“I apologize,” she said.
“4!”
“No, I do,” he said.
“3!”
She shook her head but said nothing else.
“2!”
He picked up a second bottle of water and waited for something to happen.
“1! Happy New Year!” Paper horns could be heard blaring above the shouts.
Without speaking, Devon and Chloe stared at each other with a foot of distance between them. Suddenly, she took her purse off the kitchen counter near his elbow and headed to the doorway. Inexplicably, he felt the sting of tears.
“Happy New Year, Devon,” she said before she disappeared.
He stood there until Lori came into the room. “Are you okay?”
He blinked. “Yes.”
Her brows went up. “It doesn’t look like it.”
“Beer,” he said in explanation.
“Oh, so you’re drunk. Ready to sleep it off?”
“Definitely.”
He followed Lori to the foyer, spotting Alicia and Chloe talking quietly. The latter slipped out the door and the former turned to her guests.
“Thank you for coming!” She held her arms out, and Lori hugged her. Devon nodded and said goodbye before going out into the dark yard.
He saw Chloe's car stop and the back lights change from white to red. She drove away as he stood there like an idiot. The hole in his chest widened, enveloping him. He really needed to go home, to sleep off whatever the hell just happened.
“Devon?”
“Yeah, Caleb?”
“Let’s go.”
He climbed in the back of Lori’s car and looked out the window the entire way back to his parents’ house. Instead of an excuse to get drunk, the party had only served to unsettle him.
