Our salads were delivered, and I picked at mine. I had absolutely no appetite, and all I wanted to do was get away from that table. Things had gone from somewhat awkward to overboard with the revelation that he’d “forgotten” to invite me.

As soon as the waiter approached, I took out a credit card, cursing myself for not having cash on me so I could leave faster.

“I have this.” Carol handed her card to the waiter.

“No, we can split it.”

Carol smiled. “My treat.”

“Thanks so much for lunch, Mrs. Denton. It was nice meeting you.” I stood up and grabbed my purse.

“Oh. Call me Carol. And it was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to seeing you again soon.”

“Same here.” I forced one last smile before taking off down the sidewalk. Seriously? Had that just happened?

I walked two blocks before whipping out my phone to send Rachel a quick text. I hate you.

Yeah, it was probably immature, but I was angry for being put in that situation. But then again, wasn’t it good to know at least? With Aaron, I wasted over a year of my life. Did I really want to do the same thing again? I texted again. Hate was a strong word, and it wasn’t her fault that she had to leave. Still I wished she’d never called me over. I take it back, I’m just not happy with you at the moment.

She didn’t reply right away, so I continued my walk home.

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The house was mostly empty, so I went right up to my room. Juliet was at her desk.

“Hey, how’d the venue shopping go? Find anything that worked?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re all set.” I’d completely forgotten about the reason I was away from campus to begin with.

She spun her chair around to look at me. “Are you okay?”

I sighed and took a seat on my bed. “I will be.”

“Uh oh. What’s up?”

“I met Chase’s mom.”

“Uh, what?”

“She was having lunch with Rachel and I ended up joining them.”

“Was she awful?” Juliet sat down beside me.

“No, it’s more what I learned.”

“And what’s that?”

“Chase was supposed to invite me to this family vacation thing in May.”

“Isn’t that good?” She pushed some of her dirty blonde hair behind her ear.

“It would have been if he’d actually asked. It turns out he was supposed to ask weeks ago, and she assumed I was the one who wasn’t giving a response.”

“Oh.” Juliet pursed her lips. “What did Chase have to say about it?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing meaning he denied it, or nothing meaning you haven’t talk to him?”

“The second one.”

“Cara.” She put a gentle hand on my arm. “You have to ask him. What if he had a good reason?”

“I don’t want to deal with it right now. I have so much work to do it’s not funny.” I also didn’t mention the ex-girlfriend. She’d just tell me I was uber sensitive to the topic.

“Well, between eighteen credits, tutoring, and the radio show, I can’t imagine why you’re falling behind. Overextended much?”

I leaned back on my bed and groaned. “I know. I did this to myself.”

“It’s not that being busy is bad, I just don’t want you overdoing it.”

“You sound like my mom.”

“Well, I’d want you worried about me if I overextended myself.”

“You’ve worked part time since freshman year.”

She lay down next to me. “Yeah, but my boss lets me get my school work done while on the clock.”

“Considering you’re sleeping with your boss, that works.”

Juliet laughed. “And speaking of people you’re sleeping with, call him. Get his side of the story. Assuming things has never helped anyone.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

My phone dinged notifying me of a text. Juliet got up and grabbed my phone. It’s him.

I took the phone from her. Hey, heard you lunched with my mom. Did she share embarrassing stories? ;)

I set the phone down.

“What? You’re not going to reply to him?”

“I already told you. I can’t handle it right now. I have to get my essay done for creative writing.”




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