Cody stood and put the end of his belt back through the loop to secure it. “Are you expecting someone?”
She shook her head and pushed her skirt down over her legs. “No.” She snatched her panties off the floor and wadded them in her hand.
“Stay here. I’ll get it.”
She let him go so she could slip back into her panties.
Cody unlocked the door and opened it again. Almost immediately, he closed it without saying anything.
She walked around the bookshelves and spotted him holding a box of her favorite chocolates and a note on a piece of paper. “Who is it from?”
“They didn’t sign it.” Something in his voice told her she didn’t want to see it.
We aren’t over.
“Was it her? Or him?” she asked, though neither answer would sit well with her.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone. But my car is parked right out front again, just like last time.”
“Has Kristi tried to contact you at all?”
Guilt clouded Cody’s eyes.
“What? Seriously? You’ve been talking to her.”
“No.” He dumped the box and note on the checkout counter and took her by the shoulders before she could back away from him. “I didn’t want to say anything because it’s just her venting. I don’t respond to any of her texts.”
“Then why keep it from me?”
“Because I didn’t want to put that on you. She’s angry with me. I can take it.”
“It’s not like she’s blameless in your relationship. She manipulated you. She purposely stopped taking the pill to get pregnant and a marriage proposal. If not for the broken condom, it wouldn’t have happened. Still…what is she saying to you?”
Cody pulled out his phone, tapped to get to the text string, then handed his phone to her without hesitation.
KRISTI: All of my friends are whispering behind my back about you and Brooke
KRISTI: I can’t believe you chose fucking your sister over me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KRISTI: My boss made a comment in a meeting today about how I can help with a project since I won’t be taking my honeymoon and everyone went quiet and looked at me with pity.
KRISTI: I bet no one is saying shit to you, because you’re the golden boy lawyer with poor broken Brooke to take care of.
That one ended with a vomiting puke face.
There were more. All of them the same vitriol, about someone commenting about the breakup or canceled wedding and her taking it not just badly, but in a way that read into others’ comments in a way that maybe they didn’t mean.
Brooke handed the phone back to him. She didn’t want to read any more of that venom. “Why the fuck don’t you block her?”
“If she needs to vent, then let her do it that way, instead of some other destructive way. She blames me. Fine. I choose to take the high road and focus on what’s important to me. And that’s you. I hope she moves on the way we’re doing.”
“Maybe you should set her up with a friend?” She considered her words, then shook her head. “Forget what I said. You don’t want to lose a friend, too.”
Cody hooked his arm around her shoulders. “You’re bad. And I like it, because it means you’re back to your teasing, and that’s a good sign.”
She met his gaze and her smile fell with her next words. “What you’re not saying is that this could be him again.”
“We don’t know that.”
