“I look like a tired raccoon and we both know it, but I love you for lying.” Maren beams at her anyway. “This party is incredible though, right? You’d think it was professionally done.”
“Emma’s got skills.” Margo glances around at the decorations with appreciation. “The fog machine alone is amazing.”
Maren waves a hand. “I know. Both Emma and Theo love to host and live for this stuff. I’m just here for the meringue and the gossip.”
“Hey, Dom,” Jayson says, reaching across the table to shake my hand. He’s got a solid grip, the kind that comes from years of working with his hands in a kitchen. “Good to see you, man. Congrats on the New York fight. I had it streaming at The Black Lantern during dinner service and I swear the whole town was crammed in there watching. People were standing on chairs.”
“Thanks, Jayson. I appreciate that.” I’m genuinely touched by the support, even if I’m bad at showing it. “Roman worked his ass off for that win.”
“It showed. Tell him he’s got free appetizers for life whenever he’s in town.”
“Margo, this is Dominic,” Jayson continues, settling into his chair with the ease of someone who’s comfortable in any social situation. “Maren’s brother-in-law. The fighter guy.”
Margo’s face lights up with recognition. “Dominic Midnight! Oh my gosh, I remember you now. You were friends with my brother!”
“Nice to see you again, Margo,” I say. “It’s hard to believe you aren’t a tiny kid anymore. I remember you at Danny’s boxing matches back in the day, always in the corner with your homework.”
She laughs. “My mom dragged me toeverysingle one of Danny’s matches whether I wanted to go or not. Half the boys seemed so annoyed that this little kid was always hanging around.” She glances at Jayson and Maren. “But Dominic was always nice to me. Which stood out, because most of those guys just wanted me to go away.”
“You were a good kid,” I say. “I never understood what their problem was.”
Margo smiles. “This is so funny actually. Danny mentioned you just recently. He saw you and, shoot, what was her name...” She snaps her fingers, searching for it. “Brooke something? Dark hair? Anyway, he saw you guys at the fundraiser gala a while back.”
I blink. “Oh, weird. I don’t remember seeing him there.”
“He probably chickened out of saying hi,” Margo says, waving her hand like this explains everything. “You know Danny. He’s always been better at avoiding awkward situations than confronting them. He still feels terrible about that whole thing with you and Brooke.”
I frown, trying to make sense of that. Danny was the one who’d tipped me off about Brooke back in high school, told me she was planning to go to the scholarship committee behind my back and sabotage my application. Why the hell would he feel terrible? If anything, I’d always thought of him as a decent friend for giving me the heads-up.
“Sorry, I’m not following,” I say. “What do you mean, he feels terrible? About what?”
“Well, I mean that whole scholarship thing.” Margo takes a sip of her drink. “He had a thing for Brooke back then, and I guess he was convinced you two were secretly into each other, so he told you...” She trails off. Her eyes go wide. “Oh my God. You don’t know? I swear he always made it sound like he eventually told you about all this!”
“No,” I say, though I have a sinking feeling I know where this is heading. But I do my best to smile since Margo looks mortified and she hasn’t done anything wrong. “I’m sure he meant to, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jayson watches Margo with a slightly puzzled expression, clearly lost. In my peripheral I can see Maren’s eyes dartingbetween Margo and me, her meringue frozen halfway to her mouth.
“Oh, okay… this is awkward.” She sets down her drink and glances at Jayson, who gives her a small encouraging nod. “Uh, apparently he told you that Brooke was planning to sabotage your scholarship application? To try and, I don’t know, cause problems between you two or break up whatever was going on.” She tucks her hair behind her ear, clearly wishing she could take back the last two minutes. “He was eighteen and had this massive crush on her, and I think he just wanted you out of the picture. He’s felt awful about it ever since.”
The noise of the party, the music and laughter and Chloe shrieking about her dragon wings somewhere across the room, all of it goes distant and muffled, like someone shoved cotton in my ears.
Maren’s hand finds my arm and squeezes once, firm and grounding.
“Brooke wasn’t planning on sabotaging me,” I say, and I’m not sure if it’s a question or a statement. My voice sounds strange in my own ears.
“No,” Margo says, her hand covering her mouth. “She wasn’t. Danny made it up, was hoping to like, swoop in. But it turned out she wasn’t interested in him anyway. And I’m so sorry, Dominic. I genuinely thought you knew. The way he talked about it, I assumed he’d come clean to you years ago.”
“It’s okay, Margo.” She looks like she might cry and none of this is her fault. “Seriously. Don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago. Ancient history.”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “Because I feel terrible. I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“I’m sure,” I say, and I smile at her because that’s what you do. “Danny and I will catch up at some point and clear the air,but this isn’t on you. Like I said, it was so long ago. We were all just kids who did stupid stuff.”
She nods, half smiling with obvious relief, and Jayson squeezes her shoulder and steers the conversation somewhere safer, asking Maren about the meringue recipe and whether Theo would share it. Maren picks it up without missing a beat because she can read a room better than anyone I’ve ever met, and the three of them start talking about Theo’s cooking and the secret to perfect meringue while I sit there and nod in the right places and make the appropriate sounds.
I went to the scholarship committee because Danny Miller told me Brooke was going to sabotage my application.
I believed him without a second thought because it fit. Because Brooke and I were competitive about everything, because we were sleeping together and it was messy and confusing and I didn’t know what any of it meant. Because some part of me was already waiting for her to betray me, already braced for the moment when this thing between us would explode.
