“Shit, Li. I actually don’t think either of those are the reason… but this might be.”
A moment later my phone pinged and I clicked the link she’d sent. I didn’t say a word as the article popped up, “Love 2.0?” the headline read. There was a short paragraph about Graham being seen with me and his sister in Seattle, followed by something about his ex, Nadia, that I skimmed over before clicking yet another link that led me to one of her social media pages. The post tagged showed her promoting a lipstick. I nearly exited, confused what one thing had to do with the other, and then I saw him, standing behind her in the doorway.
I went back to the article and scrolled down further to find an image of the two of them standing on a front porch, her hair was wet and she was wearing a too-big t-shirt, her shoes dangling from her fingertips. It was dated and timed stamped. Today, eight forty-nine am.
Asshole.
“Lior?” Addie said. I’d forgotten she was on the line.
“I’m here. I guess that mystery is solved then.”
“You okay?”
“Of course. It was just a walk. It’s not like we had an actual date planned.”
“Still.”
“He should’ve texted, but it looks like he was distracted. It happens. I will say though… yuck.”
“She’s the literal worst,” Addie said.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m gonna go. I promised Avery I’d send over all the articles I’ve written in the past ten years. She wants to read through them and come back to me with some ideas for the column.”
“Really? Yay!”
I grinned. Despite the disappointment of being stood up by Graham for what looked like a tryst with his ex, I was excited about this possible new direction for my life. Maybe being stood up was just a sign that I was on the right track. If I’d started to like Graham, I’d probably hold off on any major life changes, and when our relationship inevitably went south, I’d have wasted precious time.
“I also left a message with a realtor in Seattle,” I said. “I might be back sooner than I planned to look at some houses.”
I was sure Addie’s scream of happiness could be heard all the way down the block.
Rather than email Avery back like I’d told Addie I was going to do, I went back to the link she’d sent me, then Nadia’s social media post, then the picture of her and Graham on the porch. It looked intimate. Sexy. A definite unplanned late night or early morning-after moment from the looks of her outfit.
I sighed and exited the link, slumping down on my sofa and staring across the room at the floor-to-ceiling bookcase where there was an entire shelf dedicated to the works of one Graham Forrester – the poem he’d left me after cleaning my shoe framed and set just so beside his novels.
I’d never admit it to anyone else, but I was a little crushed by this morning’s drama. I’d thought we were becoming friends. Or at least friendly. But he’d chosen his horrible ex over a walk with me. Even after our lovely afternoon with his sister.
“You’ll be in Seattle? Come join us. Meet my sister. See how charming I am? How thoughtful?” I flipped off his shelf of novels. “Dick.”
I was still wallowing in self-pity and a pool of irritation when I got a text from Jeremy Lane, an actor I’d dated off-and-on a couple years ago. Out of the men I’d dated, he was the only one I’d thought I could make a relationship work with. He was kind and thoughtful, and hadn’t seemed to be in the relationship for the attention being with me brought him, having his own huge fan base. But our busy schedules kept us apart and, in the end, it was just too hard.
“Hey you,” his text said. “I’m in town for the premier of my new movie. You around? Wanna get dinner somewhere?”
My mind instantly went to Graham, but I shut that down in a hurry. I owed him nothing. Not one little consideration. And maybe an evening with Jeremy was just the balm I needed.
“I’d love to,” I texted back. “Tell me where and when and I’ll be there.”
We met at one of our favorite spots, a lovely little Thai restaurant that served interesting beers and family style meals. We passed bowls and plates back-and-forth, catching up on one another’s projects, sharing bad date stories, and doing a slew of “remember when’s” until we were laughing so hard the family next to us couldn’t stop staring. Or maybe it was because two very recognizable faces were sitting beside them in this tiny, decidedly not fancy establishment.
“We should go before someone realizes the two hysterical people in the corner are actually celebrities and start taking pictures,” I said.
“Good call.”
We climbed in a cab and then sat for a moment trying to decide if we wanted to head to a bar or call it a night.
“My hotel serves a decent glass of wine,” Jeremy said.
I glanced at him, noting the sexy little smile he always got when he said one thing but was suggesting another. An image of Graham flashed in my mind again but I pushed it away. Whatever I’d thought could be happening with him clearly wasn’t, and I was allowed a little no-strings-attached sex with a man I knew well and liked.
