“Nate knows how to resolve a fight really well.It’s nice.”
“Oh, fuck you. Fuck youboth.”
“No thank you. I’m a taken woman now.” I pat Nate’s chest and Rob goes red in the face before he storms out of the kitchen, pushing past us both.
The second we’re alone, Nate and I burst into laughter.
“Did you see his face?” I ask as I wipe tears out of my eyes. “It was perfect.”
“Like I said,mean. Please do that more often.”
We’re both still getting ourselves together when Quinn bursts into the room.
“I’m so sorry. It took meforeverto get here. People kept stopping me. Are you o—” She pauses when she sees Nate and me. “Oh. Am I interrupting something?”
I take a step away from him and shake my head. “No. Definitely not.”
“If I am, I?—”
“Quinn, I’msosorry for that.” My focus is entirely on her now. I hate Rob for what he did, but she’s the one who’s had her birthday messed up. Guilt crashes into me.
“Yeah, it’s not ideal.” She blows a piece of hair that fell out of her updo out of her eyes. “Mom shouldn’t have let him talk at all, but she always defends him.”
“I don’t want my drama to follow you here. It’s your birthday and my focus should be on you.” I glance out the door where Rob stormed through. I have no doubt he’ll bitch to Andrea immediately. “But other things happened. I completely understand if you want me to leave.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nate reach out to comfort me, but he stops.
Quinn is the one who grabs my hands instead. “What?No.I want you here. We still have to talk about the cruise ...” Her eyes cut to Nate. “And anything else that could’ve happened.”
I tense. “You know, don’t you?”
She nods. “It’s hardnotto know. But it’s okay. I wanna help.”
“Help?” I ask and glance at Nate. He seems as lost as I am.
“Of course. If you and Nate are fighting, I wanna help.”
That gives me pause. “Fighting?”
“Yeah, obviously. You two are avoiding each other and acting stiff. Everyone’s talking about it.”
Slowly, my gaze slides to Nate, who’s staring right back at me.
Oh. Ohno.
We’ve played our parttoowell.
“We’re not fighting,” I say as I turn back to Quinn. “I promise. You should just focus on your birthday.”
“Don’t lie. I know something happened between you two. Was it Rob? He said Nate was mad at you, and while I had a hard time believing it at first, with how you two are acting, something’s gone wrong.”
“N-noo, Rob didn’t. Well, he mostly didn’t.” I shake my head. There’s no way to explain this in a simple way. “Quinn, it’s your party. Something you put a lot of time and effort into. Focus on that.”
“But—”
“Seriously, go back out there?—”
“Oh my God, Maisie, fuck the party.”
