Whatever. I wasn’t going to let what he said bother me. Joel was real with me.
I went back to the party and tried to enjoy myself, but it was like Alex just poured vinegar in my tea. I couldn’t shake it.
Joel came over to check on me and then stayed close while we talked to people. Jenson was chatting a mile a minute with one of the cameramen, who told him he’d done a lot of underwater shooting.
“You okay?” Joel leaned over and asked in my ear, and I nodded with a fake smile. His eyes narrowed in response, and he knew something was wrong. I just didn’t want to talk about it.
When the celebration started to die out, we drove back to the house, and I tried to dig myself out of my quicksand thoughts.
“I love you.” I wrapped my arms around Joel once we set our stuff down by the door. Jenson went directly to the kitchen and started eating again.
“I love you, too,” he said, with no hesitation.
“Ready to tell me what happened?”
I looked into his eyes, and I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t say it. Would he be mad that Alex’s words had gotten to me? The scared-of-getting-hurt Alessandra was rearing her head again in my mind.
“I’m just stressing over nothing. I’ll get over it.” I gave him a kiss, and left for the bathroom.
I believed Joel, and I believed in us. I wasn’t going to let Alex screw my life up again.
