Will it just stir up all the feelings I’ve finally figured out how to hold at a distance?
I let my head fall back against the door behind me, thoughts more confused than ever.
“I don’t have to go,” I say out loud.
Just because he invited me doesn’t mean my attendance is required. Nobody is forcing me to go.
My life is good.
I’m happy.
I don’t need to reopen something just because it’s there.
I push myself up off the ground and finally enter my apartment, setting the invitation on my kitchen table like it’s just another piece of mail.
Like it’s not quietly unraveling every carefully folded thought I’ve had about him for the past six months just by existing.
Before taking the hottest shower my chilled skin can tolerate, I send a quick SOS text to Kara and by the time I’m out, she’s already perched at my kitchen table with two bowls of ice cream.
“You always know exactly what I need.”
She smiles, kicking out a chair for me with her foot. With a single finger, I slide the invitation across the table for her to readon her own and scoop a heaping spoonful of Ben & Jerry’s into my mouth.
As she looks it over, I launch into my thoughts.
Kara doesn’t let me finish explaining before she interrupts. “He built a restaurant and invited you.”
I blink at her from across the table. “I—yeah, but…”
“You’re going.”
It’s not a suggestion or question, but a declaration.
I open my mouth to argue, then close it again racking my brain for the right words to convey, well… everything.
“It’s not that simple,” I try instead.
“Itisthat simple,” she counters immediately, tone sharper than I expect. “You just don’t want it to be.”
I cross my arms, leaning back in my chair and eyeing my best friend suspiciously. “You don’t think it’s weird? Not even a little bit?”
“No.” She rolls her eyes at me.
“You don’t think it might just be a general invite?”
Kara gives me a look that I know all too well. It’s thedon’t-be-an-idiotlook she uses at work all the time.
“A general invite that was hand-delivered to your front door?” She deadpans.
“Well—”
“Taylor.”
I drag a hand down my face. “I just don’t want to accidentally read into something that isn’t there.” I drop both hands to the table on a heavy sigh.
“And I don’t want you to pretend something isn’t there when it clearly is.” She arches an eyebrow, punctuating her point with a swivel of her neck.
We stare at each other for a second.
