“What? No. I wouldn’t have.”
Wouldn’t? Ok, ouch. There’s a heart stopping moment when I realize if Elise has been close with the family, would she have unknowingly told them about me? Do they know she’s divorced?
“Is he same the guy you made out with like right after he saved your life?” Laura starts to ask, and from the intense red filling Elise’s cheeks, she doesn’t even need to confirm it. “Oh my god, I didn’t realize that wasalsoyour ex-h—I mean, the same guy. Shawn.”
I try not to glare at Laura at that near-tripped-over syllable. She fucking knows.
“It wasn’t that dramatic,” Elise hisses, but her protest is lost in the table’s reaction.
Aiden slaps the booth in victory, Logan elbows him to keep him quiet as Laura’s eyes widen comically.
I don’t have more than a second to appreciate the way it has apparently been recounted, because I don’t remember it being quite that dire, when Laura locks eyes with me.
“Didn’t you say that guy had a—NIPPLE PIERCING. Oh my god. Shawn, you have to show us,” Laura gasps, eyes wide with my impending doom.
“Ew, no, I don’t want to see my brother’s nipples while I’m drinking.” Aiden immediately grimaces.
“Logan has a tramp stamp,” I counter, and for once his mask of indifference slips and he looks mildly panicked.
“It’s not a tramp stamp, it’s tasteful and off-center,” Logan mutters. The attention slides off him quickly, but I know Aiden is going to tease him about it later, and with family it really is about the long con.
“Oh my god. Can I tell them that Shawn’s the guy who said the mystical tit-jobs line?” Laura squeals, undeterred, looking like she’s been given everything she ever wanted for Christmas. I wish I’d known to tell Elise not to share a goddamn thing with her, but how could I have known they’d be friends?
Elise just looks as mortified as before, shrinking back in the corner.
“Sordid enough for you?” Logan ribs Aiden, looking the most amused he has in a while.
Making the most wildly evil eyes ever, Laura giggles low and loud, “Huhuhuhuhuh.”
“Hey, guys, lay off,” I start to say, not so much for myself. I don’t care if I have to show them where my old piercings have healed over, but I think Elise might crawl under the table in a few minutes.
Aiden catches my drift and looks between the two of us. He says to her in an undertone, “He should be the one embarrassed for that line.”
“Let’s stop torturing her. Shawn’s turn. Tell us something worse than that, I’m sure you’ve got something,” Laura challenges me.
“Shawn does have a lot of bad breakup stories,” Logan readily agrees.
Elise looks at me, clearly curious, as much as she’s trying to appear disinterested. Maybe she wonders if I ever told my family about us.
“Two. I have two,” I grumble quickly. Having their attention just on me isn’t better, actually. “From high school.”
“Uh-huh.” Laura rolls her eyes.
I grimace at myself. That they know of.
“One girl, I really thought he was going to fake his death or something,” Laura is quick to explain to Elise, reaching across the table to hold her attention.
I can see in Elise’s eyes that she agrees. Instead of amusement, there’s a flicker of coldness in her expression, knowing exactly what Laura’s talking about.
“You never would make the hard decisions. You always chickened out when it was actually tough,” she says, the words cold and cutting, and it doesn’t seem like she said itintentionally. Her face has shuttered in a way that, when she blinks, she seems to realize she said her thoughts out loud.
I watch Elise’s expression turn into something unreachable.
The table has gone utterly quiet. Aiden swallows. Maybe he thought the gory details would be funny and interesting, and not just all the ways we tore each other apart.
I dragged out our relationship much longer than it should have gone. I should have ended it early, so that it never got to the point of wanting to build a life together, because I knew the whole time my parents wouldn’t approve. We couldn’t have a human marrying into the family. It weakened the strength of the pack.
Aiden is the first to find the wherewithal to try and change the subject, but I’m too busy watching Elise to listen.
