I’ll respect his decision. If he doesn’t want to ever see me again, to completely put his past behind him, I’ll be okay with it.
I will.
But he turns, those blue eyes finding me in all the darkness that surrounds us, and traces each line of my face like he’s trying to memorize it, not forget it.
“No,” he says, voice as gritty as the sand below. “I don’t.”
My heart catches in my throat and I lean closer, just enough for our shoulders to brush. The brief contact sends a warm tingle down my arm and throughout my body. “Good.”
“Do you want to forget about me?”
“I never did.”
11
Aspen
“Ican’t believe he’s still allowed at the bar!”
“I’m gonna call your manager!”
“Should we all fight him?”
“Guys!” I hold my hands up in surrender as my friends all sound off after I finish telling them about the incident at work a couple weeks ago. “It’s okay.”
Music pulses through the crowded bar and into my blood, heating it alongside the third vodka cranberry I’ve tossed back. Empty drinks scatter the sticky tabletop, and one of my friends, Nicole, peers around Marley trying to catch one of the bartenders’ eyes for more.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Sara yells over the noise, eyes narrowed with hurt.
My shoulders curve in and the low cut of my tank top dips further. “I didn’t want to make a big deal of it. And someone was there that night that helped me out, so I was fine.”
Nicole pounces. “Who?”
I fake a casual shrug. “Just another guy at the bar stepped in.”
Every single one of my friends around the table hone their attention on me. A spotlight might as well be lighting me up.
Marley’s the first to speak up. “Is this the same someone that you ran into at work awhile back and didn’t want to talk about?”
I should be surprised that she remembers that, considering I didn’t give any further explanation to them, but then again, this is one of my best friends we’re talking about. She remembers everything.
I sip the very watered-down remaining dregs of my drink. “Yeah, kinda.”
“Wait, who is this?” Nicole cuts in. Her black bob swishes as she leans forward. “What happened? Who did you run into? Why am I the last to know?”
“I don’t know either,” Amanda adds. “But please fill me in!” She eagerly puts her elbows on the table and bats her long lashes at me. “I never get good gossip like this anymore.”
“That’s because you’re always with Ben,” Marley quips.
“I can’t help it; we work together!” The two of them started a travel vlog channel before I ever moved out here and met them. Amanda and Marley used to work together as assistants for a designer when they were eighteen. Then over the years, even as they went into new fields and projects, they remained friends, and when I moved in with Marley and Sara, I was introduced to her and we grew just as close. Same with Nicole, who was roommates with Amanda before she moved in with her boyfriend.
“Refocus!” Nicole claps. “Aspen, who’s this person?”
I shift on the narrow stool. Sara places a gentle hand onmy bare shoulder. “You don’t have to get into it if you don’t want to.”
The neutral look I’ve been trying to keep up must not be working as I glance around the table and see the rest of my friends agreeing with her, even Nicole.
I don’t know why even now I still hesitate to tell them about him. These are my best friends. My family. I trust them with my life. And they’re not going to be starstruck by the celebrity that is Reid Keely. So why am I trying to hide this from them?
