He’s taken.
Spoken for.
Loved.
And by a good woman.
I won’t come between that.
Even if he wants me to.
twenty-seven
“HAVE A SAFE FLIGHT,” Emily says as Audrey and JP make their way to the door the next morning.
“Don’t forget to uncross your legs,” I say, patting Anjali’s back softly.
JP looks straight at me, a mischievous smile buried on his pretty lips. I smile back, maintaining eye contact. An inside joke between the two of us. A whole memory no one knows but us.
Audrey breathes out a laugh. “How does she know about that?”
I should have known it was coming. Of course she would know that, but I still want to askhow doyouknow about it?It felt like it was our secret. This quirk only the people that love you know about. And yet, she knows. She’s known longer than I have, and I’d bet she’s held his hand as more flights took off and landed. I bet she laughed when he first told her. I bet she kissed his cheek and told him he was adorable. I bet she comforted him. I bet it was the moment she knew she truly loved him.
JP’s cheeks flush, and he offers a shy yet telling smile at me before looking at his fiancée as she asks, “I knew you had a thing but I didn’t know youtravelledtogether.”
“I’ll tell you on the way to the airport,” he’s saying as they leave.
I watch until the door closes completely and he disappears from view. The click of the latch makes me blink and look at my sister. She’s standing with her hands on her hips and accusation in her shoulders. Her face is slack with shock.
“It was nothing,” I say.
“Julia Marie. I cannot believe you didn’t tell me,” she reprimands.
Austin snorts out a laugh and drags a hand down his knowing smile.
“You knew!” she accuses with a devilish whisper.
Austin shrugs and laughs as he sits on the floor to play with Alyson, not feeding into the gossip even as his wife realizes he’s been keeping a secret from her.
“Austin! We had them both in our house... with his fiancée!” she shouts, towering over him. However, my sister’s yelling is comical and even Alyson laughs. She turns and slides onto the couch next to me. “I remember he asked for your number at the party but then I assumed nothing ended up happening. Tell me everything.”
“There’s not much to tell. We met on the airplane on the way to Alyson’s gender reveal party. And hung out for a while.” I water it down as much as I can, ignoring the fact that he took me to the hospital when I almost died or how he took me to his family’s house for Thanksgiving.
“Yeah, I remember you guys leaving the party together. What happened in Chicago?” She seems genuinely concerned.
“His niece was my patient so we decided to just be friends, and then he moved to Greece to do Teachers Without Borders, and now...” my voice trails off. I’m still getting used to the idea of him belonging to someone else because a part of me still held out hope that one day it would be me.
You will have many loves...
“Your voice is doing that thing,” she says, narrowing her eyes on me.
“What thing?”
“That thing where it gets shaky and nervous when you’re lying and pretending something doesn’t matter when it does, and I refuse to believe it was only a one-night stand.”
I swallow hard. “It really was just a fling, but...” My voice trails and her eyebrows lift, and her face is frozen in a delusional smile. “I liked him. It just didn’t work out.”
She side-eyes me, throwing me the shade I deserve.
