She turned to Brenna and waved, a broad smile on her face. “Brenna!” she sang. “It’s good to see you. This place looks great.”
“Thank you.” Brenna held up a flat hand, her mouth twisting with annoyance. I’d seen that look of simmering jealousy before, but not since high school.
Her gaze swung to me, disdain for Deandra remaining for a beat before her expression cleared. She pointed over her shoulder. “I’ve got to take care of something in the back.” To Allison, she asked, “Do you have it covered?”
Brenna retreated before Allison could agree.
“Just as I thought.” Deandra winked at me. “It’s high school all over again, except this time, I won’t be the pretty face you distract yourself with.”
“Ooh.” Gemma’s voice rose a few octaves. “Please tell me this story.”
“I’d rather not—” I started before Deandra swiftly cut me off.
She opened a mirror to reapply dark red lipstick. “Brenna caught us making out on the couch at her house. She was dating someone else at the time, and Nathan wanted to make her jealous.” She smacked her lips before closing the compact. “Boy, did she want to kill me.”
“I wasn’t trying to make her jealous,” I protested.
“Oh, please. We could have gone to your room. You wanted her to catch us.”
I hadn’t realized it then, at least not consciously. “Shit, I’m sorry, Deandra.”
She flicked her hand at me. “It’s fine. All of us knew the deal, Nathan. You didn’t make promises.”
I scratched the back of my neck, uncomfortable with this walk down memory lane. “All right. Well… I take your orders and get them into the kitchen.”
Gemma smirked. “Do you usually take orders?”
Kennedy swatted her hand, understanding more about the dynamic here than I expected. When the food was ready, I carried it to the table so Brenna wouldn’t have to. The three of them were eventually recognized by Bertram, who took a seat at their table after his friends left. Gemma grumbled before he came over, but she chatted happily with him.
Kennedy caught my arm as I was clearing their plates. She kept fiddling with something in her bag, which I realized was an excuse to hang back and talk to me alone. “Don’t give up, yet.” I thought she meant the café, but her eyes flicked to Brenna behind the counter. “Things tend to work out the way they should.”
My heart swelled, desperate for any sign of hope for Brenna and me. Maybe Kennedy saw something in Brenna’s expression that I didn’t… or at least I couldn’t trust that I did. Brenna and I used to communicate openly and honestly, but we weren’t yet back to the place from before our parents fucked up our lives. One of us had to take the first step to repair us, to address our past, admit what simmered between us now.
She wouldn’t. I knew Brenna to her core. She avoided hurting people, and bringing up our past would hurt me. I took a deep breath, rallying to ask if she wanted to grab lunch.
But the café door chimed, and Derek Ellis walked in, his eyes firmly on Brenna. “Ready to go?”
I slumped into the nearest chair and watched as Brenna left without a glance in my direction.
I needed to get the fuck out of Middlebury before I lost my damn mind.
26
BRENNA
Now
The temperature dropped fiftydegrees in the last few days.
None of my clothes from California did anything to protect me from the cold. My heaviest winter clothes were still in my old roommate’s storage locker in Chicago.
The HVAC didn’t circulate as well as it should, and my room bore the brunt, always hotter or colder than the rest of the house. When I first got here, I basked in the extra heat, but now I was wearing leggings, sweatpants, a tank top, a T-shirt, and Nathan’s sweatshirt that I never returned.
“You look like a snowman,” Molly teased. She sat on the couch, eating cereal and watching cartoons, like we used to do when we lived together. We video chatted every Saturday morning since my temporary move to Middlebury, pretending we weren’t thousands of miles apart.
“It’s cold, Molls,” I whined playfully, pulling the drawstring of my sweatshirt hood tighter.
She swallowed another bite. “It’s warm here. I played outside yesterday in short sleeves.”
