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“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this,” I grumble as Courtney shoves the car in park and kills the engine outside ofDan Ruby’s, one of the fanciest restaurants in town.
Somewhere in the fifteen-minute drive over my anxiety had slipped back in and only mounted higher and higher the closer we got. Now that we’re here, I’m feeling extremely uneasy and honestly a bit sick to my stomach.
“It’ll be fine. You’ll see.” Court gives me an encouraging smile, reaching over to squeeze my hand. “Besides, it’s not like you’re going with someone you don’t know,” she continues. “You’ve known Ricky since grade school. Plus, he’s really grown into his looks over the last couple years. Hell, if you pass on that I might go in for a taste.”
“You’re dating his best friend, remember?” I laugh, shaking my head at her. I swear Courtney always knows exactly what to say to pull me out of my head.
“Maybe I’ll let Dave watch.” She winks, laughing as she climbs from the car.
I’m still shaking my head as we approach the restaurant, not sure why I’m even surprised by Courtney’s statement. Lord knows she probably meant it about messing around with Ricky and letting Dave watch. I wouldn’t put it past her for a minute.
When she catches sight of the boys standing just inside the restaurant door, she turns to me and winks. “Yep, I would so let him watch.”
Laughter bubbles out of my mouth, but the moment it breaks the surface I find myself suddenly face to face with the last person I expected to see. It instantly dies away, a large knot sticking at the base of my throat blocking anything from coming out at all.
Sebastian.
He’s coming out of the restaurant just as we’re about to go in and stops dead in his tracks the moment his eyes find mine.
I swear to god the very world shifts and suddenly I feel like the ground is moving beneath me, and I can’t seem to figure out how to find my balance.
I don’t know how much time passes. One second, two, maybe much longer. Time, along with everything else, seems to slow down around us, caging us in the moment.
I know it’s him. I know he’s standing right in front of me—those hazel eyes full of unreadable emotion as they hold my gaze—but my mind can’t quite seem to process this fact. I feel like I’ve just entered the twilight zone and nothing around me feels like reality.
He looks exactly as I remember him and yet so different at the same time. His sun-kissed blond hair is lighter on the ends and slightly longer than the last time I saw him. There’s also a thin scruff covering his jaw where he clearly hasn’t shaved for the past couple of days.
His shoulders are broader, arms more muscular. He looks so much older, like he’s grown up overnight. I can’t stop my eyes from taking in every inch of him before looking back up to meet his waiting gaze.
“Oh my god, Sebastian!” I hear Courtney say next to me, jumping into action almost instantly. “What are you doing in town?” she asks, giving him a quick one-armed hug before stepping back.
This pulls his attention to her long enough that I’m able to take a few breaths and steady myself, feeling like I’m going to topple over at any moment.
“My cousin Lacey got married yesterday. I’m just here for the weekend,” he says, shifting two takeout bags to his right hand, making me notice them for the first time. “So prom night huh?” He gestures between the two of us, his eyes only meeting mine for a fraction of a second before finding Courtney again.
“Yeah.” She smiles, catching sight of Dave who signals her from the other side of the large glass door. “Speaking of which, I should probably get inside with my date,” she says, turning toward me. “I’ll give you guys a minute to catch up.”
The next thing I know she’s sauntering away, and I’m left alone with Sebastian.
I keep my eyes focused on the door long after Courtney has disappeared inside, not sure what I should say or do. How is it that a year ago Sebastian was the very air I breathed, and now I feel like there’s no air to be found? My lungs scream for mercy, and only then do I realize that I’ve yet to actually take a breath.
I suck in a deep, controlled inhale, letting it out slowly as I try to gather my thoughts enough to actually speak.
“You look beautiful, Tess.” Sebastian’s words wash over me, and I swear every inch of my skin prickles when I finally meet his gaze again. “I’m sure your date won’t be able to take his eyes off you tonight.”
There’s something there, something in the way he says the words that sends my heart galloping inside my chest and emotion clogging my throat. It’s not long before the guilt sinks in too, though I have no idea why I feel guilty. Sebastian broke up with me. It’s perfectly acceptable for me to go to prom with another boy—so why do I feel like I’m cheating him all of a sudden?
“Thank you.” I fight back the sudden onset of tears I feel rushing to the surface, refusing to let him see how deeply the loss of him still cuts me.
What I wouldn’t give to have him tell me those words as his date, to have him be the one taking me to prom, to know that it’s his arms I would be spending the night dancing in. Knowing that I still want that so badly after everything is disheartening. Here I thought I was finally ready to move on, and now I’m realizing I’m still stuck in the very same place I was the day he broke things off.
“How are you? How’s everything?” he asks, both of us stepping to the far side of the sidewalk to let a large group of people pass by us as they exit the restaurant.
“I’m okay. What about you? How’s LSU?”
“Stressful. College ball is no joke. But it’s good. It’s really good.”
