"Exactly.He's Ezra."Sarah leaned forward."Which means this isn't just going to blow over.People have been trying to catch him in a real relationship for years.You're like...gossip gold right now."
"I'll figure something out," Ashley said, turning her phone face-down."I'll tell everyone it was just him being nice.I'll-"
"You'll what?Because from where I'm sitting, you have two options."Sarah held up one finger."One: you lean into it.Let people think what they want until something bigger comes along."Another finger."Two: you publicly deny it, which will only make people more interested and probably piss off Ezra in the process."
Ashley stared at her friend's raised fingers, remembering Ezra's words in the garden.Get used to it.
"There has to be another way."
"Maybe," Sarah said softly."But whatever you decide?Do it fast.Because right now, you're caught between your ex's best friend and your ex himself.And from what I saw this morning?"She nodded at Ashley's phone, which was buzzing again."Neither of them is handling it well."
Ashley closed her eyes, wishing she could go back to yesterday when her biggest problem was just a broken heart.Her head throbbed with each pulse of the fluorescent lights above.
"I need to talk to Dale," she said suddenly, gathering her things.
"Are you sure that's-"
But Ashley was already moving, leaving Sarah mid-sentence.She found Dale in his usual spot in the physics lab, bent over equations that probably made sense to exactly three people in the world.He looked up as she entered, his expression carefully neutral.
"I need your help."The words tumbled out."Not as Cole's brother or Ezra's friend, but as...as my friend.If we still are that."
Dale set down his pen, giving her his full attention.The late morning sun caught his glasses as he studied her, making it impossible to read his eyes."What do you need?"
"Tell me what to do."She sank onto a lab stool, the cool metal grounding her."Because right now, I can't fix this one."
She told Dale what happened.He was quiet for a long moment after she finished, his fingers absently turning his signet ring - a gesture so like Cole's it made her chest ache.Finally, he spoke.
"Actually," Dale said, straightening in his chair, "I might have an idea.What if we did something like this summer?A small get-together at my place, just the physics crowd.Neutral territory."
The suggestion hung in the air for a moment before Ashley caught his meaning.A chance to talk to Cole at the last place they were still friends before everything went downhill.
"You'd do that?"
"Consider it my contribution to restoring equilibrium to the universe."His smile turned wry."Besides, someone needs to save my brother from his own stubbornness.Might as well be you."
Three days later, Ashley stood in Dale's kitchen, arranging snacks with probably too much attention to detail.The apartment felt smaller somehow than during their summer study sessions, more intimate.Or maybe that was just her nerves making everything feel more intense.
"The chips don't have to be geometrically aligned," Dale commented, passing by with a stack of cups.
"Shut up," she muttered but smiled despite herself.Everything had to be perfect.She'd rehearsed what she'd say to Cole a hundred times - about the department, about her feelings, about all the misunderstandings that had spiraled out of control.
The first few people arrived - Mike with his favorite NASA shirt, Lisa carrying her signature brownies, and Eddie looking as serious as ever.The familiar faces and easy chatter helped settle Ashley's nerves.This could work.This had to work.
Then the door opened again, and Ashley's heart stopped.
Cole stood in the doorway, looking unfairly good in dark jeans and a gray henley that brought out his eyes.But it was Marie beside him that made Ashley's carefully arranged chips suddenly look absurd.Marie, wearing a dress that could have come from Ashley's own closet, her hand tucked into Cole's arm like it belonged there.
Marie, who wasn't even part of their physics group.Who had no reason to be here except...
"I didn't know she was coming," Dale whispered, appearing at Ashley's elbow.The apology in his voice made it worse somehow.
The speech Ashley had practiced died in her throat as Cole's eyes found hers across the room.For a split second, something flickered in his expression - surprise, maybe even guilt.Then his arm tightened around Marie's waist, and Ashley understood.
He'd known she would be here.And he'd brought Marie anyway.
Or maybe because of it.
CHAPTER27
