“Ro thought it would be good for us to get to know each other.” He says it casually, like that sentence isn’t a punch to the gut.
“Oh?”
I’m afraid if I say anything more, disappointment would literally drip from my words onto the sand.
“Yeah,” Matt says, smiling now. “Sounds like we have a lot in common.”
The plot twist I hadn’t seen coming:Ro brought me a date.
I tell myself the bile rising in my throat is just annoyance at yet another person meddling in my life, but when acid hits the back of my tongue, I know it’s more than that.
“What the fuck is taking so long with the drinks?” I say, yanking off the blanket that’s suddenly suffocating me.
Matt’s eyes widen briefly at my abruptness, but he’s quick on the recovery.
“This place is packed,” he says, stating the obvious. “Bar’s gotta be slammed.”
“Yes, I know how bars work,” I say, relieved to finally see Travis and Evan a couple hundred yards out.
Even if Evan hasn’t spoken two words to me all night, and Travis hasn’t stopped complaining about the lack of vegan options among all the free food, right now, I’d still prefer their company to Matt’s.
Travis yells a single word I can’t make out, which Liv responds to immediately. She leans into Ro, smiling, before running to Travis and jumping into his arms. I watch to see if Ro has any reaction to their dramatic embrace, but he just laughsand loads the four drinks into his hands. He turns to me, still smiling, but his brows crease when he sees my face. I must not wear betrayal well.
I’m standing now, so when Mattuhhh’sto my insult about the bar, it doesn’t help that I’m alsophysicallylooking down on him.
He stands to his full height. “So, like I was saying, Ro thought we should talk.”
This time, though, before I can tell him thatyes, Matt, I got that!,he continues.
“I was over at Winston Prep for a couple years after graduation, but ended up leaving pretty quick. I loved the kids, but teaching wasn’t really for me. Ro said you might be in a similar spot?”
Ro’s still stalking toward us, brows furrowed in question, but I finally break eye contact with him to look back toward Matt.
“Wait, what?” I start, tripping over myself to catch up. “You came to give me career advice? I thought you were trying to hook up.”
“Wait, what?” Matt echoes.
Just as Ro reaches us.
His eyes ping-pong between us. Matt’s do the same with me and Ro, and mine with Ro and Matt. So now we’re all just looking at one another, waiting for someone to make sense of something.
Finally, Ro says, “I see you two are getting along,” and he holds up the cocktails he apparently had to ferment at the bar himself. “Drinks?”
—
Even with legs nearly twice as long as mine, Ro struggles to keep up as an inexplicable rage fuels my march down the beach.
“Hold up,” he calls from just behind me. “I don’t get why you’re mad. What’d I do?”
He jogs in front of me to block my path. His face is awash with concern and something bordering on panic. If his body hadn’t just physically stopped me in my tracks, that look might’ve done it.
Ro’s hands are still holding my arms in place, and without registering it, I’ve let myself just barely lean into his touch. I’m quick to right my posture before attempting an explanation I don’t have yet.
“Well, first you basically go ghost—”
“You thinkIghostedyou?”
But I don’t slow down to address his incredibly sound argument. “And then you bring thatguyto try to—I don’t even know what. Coach me? Fix me?”
