Those are new.
“Noah, let’s all sit at the table.” Veronica gets up from the couch. “Eat together, as a family.” She winks at me.
I tense. She's doing this for me? Closeness is the last thing I need with him.
I look over at him and see his eyes fixated on me as he answers, “Sure”.
I swallow deeply. This is not going to be easy.
***
“Oh, Reef sharks are nothing to be scared of. Perfectly harmless.” Noah explains before biting into the tip of his pizza.
I look away. Watching him insert something into his mouth isn’t something I should be doing. I focus on my own slice, picking off the pepperoni so I can eat it last.
“You eat like a toddler,” Noah says to me, breaking me out of my distraction and right back onto him.
I look up and deadpan as I slip one in my mouth to prove a point. “I like saving the best for last.”
“Clearly.” He narrows his eyes at me.
I pause, meeting his gaze before taking another bite.What does that even mean?
“Well,allsharks scare me,” Veronica says, shaking her head, wiping her hands on a napkin. “I don’t care if they’re harmless. I could never go near them.”
This makes me laugh, reminding me of how Noah was terrified of bears on our camping trip. I found it so endearing then. So, cute and adorable how close he’d snuggle up to me. As if my only job were to protect him. Even though it's painful to remember, the memory still makes me smile. I look at Veronica to make it not obvious that I was thinking about the beautiful boy across from us.
Even though I can feel his fiery stare, like it’s drilling into the side of my head.
“So, what are you two now? Married? Engaged? Just fucking?” Noah snaps, making my head whip back towards him.
Veronica’s jaw drops. She clamps her hands over Paislee’s ears, seated on her lap. “Noah! Where’d that come from!?” she hisses.
His eyes lock on mine. His mouth is getting him into trouble, the same way it always has. It’s like he can’t control himself. He needs some sort of reaction to feel seen.
“We’re officially engaged.” Veronica holds up her hand to flash the ring I bought her a few months after Noah left. “Life has been pretty busy, clearly with Paislee, but we’ll get married as soon as everything settles down.”
I take a deep breath in and I look down at the pizza on my plate, refusing to make eye contact with him. I don’t need him deciphering how I truly feel about the situation. I should feel happy about the engagement. Excited even. But it turns out, a diamond ring can’t fill an empty heart.
“Oh, that’s justamazing,” Noah says, a tight smile curling his lips. “Greatnews, actually. I’m just so sorry my congratulations is so late,” he sneers, sarcasm dripping from every word.
I look up at him, unable to control my mouth as the words spew out. “You would’ve known sooner if you had picked up one of our million calls.”
This takes Noah back. I see it all over his face that he wasn’t expecting me to come back with that. Well, fuck it. I’m standing up for myself. He can’t sit there and make me feel like shit about doing what was right. It would’ve been different if he had stayed.
When we could’ve figured it outtogether.
“Got rid of my phone. Needed a break.”
“You ran away.” I huff.
“I gave you space,” he answers. His eyes flick over to his mom. “You all space. To focus on Paislee.”
“Yeah, but going silent for a whole year? Not cool,” Veronica adds, sliding her plate closer. “It’s normal for us to be upset,” she says, then takes a bite of her pizza.
It’s nice of her to want to help, but this runs far deeper than she even knows—which just adds another layer of pressure and guilt.
“You didn’t need me.” Noah looks between the two of us. I’m sure he feels ganged up on. But, I don’t care. He needs to hear it.
