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Tears stung her eyes again, and Jewel pushed them back. She was done crying over him. All she wanted was to step away from life for a bit and get her head back on straight. Maybe that’s all the crush on Lea was. She’d lost sight of who she was and what she wanted, and Lea was a safe bet. Yeah, that must be it.
Lea popped open the door. Jewel smiled. “Hey, I’ve got to go. Grocery day. I’ll text you to tell you when we’re leaving and coming back so you don’t worry. I doubt there’s much cellphone reception where we’re going.”
“You be safe, baby.”
“Yes, Mom.” Jewel rolled her eyes as Lea opened the back of her car and put the box she was carrying inside. “Talk to you soon. Love you.”
Jewel hung up as Lea got behind the wheel. “Parents?”
“Yeah. Figured I should probably let them in on the fact Brady and I aren’t a thing anymore.” The pitying look was too much. Jewel brushed it off. “Groceries?”
“Yes.”
The store was busy for a Saturday morning, but that shouldn’t surprise her. A lot of people went shopping then. Jewel grabbed a cart, as did Lea, and together they set off toward the produce section. She’d have to rework her grocery list in her head to accommodate for buying less because of the trip. She could potentially get away with not even shopping that weekend, but she liked the few hours she got to spend with Lea, at least she used to.
Rolling her shoulders, Jewel set her mind. She was going to spend time with Lea like they used to, not like she’d just had this giant revelation thrown at her. She needed the time with her best friend just like always.
“I’m sorry about the other night,” Jewel started.
Lea gave her an odd look. “You already apologized. So, sorry about what?”
Jewel scrunched her nose. “Everything, really. I just…I feel like we glossed over what happened.”
“What did happen?” Lea stared directly at her, bananas perched between her fingers. “Because I have a feeling you might have some more insight into what happened than I do, and I’d really like to know what was going on.”
Focusing on her own bundle of bananas, Jewel processed. She needed to say something, but she was never going to tell Lea that Brady’s accusation was well-founded, because at the time they’d broken up it hadn’t been. Had it?
“All right, well, when you’re ready to share, I’m all ears.” Lea pushed her cart toward the vegetables.
Jewel rolled her eyes. “He was jealous. It’s a curse of being pan sometimes.”
“That he thinks you’re poly?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not quite sure that’s what it is.”
Groaning, Jewel tried again. “I really don’t know what he was thinking.”
“It’s not so much what he was thinking that concerns me,” Lea said, dropping a bag of cucumbers into her cart. “I want to know what you were thinking.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Why did you come over after him?”
“I…” Her lip quivered. “I didn’t want him to do anything stupid.”
“Him or you?”
“What are you hinting at?” Exasperated, Jewel threw a hand up in the air. “Because I’m lost at what you’re fishing for.”
Lea’s lips pressed together hard. “Jewel, you just came out to me. You obviously came out to Brady months ago. I knew something was up, and yet you still didn’t tell me. So I’m wondering if there’s something else you didn’t tell me.”
“Like what?”
“That his crush didn’t end when he was eighteen.”
Jewel’s lips parted in surprise. She cocked her head to the side, looking Lea’s face over. She was dead serious. That had been what she was thinking the entire time? “I had no idea he still had a crush on you.”
