“Well, at least Wren is with you to make it less weird.”
I nod, agreeing, but before he can say anything else, the door opens, a bell jingling up above it. All of the heads in the bar shift to the entrance as always happens, and the air halts in my lungs as Jesse and Madden walk into the bar.
“Well, looks like tonight got a bit more interesting,” Colton murmurs, and I turn to him with a furrowed brow, but he grins at me and gets a wave over to a customer as I watch theKing brothers walk straight to my table with a mix of relief and overwhelming dread.
Jesse ignores me for the first twenty minutes he’s here, grabbing a beer for himself and Madden. We shift to one of the large tables so we can all sit together, Madden sitting on one side and Kevin on the other side of me, while Jesse sits directly across from me.
“So how long have you two been going out?” Madden asks, sitting back. He looks at me with a smirk that I can’t quite decode, and honestly, with the dumpster fire that is becoming this night, I don’t want to.
“Oh, this is our second date,” Kevin says, then loops an arm around my chair, smiling at me. I return it, but it feels forced, and I hope no one else picks up on it. Eyes burn on me, but I don’t let myself look across from me to where the glare is coming from. I lift my cider and take a sip, but find it’s empty. Sullenly, I take a sip of my soda and wish I’d gotten a second drink instead.
“Want a sip of mine?” Kevin asks, tipping his beer in my direction. I open my mouth to decline, but I’m cut off.
“She doesn’t like beer,” Jesse says, the first real sentence he’s said since he sat down.
Wren snaps her head to me, a questioning look on her face, but I ignore it, smiling again at Kevin.
“No, thank you,” I say, trying to be as polite as possible, then tipping my soda in his direction. “I’m good.”
Finally, I direct my gaze to Jesse, giving him a dark glare.
He doesn’t even flinch.
The conversation continues painfully with Madden and Wren tugging it along. We ordered some food—a bunch of random appetizers, since that’s all The Mill offers—and even though I don’t order it, Colt sends out a big pile of fries for me. When they arrive, Kevin grabs the ketchup and moves to start squirting it all over the top of the fries, and I flinch.
Before he can, though, Jesse reaches across the table, grabbing the ketchup from his hands and setting it to the side. Then, as I’ve done so many times before, he slides half of the pile of fries to a separate plate and adds a small pile of ketchup to the side before handing the plate to me without a word.
I sit in silence, incredibly annoyed and uncomfortable, but also inconveniently touched, the feelings warring in my chest as the table sits in awkward silence.
“Hallie doesn’t like the ketchup to touch anything,” Wren explains with a kind smile.
“Oh, shit, sorry,” Kevin starts, but I shake my head before he can continue.
“No need to be sorry. They’ve all known me almost my whole life, so they know my silly quirks.” I look to Jesse, all kindness leaving my face. “There’s no way you could know that after just two dates.” Jesse holds my eyes for a beat longer than necessary before looking away and grabbing an onion ring and eating it.
Ten minutes later, we’re all chatting, and for a moment I think I can survive the night. Kevin tells some stupid joke that I don’t want to laugh at, but when he looks at me with a wide grin, like he’s proud of it, I let out a little laugh.
“That was the fakest laugh I’ve ever heard,” Jesse says with his eyes burning on me.
“Dude,” Adam says low, a hint of entertained humor in the word.
“Jesse,” I say low, but he ignores me.
“It was. She hates jokes like that.” Jesse’s speaking to Kevin, but he doesn’t even look at him. His eyes are locked on me.
“Jesse, stop it,” I say through gritted teeth.
“I’m not wrong,” he says. “You hate jokes like that. It was a fake laugh.” He stares me down as he takes a sip of his drink. It’s barely half drunk, and I can’t help but wonder why the fuck he’seven here. It’s clearly not to enjoy himself or have a drink with a friend.
I want to scream at him.
I want to make a scene. I want to ask him what the fuck is wrong with him and why he’s ruining this for me. HeknewI’d be here, and there is absolutely zero chance he randomly and impulsively found a sitter for Emma and decided to come to The Milltonight.
I said yes to the original date in an effort to move on quickly and efficiently from my one night with Jesse, but that’s proving increasingly impossible. Even more impossible now with the glaring reminder of who I can’t have while I’m out with the one I’ll allow myself to have.
“Sometimes it just takes the right person to tell the joke,” I say through a brittle smile.
“Bullshit,” he says quickly.
