‘They always do that. I think George spends most of his free time coming up with reads for Al. But I’m pretty sure Al wings it every time.’
‘We’re leaving you now, boys.’ Al and Willa had approached the service station. ‘It was a wonderful meal as always. And wonderful seeing you again, Gabe.’ Al batted his eyelashes.
‘Enough, Al. Let them clean up so they can go home.’ Willa pulled at his arm.
‘Wait,’ Gabe said. ‘What movie would you want to watch instead ofCasablanca?’
Al rolled his eyes. ‘Honestly, anything. But I was pitchingPink Flamingos.’ Gabe let out a laugh that brought a smile to Al’s face. ‘I just wanted them all to watch Divine eat dog shit.’
Gabe laughed so hard he had to hold on to the side of the service station while Al joined in. Willa and I just gave each other puzzled looks. Gabe immediately launched into a conversation about the movie, which I couldn’t follow.
I started clearing their table while Willa stood there, bored and waiting for Al and Gabe to run out of steam. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t think it was going to happen.
Ms Vaughn was finally able to drag Al away, and Gabe jumped in to help reset my section.
‘You don’t have to help me,’ I said.
‘You’ve been avoiding me.’
‘Correct. And your helping me out is directly interfering with that.’
‘You also haven’t answered my texts.’
Also correct, and yes, that may have been more childish than avoiding him. But it didn’t mean I wanted to have this conversationin person! Step three in the recipe for getting over someone who is in a relationship: repeat steps one and two until you die.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, following me and placing butter knives next to my place settings. ‘I know I should have told you before we …’ His voice trailed off.
I helped him. ‘Kissed.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Oh, good, youdoknow what kissing is.’ I let out a huge, sarcastic breath. ‘Because I was starting to worry you didn’t know the word for it.’
He stared at the knife in his hands. ‘I just … I didn’t know what to say.’
‘Well, let’s revisit our first interaction. You come up to me, pretend you don’t know me at all, and say, “Hey, I’m Gabe, blah, blah, blah.” Then, literally anywhere in the three weeks after, drop the words “my boyfriend” into our conversations. Anywhere. Anytime, with zero context, would have been fine.’
‘I know that. It’s just complicated.’
I paused, looking up from my own silverware. Complicated how? Did that mean their relationship was complicated? Or maybe, like me, he wasn’t out to everyone. My friends all knew, the servers at Sunset Estates and the yearbook staff at school. But my mom didn’t. Maybe that was his complication, too.
He still hadn’t gone any further, so I shrugged when he looked at me. ‘What’s complicated about it?’
‘Our relationship. Him and me. It’s … I don’t know.’
I helped. ‘Complicated.’
He smirked, and it nearly killed me. ‘You’resointuitive.’
I went back to the service station to grab more silverware and he followed. ‘And I’m also upset. Because it seemed like you were into me, but you actually had a boyfriend the entire time. Like, why would you spend so much time alone with me, talking about our interests? Watching movies over the phone? Why would you invite me back to your house and show me that movie? This is manipulative behavior.’ Ava helped me realize that when I told her what had happened.
His face fell, and he became as serious as I’d ever seen him. ‘I really wasn’t trying to be manipulative. I’m sorry. I … Ugh, now this is going to sound manipulative, too.’
‘Then just say it.’ I crossed my arms. ‘I mean, I’m used to it by now.’
He sighed and walked past me to check and make sure no one else was coming back to the service station. Then he came back, keeping his voice low. ‘Because you’re cute.’
My face burned all the way down to my chest, which ached from my suddenly pounding heart.
