“You wanna shoot? You don’t have your license, babe.”
She rolls her eyes and shifts in the loud chair.
“So what was Cody’s problem the other day?” she whispers.
“When?”
“When we were decorating at your parents’, you asked if he was jealous and he sorta laughed and said, ‘hard pass.’”
“How do you remember details like that?”
“I’m a woman.”
“I am well aware.” I snort.
She elbows me. “Just answer the question.”
I sigh before I look to her. She’s not even gonna believe me when I tell her, and I want to be careful about how much I even share. It’s Cody’s business, not mine, and it’s still a sore subject, even all these years later.
“Cody was engaged,” I blurt.
Her eyes bug. “Really?”
“She left him at the altar. Literally. They were minutes away from saying I do.”
Ella’s reaction is what I expected it to be. You don’t hear about stuff like that actually happening, you only see it in movies or TV shows.
“That’s… awful,” she says.
I’m waiting for her to ask another question, but she doesn’t. She looks sick to her stomach, though.
“He’s alright now. But don’t bring it up.”
“I won’t.” She shakes her head and doesn’t say another word. I find it a little weird; I thought she’d wanna know everything. Her name, how long they were together, what her reason was… but she doesn’t.
* * *
Once we get back to my place, I let her get changed first. Busying myself, I throw a few more logs into the wood stove and let the dogs out. I reach for a bottle of wine above my fridge and two glasses.
Hearing her footsteps, I look up to see her in a sweatshirt and jeans. Those damn jeans. I love her in jeans.
“Oh, wine?”
“If you want,” I offer.
“Sure.”
I hand her a glass. “Cheers to not seeing a damn thing tonight,” I joke. She laughs and we clink the glasses together before sipping it.
“We’ve never drank together legally,” she points out.
I laugh. “That’s weird to think about.”
“I know. It’s weird, we didn’t know each other basically ourentire twenties.” Her tone is somber. I hate that. I don’t want to have some sad, depressing night. I want to tell her how I still feel about her.
“Hey.” I round the island. “Let’s not go there.”
“I just wish we wouldn’t have missed out on so much together.”
