At this point, Raye and Titus got into the specifics of the plan.
I half-listened and half-tuned into Shanti.
She really did seem to be chill about all of this.
So I admired her ability to be a huge-ass faker.
However, when it was time to leave, we all gave Titus our usual hugs, except Shanti, who just stood at the door, and while we were filing out, she waved at him.
Luna made it to the cars at the curb before she turned on Shanti and asked, “Okay, what the fuck was that?”
“What was what?” Shanti asked back.
“You giving Titus the cold shoulder,” Luna explained.
“She was?” Gemma inquired.
“I noticed the no hug at the end,” Jessie remarked.
“I asked him out,” Shanti announced.
Everyone (but me) sucked in an audible breath.
“He shot me down,” Shanti continued.
Another audible suckage of breath to the point I thought the lot of them would pass out.
“I put myself out there, he was really nice, but he said no.” Shanti shrugged. “No big deal.”
“Titus thinks it’s a big deal. He was all eyes for you most of the time,” Luna pointed out.
“He’s a nice guy,” Shanti returned. “He’s worried about me and what we’ll become after what happened. And I was giving him indication we’re cool, and it’s business as usual.”
“But…no hug?” Harlow asked.
“You wanna hug someone who you shared you liked him like that, and he shared he wasn’t going to take you there?” Shanti asked.
“Good point,” Joey mumbled.
“We’ll get back to a good place,” Shanti assured. “Just maybe some other time, not the next time I see him after he turned me down.”
Everyone gave Shanti a good hard look to see if she was okay about this.
Apparently, they decided she was okay because we piled into our cars.
But, after Raye ran it down one last time what we were going to do the next night, and we all left to head home, it was only me who sat in my car, and after I texted Gabe I was on my way, I texted Shanti, Be straight. You really okay?
I didn’t check my texts while driving, so I was in my car, the ignition off, the door to the garage closed, when I looked at her reply.
That was torture. But I got through it. And it’s not okay, but it will be.
God, that level of faking it had to have exhausted her.
“Fuck it,” I muttered and phoned my best girl.
“Honestly, I’ll all right,” she said as greeting.
“I think Titus, and everyone, would understand if you steered clear of him for a while.”
