His mouth parted.
“I took the site down a few days ago,” I said quietly. “It’s over. It imploded—wedid.”
“Because of all this? Does he have a different soulmate or something?”
I shook my head. “Natural causes.” Cambrey Coyle x Wells Stratton, a collaboration that doomed my future.
“There were articles speculating about the two of you. He’s some kind of... heir?”
Air huffed from my nose. “He wishes. But not exactly. He’s a child of new money. His dad’s the bigshot in the family. And I’m his ex-fiancée, though my work doesn’t know theexpart. Yet.”
Caleb studied me. “I’m sorry.”
I twisted my mouth as if to say,that’s life. “So am I. Wedding was supposed to be in five months. Just—” I shook my head. “Unexpected.”
He shifted. “I hope you’re okay. You already back on dating apps?”
Okay. The word spun in the center of my chest. I brimmed with so much. My nerve endings were raw, my mind pinging on memories that shook out like seasoning. Like Honey O’s box tops. “Ha,” I said weakly. “I’m interviewing that HeartString guy tomorrow, actually.” I paused. “And, yeah, I’m okay. I’m moving on—and moving out of Nat’s soon, too.”
“Did you get the new place?”
I nodded. “Well. Hopefully. I applied for one near Gramercy Park.”
“No kidding! I’m five blocks from there. Near Union Square, before you get to the Strand. Let me know if you get it.”
He launched into a story involving his moving truck breaking down on the GW bridge—he was stuck on it for ten hours, which freaked me out almost as much as his teeth-meeting-pavement story. We split a mezze platter overflowing with whipped feta and two kinds of olive tapenades and roasted red pepper hummus. To my surprise, I found that I was laughingso hard and for so long that I decided to let myself have this. I wouldn’t ruin it by ripping into what drew us apart.
At the end of the night, we waited outside for our separate rides, which was how I figured out that he’d had a growth spurt sometime after high school. “How the hell did you get so tall?” I asked.
“HGH,” he said.
“Seriously?”
“Nah. I blossomed once I left my parents’ house.”
“Ouch,” I said wryly.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something all night.”
I tilted my head. Here it was. “Yeah?”
He bent low, bracing himself on my shoulder so we were eye-to-eye. “Why did you order that drink if you hate grapefruit?”
A laugh sprang from my throat. “That isnotthe direction I thought you were going here.” I straightened. “But if you must know, it wasn’t grapefruit I hated. It was the fact that my mother ate half of one every morning with a serrated spoon and only allowed herself to put sugar on it once a week.”
“God bless the two-thousands.” He paused. “I don’t want this to end.”
A pang in my chest. “This?”
“Tonight. Us. It’s great to catch up. Dinner soon?”
“I’d like that,” I said. Next time, I’d dig into our past. “I can’t believe you’ve gone and grown up on me, Caleb.”
“I could say the same, Livi.”
Livi. The use of my nickname curled against my spine like the warm embers of a coal fire.
Fifteen
