Outside on the street, I took a big gulp of the New York City air. I looked around at the people walking in all directions, the bumper-to-bumper cars honking even though there was no room for anyone to move, and realized how much I’d missed the endless energy. The feeling was contagious, and I found myself no longer wanting to go home and dive into my bed. Instead, I headed to the same place I had last week—the Copa.
Maybe this time, I wouldn’t leave alone.
CHAPTER 10
Sutton
My phone buzzed as I walked up the stairs from the subway, a block away from the Copa. I answered with a smile on my face.
“I know you’re calling at seven PM on a Friday night to make sure I’m not home alone wallowing, and you’ll be happy to know I’m on my way to a bar.”
“Shit,” Miles said. “I guess you saw the post?”
“What post?”
The line went quiet. “Wait, why are you going to a bar instead of going home to wallow?”
“Because it’s a work happy hour and I was invited?” I left off that the bar was the place I’d met Jagger and almost hooked up with him—and also happened to be the building he lived in.
“Oh. Shoot. Okay…forget I called. Go have a great time.” He paused and then added an awkward, “Woohoo! Happy hour.”
What is he up to?“No so fast. What post were you calling about?”
“Eh, it’s not important.”
“Miles Brighton Hartley, you know I can’t just forget that you have gossip juicy enough to call me about.”
He groaned. “Just this once, try. Keep off social media and enjoy your evening.”
“Hang on a second.” Of course, I did theexact oppositeof what he’d just told me because now I needed to know. Lowering my phone, I was about to swipe to go on to social media, but a missed call stopped me.My mother.A pit formed in my stomach. If my mother was calling me, that meant—
I swiped the missed call away and went straight to Instagram. One, two…three scrolls in, and the reason for Miles’s call smacked me square in the face.
Colette looking up at Brendan with a big smile—as she held out a sonogram picture. I stopped in place on the busy New York City sidewalk. Someone cursed and stepped around me.
“Move it, lady!”
“What the fuck!” another guy said.
“Get out of the damn way!” a woman spat.
After the third person yelled at me, I managed to step out of the flow of traffic and stand against a building. I’d almost forgotten I was on the phone until I heard a faint voice in the distance.
“Sutton, are you there?”
I lifted the cell back to my ear. “Sorry, yeah, I’m here.”
“You just went on Instagram, didn’t you?”
I nodded, though Miles clearly couldn’t see me. “Why does it hurt? I mean, this was inevitable. He married her, for God’s sake.”
“Because you did all the hard work for nothing, that’s why. That man would be wearing a gray zip-up hoodie andCrocs if you hadn’t helped him. It’s like someone buying your fully trained dog after three years of you cleaning up its piss.”
I smiled sadly. “I really need to move on.”
“Youhavemoved on. What you need is to move up and down.”
I took a deep breath and let it out on a big sigh. “Yeah.”
