When Ethan sees me with Sawyer, there isn’t even a fleeting look of surprise on his face. Instead, a giant grin breaks through his features.
“Brie,” he says, leaning over and . . .hugging me?
My arms remain glued to my sides.
“Um, hi?” It comes out as a question.
Ethan looks at me—I meanreallylooks at me—with eyes full of intense meaning. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Thanks,” I say, heart inflating a fraction.
See?the smug voice says.
The last time I saw Ethan Darvish, he was in a tux standing behind Sawyer, laughing at me with the whole school. He’d never been as cruel as Rich, but he’d still been their accomplice. And yet, looking at him now, with his open smile and kind words, he seems like a completely different person.
Maybe he is.
I glance up at Sawyer, who nods at Ethan conspiratorially.
Or maybe he isn’t.It’s a tiny pinprick to my heart, deflating it.
“Margarita okay with you, Brie?” Ethan asks, relieving a frizzy-haired server of a pitcher. “I already ordered a bunch of food.”
“Sure,” I say, trying to smile.
You’re just being paranoid. We’re adults now. Not everyone is out to get me. Maybe Ethan really has grown. And if Ethan’s grown, maybe?—
“Brie Queso!”
I wince, then raise my eyes to Richard B. Whitmore III. The most successful person I’ve ever been near.
Also, the biggest ass.
Maybe I’m in an episode ofAmerican Horror Storyinstead.
“Dude!” Rich’s elated eyes travel between Sawyer and me before he claps him on the back. “You did it, man!”
Oh god. What did Sawyer do?
Am I part of some kind of bet? Am I the butt of some joke?Again?Is this why Ethan wasn’t surprised to see me here?
I haven’t felt this particular fight or flight response in years. I thought I felt it when I spotted Sawyer in his office that first day, but it wasn’t this. Blood gushes in my ears, my heart beating like a hummingbird’s.
“Rich,” Sawyer grits out, eyes hard. “You remember BrieCasey. She’ll be joining us with a friend.”
Tess. I glance at the door, then the time. She’s only a few minutes late, but the adrenaline already coursing through my system ramps up.
“I might not be staying,” I say to my hands.
Understatement of the century. The second Tess gets here, we’re leaving. We’ll go to The Square for burgers, orgrab a pizza from Angelica’s and eat it in my car if we have to.
Ignoring me, Rich snorts, “What friend?Dev?”
The way he says his name, with casual derision, has my fingernails digging into my thighs.
“A friend from work,” Sawyer says evenly, like he’s speaking to one of the kindergarteners.
Rich snorts. “Didn’t know Brie Queso had other friends.”
