While I worried what Jesse and Emily were up to right now, I was happy to get the chance to go off alone with Sabrina for the rest of the night.
I didn’t know where the rest of the night would take us, although I had thoughts of where I’d like it to go. Thoughts I couldn’t or shouldn’t entertain, especially not to this point of distraction.
“So, what’s Jesse’s deal?” Sabrina asked, squinting at me as she lifted her glass to her mouth, the mouth I shouldn’t have been so damn fixated on, as she swept her tongue across her bottom lip—or so tempted to go in for a taste.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
I needed to get my act together and cut it out. I was an adult, for fuck’s sake, and I needed to think with my big head and not my growing little one.
“What do you mean,his deal?”
She lifted a brow and swiveled her stool toward me.
“When we all told our sad stories about why we didn’t bring a plus-one, he didn’t say a word. Granted, it was awkward as hell between him and Emily tonight, but if he has a wife or someone at home, I don’t get why it’s such a secret.”
“He doesn’t have a wife at home.” I leaned my elbow on the bar top. “He wouldn’t have offered to take Emily home if he did. I know you’re probably still mad at him for Emily’s sake, and rightfully so. But he’s not that kind of guy and never was.”
“No. I mean, yes, I hated how he hurt Emily, but we were all clueless kids back then.”
“Isn’t that the fucking truth,” I mumbled, mostly to myself.
“But he has something,” Sabrina said, pointing her finger at me.
“He does,” I allowed. “But it’s his story to tell, not mine.”
“That’s fair,” she said on a long sigh. “I just don’t want to see Emily get hurt all over again tonight. It was a long time ago, but…” She trailed off with a shrug, draining the rest of the brown liquid from her glass.
Of course Sabrina didn’t drink wine or beer or some fruity cocktail. I wasn’t surprised her drink of choice as an adult was bourbon. Bourbon was sweet but potent, thick enough to warm your chest and steal all your senses.
“Jesse was pretty messed up for months after he broke up with Emily. I know he was a jerk about it, but he was never the same after that.”
“Neither was Emily,” she shot back. “I never thought he’d do something like that.”
“I didn’t either,” I said, shaking my head. “I’d known that night he’d probably do something stupid, but I couldn’t stop him.”
She set her glass down and bobbed her head in a slow nod.
“I don’t know if an apology after twenty years means anything, if that’s what he’s doing. But either way—” she flicked her gaze back to mine, a sad smile curving those damn lips “—I want to apologize to you.”
“What?” I reared back. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“Sorry that because I had no idea how to act after our best friends broke up, I didn’t try harder to stay friends with you. At first, I just thought we’d distance ourselves from each other until Jesse and Emily got back together, but then when that didn’t happen, I thought we’d just wait until it blew over?—”
“And before we knew it, months went by, then years. It happens.” I tried for an easy shrug.
Like how falling for Sabrina had happened, and how my cowardly teenage self had hidden from her after he’d realized it, in a dumb effort to run away from his feelings. Jesse and Emily’s breakup had given me the perfect excuse.
“I missed you, and I thought about you over the years.”
My brows shot up. “Did you?”
“Of course.” She squinted at me. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
I pressed my hand against the bar and leaned in.
“I guess it’s not. I rocked your world back then, huh?”
She jerked her head toward me, a scowl twisting her beautiful lips.
