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She got off the bench to stand at a reasonable distance from me just before the person approaching us showed herself.
It was Elaine.
“Christian? I was looking all over for you,” she said, and I paid no attention to the suspicious look she gave Vanessa.
“Did you want something, Elaine?” She blinked as if surprised at my coldness to her.
I knew Elaine had always had a crush on me since we were kids. The five of us, Elaine, Jonah, Rick, and Nina, had been friends since we were kids. We’d grown in the same circles; with wealthy parents and significant trust funds, our lives had been virtually the same.
Elaine had always imagined us together, although I knew our parents had a hand in putting that idea in her head. I only ever saw her as a friend, but no matter how many times I told her, she still hoped to change my mind one day. The possibility of that happening, though, was zero to none.
“No need to be rude, Chris. I just wanted to make sure you were fine. I did not know you already had the nurse with you.”
“Well, now that you know, you can return to the others.”
“No, I was just leaving anyway.” Vanessa’s voice interrupted us, and before I could voice out my protest, she was already walking away.
I watched her as she left, wanting to call her back, but I did not; I sensed she was a little overwhelmed and knew I needed to give her some space.
“I did not know you had gotten involved with the help?” She intended her remark to be scathing, but it missed its mark.
“Don’t talk about shit you know nothing about, Elaine,” I said to her before standing up from the bench to walk away.
The following day, Alba prepared a lavish breakfast for us; there were waffles, blueberry pancakes, and more. It was a whole buffet. Even though I’d told her earlier on not to go into too much trouble to entertain my friends, Alba liked to go overboard, anyways.
I had not seen Vanessa all morning, and I felt she was avoiding me because of last night. My heart sank at the thought, although I tried to ignore the feeling.
“What are we doing today?” Rick said. We had just finished breakfast and were lounging around in the living room. Nina was attached to his arms, as usual. The two of them had been joined at the hip since I could remember, and we always asked them why they were yet to get married.
“I think we should go out and shoot some birds,” Jonah suggested in an excited voice.
“Yes!” Nina said sharply, looking just as excited.
“Your morbid fascination with dead things never fails to turn me on,” Rick said in a low tone to his girlfriend before kissing her; all tongue and teeth, until Jonah, made irritating kissing noises, and they were forced to pull apart, laughing.
I stared at them for a few minutes, feeling a familiar ache in my chest at their display of affection toward each other; there was a time Gigi, and I were just like that. Unable to keep our hands off each other.
It was a dull ache, nothing like how heartbroken I’d felt the first few days after she’d broken up with me. I knew the reason I was not so hung up on my ex anymore. It was because of my nurse, and she was currently avoiding me for kissing her last night.
“Let’s do it,” I announced to them, and Elaine groaned. She was not so much into shooting things, but she usually had no choice but to join us.
Rick and Jonah hurried to the storeroom where my father kept the guns to fetch what we would need while the girls and I went out to the clearing.
“So, Christian?” Nina said to me while we waited for the other two. “How have you been feeling lately, you know, since Gigi?”
I turned to her and smiled. She was never one to mince words when talking about the hard stuff.
“I’m fine, Nina. I’m no longer hung up on my ex, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Of course, you aren’t. I know that. You are way too much of a pragmatist to be that sad over someone who mistreated you. Besides, you never really loved her, anyway.”
She sounded so confident that I drew back in surprise.
“What do you mean? I was going to marry her, of course; I loved her.”
She looked at me with a knowing smile, like she knew something I didn’t.
“No, you didn’t.”
