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He nodded for a while before shaking his head. “Not when that break means letting you destroy both our relationships.”
And then he was gone.
By the time I finally left the hall, he and Harper were talking quietly in the entryway with Bree and Konrad.
I glanced in the direction of the living room and kitchen, looking for my parents and Scarlet before looking at the four of them. My body went still as dread slowly pushed through my veins when I found them watching me with careful expressions.
“What?” I asked uneasily.
Brandon took a breath, but Bree spoke before he could. “Well, you’re an asshole, for one.”
“Yeah, I’m aware,” I mumbled as I looked for Scarlet again.
“She isn’t here,” Brandon said, dragging my attention back to them. With an unapologetic shrug, he explained, “Scarlet left.”
Guilt and something close to fear spiked through me. My lungs ached and screamed for oxygen as I struggled to make them work as pain seared my chest.
But I just stood there in my confusing, incapacitating thoughts and pains until I could offer them an unaffected, “All right.”
“Asshole,” Bree snapped as I turned to walk deeper into the house.
I was that and more. But I was afraid to accept everything that was so clearly laid out in front of me. I didn’twantto accept parts of it.
I couldn’t trust my emotions after Harper had put that bullshit in my head.
And with how painful this week and a half had already been, I didn’t want to let myself fall for Scarlet. Because what if I finally got my memories back only to find out that I’d really been in love with someone else all along?
Or if the mixed memory theory was correct...what if therehadbeen an affair? But what if Scarlet had been cheating onme?
“Someone better have ordered me something with alcohol in it because I am ready for the tea that’s about to get spilled,” Anna said as she plopped into one of the chairs at the restaurant.
“Who said there was tea?” Samantha asked, even as her worried eyes darted my way. Assessing. Encouraging.
“Um. ..”—Anna gestured around us—“we’re at brunch. Don’t get me wrong, I love brunch. Especially with my favorite girls. But it’s Tuesday.”
“Dramatic,” Samantha muttered with a wry smile as Anna went on.
“Saturday is for brunch. Tuesdays and Fridays are for getting our asses kicked by Scarlet. So, don’t tell me something didn’t go down.”
“I gotta pee,” Litany said in way of announcing she’d arrived just before she dropped her purse onto the last remaining chair.
“Brat, tell your bladder it can wait. There’s tea,” Anna yelled on a whisper.
“I’ll be fast,” LT said defensively as she began hurrying off, only to stop and give our waiter a look that very clearly shouted she was interested. “Well, hello...”
“This girl.” Anna gave the two of us a look she reserved for when LT irritated her before asking, “Is it an alcohol kind of morning?”
“Yep,” I said before Samantha could respond.
“I knew it,” Anna hissed, then looked to our waiter, who was too busy watching LT walk away, and I just tried to hold it together.
I hadn’t been home.
I’d driven straight to Samantha’s apartment when I’d left the Grayson’s Sunday night and had stayed there.
I’d gotten dozens of calls and messages from everyone that had only increased when I hadn’t shown up to surf yesterday morning or today. But I hadn’t answered or responded to any of them.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I didn’t know what to say or if I was embarrassed by what had gone down in the few minutes we’d been at the Grayson’s. Or maybe it was because I wasafraidof what I’d say.
