“A couple weeks ago, he told me he was attracted to a patient’s mother,” Austin explains. “And when you told me he’d operated on your daughter, everything made sense. It explains why he asked me where I was taking you tonight, and why he’s glaring at me like?—”
“Oh, Luke’s not here for me.”
Austin chuckles. “You sure about that?”
“He has a girlfriend,” I say quickly. “Sloane. I met her at your hockey game.”
Austin frowns. “Nah, he broke up with Sloane a couplemonths ago. She probably came to hockey to try to win him back, but since he chased you here tonight, you can bet it didn’t work. Luke’s not the type to chase more than one girl at a time.”
“Huh.”Luke broke up with Sloane a couple months ago.I still wonder who knocked on his door when we were on the phone the other night, but maybe there’s an innocent explanation for that.
Austin stretches his hand across the table, palm up. “You wanna hold my hand and see how he reacts?”
I take Austin’s hand and force myself to wait a minute before sneaking a look at Luke. He’s still talking to my mother, but the set of his jaw tells me he’s noticed.
“I’m sorry.” I extricate my fingers from Austin’s. “I didn’t know Luke would show up, or that my mother would. It was really kind of you to ask me out, and?—”
“There’s no need to apologize, Melissa. These things happen.”
I look at him skeptically. “Do they, though?”
His smile broadens. “Not often, I guess. You’re an original, Melissa Lawrence. Luke’s a lucky man.”
“I’m not with Luke,” I protest, but it sounds weak, even to my ears.
“Okay,” Austin says with a nod. “You want to invite your mom and Luke to join us? Or ignore them and order dessert?” His eyes gleam wickedly. “If you really want him to suffer, you could kiss me.”
“I think I need to talk to Luke.” We’ve been dancing around something ever since I saw him in the Emergency Room, and it’s time to have it out. “But not in front of my mother.”
Austin nods. “You want me to take you to his place?”
“Yes,” I agree, before I can talk myself out of it. “Should I text him?” I’m not keen to ask Luke to meet meat his condo while my mother’s standing next to him. With my luck, she’ll want to come along.
“I think if we go, he’ll follow us,” Austin says with a grin. “If I were you, I wouldn’t text ’til we’re in the car. Make him suffer a little longer.” He signals the waitress for the check, and flat-out refuses to let me pay half. I’ve been a horrible date, so it seems like the least I can do, but he’s not having any of it.
And just as Austin predicted, as soon as we stand to leave, Luke gestures to the bartender and pulls out his credit card to settle his tab. I take Austin’s hand again as we walk out, passing within a few feet of Luke and my mother.
TWENTY-THREE
LUKE
It’s all I can do not to confront them as they walk out of the restaurant.
I vowed I wouldn’t come to Mickey’s to spy on Austin and Melissa. It’s a bit pathetic and desperate—okay, very pathetic and desperate, which is why I vowed I wouldn’t do it. I was going to go to the gym. Walk along the lake and watch the sunset by myself. Watch a hockey game, drink beer, and eat Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Anything but think about Melissa and Austin.
But despite my good intentions, I couldn’t keep my mind off the fact that Austin was taking Melissa out. Which is why I wound up at Mickey’s, resisting the attentions of two undergrads while trying not to stare at Austin and Melissa. Tortured myself watching her smile and laugh with my friend, and wondered if Austin ordered pickles on his hamburger. If I were a better person, I’d have warned him that Melissa hates pickles. If he kisses her with pickle breath, she won’t enjoy it.
Then Melissa’s mom showed up to complete the farce, and we both pretended not to stare at Melissa and Austin.Who are now walking past me out of the restaurant, looking like a very cozy couple.
Melissa can’t go home with Austin.All the confusion of the past few weeks—the Medical Board rules, the fact that Melissa’s on the rebound, the way our relationship ended—seems to crystallize into one simple fact.Melissa can’t go home with Austin, because Melissa belongs to me.
But I can’t confront them here, in a restaurant, in front of Melissa’s mother.
I still can’t believe Mrs. Lawrence had the nerve to show up here tonight. She was always in our business when Melissa and I were in high school, and it drove me mad then too, but I could understand it. Melissa was a teenage girl, I was a teenage boy, and I was thinking exactly what Mrs. Lawrence feared I was. But there’s no excuse for crashing Melissa’s date when she’s a thirty-one-year-old woman with kids of her own.
Then again, I can hardly claim the moral high ground, since I’ve done the same thing. But it feels different for me somehow.
Because Melissa belongs to me.
