubt people were talking about how he was moving on with someone new, which meant they were talking about how I wasn’t.
