I grinned and sat back in the chair, peeling my orange. And somehow, speaking to Michael’s father had made this whole thing—these rumors, Linda, our age difference—less awkward for me. Mr. Bryne hadn’t treated me any differently. He smiled and laughed and didn’t show any tinge of judgment in his eyes.
It’d felt good.
Serena walked through the door, spotted me, and immediately made a beeline for the table. There were dark bags under her eyes, and she yawned when she sat down in front of me. I pushed her a coffee, which she chugged.
“So?” I asked, brow raised. “How’d it go?”
Before Serena even said two words, she finished the coffee, leaned back, and groaned. “I tried. I really tried. I didn’t know if I got through to her at all though. She didn’t believe me when I told her that Mason had been texting you or that he met up with you the other day.”
“Did she not believe you or not want to believe you?” I asked. Because those were two totally different things.
I’d wanted to believe that Mason was good for me. I’d wanted to believe that he really loved me, that I could spend the rest of my life with him, that the sex would get better … but deep down, I had known otherwise.
She frowned. “Give me the screenshots,” she said to me, leaning over the table and kicking her legs back and forth. “I’ll send them to her as proof, but I don’t know if she’ll take them.”
I scrolled through my endless messages from him, taking screenshots of them all and sending them over to Serena. Her phone kept buzzing on the table, her eyes widening as she looked at the messages.
“Damn, he’s desperate. Who sends that many messages without a response?”
Mason had … when he realized that I wasn’t the same girl he could abuse anymore.
“How is she?” I asked, my stomach tightening as I prepared for the answer. I didn’t know what I expected Serena to say or if I expected her to say anything, but something told me that I should be worried.
“She says that she’s not being hurt by him in any way, but I don’t believe it.” She peered out the window. “I think there’s more to it. She looks tired, sad. But maybe that’s because she misses her father … I don’t know.”
“Well, she did go see him this morning,” I said. I wished she’d see him more often even if I never saw her. I didn’t mind that. All I wanted was for them to have a good, strong relationship.
“Speaking of Michael, I’m going to see his work friends tonight,” I said, dread scratching at the inside of my stomach. After my little run-in with the receptionist earlier at the assisted living center, I felt like shit about tonight.
She wiggled her brows. “Looks like you and he are getting very serious.”
I smiled and leaned back in the seat. “Yeah … he told me he wanted to spend his life with me.”
Serena nearly choked on her coffee. “Nuh-uh.”
“Yes-huh.”
She smacked the table with her palm and jumped out of her seat. “Oh my gosh. Girl, you know what I hear?!”
I glanced around. “Coffee being brewed?”
After playfully slapping my arm, she sat back down, humming the “Bridal Chorus.”
I scrunched up my nose and shook my head. “No, he wouldn’t,” I said, but my stomach was fluttering with butterflies. “Not so soon. I mean …”
“You’ve been dating for more than a few months, sure. But he’s been with you through the hardest time of your entire life. He stayed with you at the hospital for weeks. He sacrificed his nights, told you he loves you.” Serena shook her head. “And now, he tells you he wants to spend his life with you, and you don’t think he wants to marry you?”
Michael and I getting married? I gulped. I hadn’t even thought about it yet. Did he want to marry me? His relationship with Melissa was screwed up. If we got married now … I didn’t know if it’d ever be repaired.
“You think so?” I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, nerves running through me.
Serena raised a brow at me. “No, I think he’s going to dump you,” she said sarcastically. But then she leaned closer to me and took my hands. “I’m just kidding. What would you say if he asked?”
I parted my lips and pressed them back together. God, I would say yes a million times. But my better judgment would tell me to wait, that Melissa needed to be okay with this first, that she needed help even though she might not ask for it.
“I would say … yes.”
CHAPTER16
