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“And something happened last night at the ball?”
I sighed and scooped up a bite of eggs. “It was just a misunderstanding. But I’m heading over there as soon as we finish here to set things right.”
“How about I fix you a bouquet of my blue hydrangeas to take her?”
I hesitated to say yes. Were flowers an admission of guilt? Like I had something to apologize for?
Mom dipped her head and met my eyes. “Flowers can’t hurt, right?”
ELLA
I woke to a puffy face and red eyes.
“Great. Just great.” I poked at the bags with a finger. “Now I look like a sleep-deprived Cabbage Patch doll,” I said to my reflection.
Someone knocked at my door before I heard the squeaky creek of the hinge and Mia popped her head in. “Hey, I didn’t get a chance to talk to you last night after—” She stopped abruptly as she took in my face. “Whoa.” She winced. “Bad night?”
I glared over at her before I dabbed more concealer onto the dark circles. “You could say that.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I glanced down at the makeup scattered over my dresser, then back up again. “It’s stupid. I just . . . so the other night at The Broken Record when JT and his idiots spilled their beer on you, and you got mad and left, Barry and I sorta got trapped in the bathroom together.” Mia’s brows rose to her forehead at this piece of information. “And we kissed.”
“You kissed?” She nearly barked out a laugh, but wisely held it back.
“I know. Crazy, right? Or maybe not so crazy,” I said as I began to pace. “I mean, I obviously thought he was great, which was why I wanted him for you. He’s super smart, like the crazy kind of smart. He’s thoughtful, sweet, has the most amazing eyes, and he’s awkward in this totally endearing kind of way. He even got me to confide in him a little bit about Mom and Dad.”
“Wow. You got it that bad, huh?”
I paused and bit my lip. “I knew I liked him after the kiss. I mean, I played it cool immediately afterward, but once I got home, he was all I could think about, and I thought, maybe . . . But then Adam showed up—”
“Here?” Mia pointed to the ground, and I nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I brushed over her question. “He gave me some sorry excuse for why he cheated on me, said he missed me and it didn’t mean anything, but everything that came out of his mouth was crap, and I knew it. But it just scared me, ya know?”
“Yeah, I know,” she said, her voice soft. She knew how much he wrecked me.
“And so, I barely talked to Barry the rest of the week. Until last night when he showed up at the masquerade totally transformed. And not just looks, though he looked”—I shook my head, biting my lip at the memory—“so ridiculously good, but it was more than that. He was so confident, too, so sure of himself. And he took everything I’d told him these past weeks about wanting a guy to prove how much he cares and blew it out of the water.”
Mia shrugged. “So what’s the problem?”
“We were out in the gardens, and we were going to leave together to go somewhere quiet when he said he just had a few things to take care of first and he’d be right back.” A gnawing ache started in the back of my throat. “And when it seemed like he’d been gone a while, I went looking for him.”
Mia reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “And?”
“I found him kissing another girl.”
Mia sucked in a breath. “No. Barry?”
When I said nothing, she shook her head. “I don’t know him all that well, but just based on what you’ve told me and what I’ve observed, that doesn’t sound like him, does it?”
“He had this really unique suit. Not just the shade of blue, but it had these gold buttons and epaulets on the shoulders. It was like something straight out of a fairytale. It had to be him.”
Mia fell silent, and I could tell she felt bad, which made me feel even worse. It wasn’t often she was struck into silence.
“Anyway, I guess I just truly thought he was the real deal. And if not him, then who? Maybe love is just a ruse. I mean, look at Mom and Dad.”
“You can’t compare relationships to theirs,” she said, surprising me. “Love isn’t like that.”
