But when the night came that he was supposed to call me or text me or show up, there was no word from him. It had all felt like a cruel joke.
“Maybe this is just a good opportunity to finally confront him about what he did,” I pitched to my best friend in hopes she’d like the idea. My brain fog was clearing, but it wasn’t completely gone yet, so I wasn’t positive I was making sense.
“How will that do any good?” She sounded both angryanddisappointed in me that I’d come up with such a suggestion. So maybe the brain fog wasn’t gone after all. “At this point,” she ranted, “he probably doesn’t even remember standing you up.”
“You’re right. As always.” I wanted to say that if he hadn’t wanted me then, he definitely wouldn’t want me now, so what difference did it make? But I was tired. “There’s nothing I can do about being here with him tonight. I’ll just make the best of it.”
Tina snorted again. “Just don’t fall for his lies or his promises. You know what you’re like.”
That made me wince. What she meant was don’t be my usual gullible and naive self. Me with my need to impress people and take the tiniest morsel of approval as something more. Something that means acceptance.
“I know you only have my best interests at heart,” I told her.
“But?” she asked when I didn’t continue.
“But I’ll see for myself, okay?”
Tina sighed loudly. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
CHAPTER 6
Brevin
With the fireblazing and nothing else to do, I went back into the kitchen to find Chevonne staring at her cell phone.
“Any signal?” I asked.
She glanced up, a frown on her pretty brow, and shook her head, her focus going back to her phone for only a second before she turned off the screen and placed the device on the counter. “No,” she said. “But Tina told me the roads are closed, so I guess we’re stuck here for a while.”
I smiled wryly. “Happens once about every two or three winters, or at least it did until five years ago. Now it’s more common.”
“How long have you had this place?” She was no longer shivering, but I didn’t want to delay warming her up. Before I answered, I stepped behind her chair.
“What do you say we chat beside the fire?” I asked, not waiting for an answer before I wheeled her toward the living room. The dog was already curled up on the rug, snoring. She probably wasn’t used to this much excitement. That wassomething else I needed to figure out if we were going to be holed up here for a while—what to feed a St. Bernard? I could thaw a steak. Which reminded me all the food I was going to bring back home to the city was still in a cooler in the car.
I got Chevonne settled back on the couch in front of the fire and ran to the laundry room to get the blanket out of the dryer. She thanked me as I draped it over her, then I sat beside her to watch the flames lick the wood in the fireplace.
“I bought this place a couple of years after I got back to Ottawa from university,” I told her, finally answering her question.
“Oh yeah? Where did you study?”
Her expression of genuine curiosity made me relax a little. She seemed to be warming up to me as well as warming up. Maybe this wouldn’t be too embarrassing after all.
“I went to McMaster in Hamilton. In fact, my parents packed me up and sent me before high school even finished. They had a job lined up for me, and I had to go so I could support myself through my first year.”
“That’s why you weren’t … at school at the end of June?”
I winced, knowing what she’d avoided saying—that’s why I stood her up. “Yeah,” I said. If Chevonne wasn’t ready to bring up my failure, I wasn’t going to push it. “What about you? Did you do any continuing ed?”
She nodded, turning to look at Princess, who was currently running in a doggy dream. “I took courses online and went into the exciting realm of bookkeeping.”
“That suits you,” I said.
Chevonne’s gaze snapped to me. “Are you saying I’m boring?” There was a slight smile on her face; she wasn’t insulted quite yet.
“No, I mean you were always … mathy. And logical. Both of which align with bookkeeping.”
Her smile widened a fraction. “I didn’t think you paid that much attention to me back in high school.”
