“Thank you,” I said genuinely, and slipped out into the parking lot.
I waited until I was home, a cup of coffee in hand, freshly showered and changed, the white jogging suit in the trash, before I turned on my phone.
As expected, the screen blew up with missed calls and messages.
My parents.
Charli. Harper. Kat.
And of course, Trevor.
I skipped everyone else and clicked on his name.
Trevor:
Jess? Where are you?
Is everything okay? We can talk about this.
Everyone is waiting, Jess! Stop fucking around.
Charli just told me you weren’t coming. What the fuck?
Jess!!
Do you know how embarrassing this is?
Do you know what this means? The investors are here!
CALL ME!
I lowered the phone to my lap and looked up, taking a breath. I took a long sip of coffee before picking up my phone again and clicking on the group chat with my girlfriends. I skipped reading any of the messages and scrolled to the bottom to leave my own.
Jess:
Thank you for my phone, keys, and…everything! I’m home now. I’ll fill you all in, but I need to call Trevor first.
The responses came right away. But I didn’t click over to read any of them. I couldn’t put it off much longer. No matter what I was feeling—and to be completely truthful, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was feeling anymore—I needed to talk to Trevor.
I pressed the button to call him and blew out a breath.
My gut clenched when he picked up on the first ring. “Jess? What the hell? Where are you? Are you at home? I’m coming?—”
“Trevor.” I cut him off. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have?—”
“You shouldn’t have done a lot of things, Jess.”
His voice was laced with venom. I’d heard him upset before, but never so angry. And never had that been directed at me.
“I’m in the car. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
He hung up on me before I could object. And really, as much as I didn’t want to deal with the fallout of my decision, I was a grown-up, and I couldn’t put it off forever.
I took another fortifying sip of coffee before texting my parents with the assurance that I was fine and I’d call them later to explain. On a whim, I quickly texted Preston.
Jess:
I made it home okay. Thank you again. I really…
