She walks past several empty tables to reach ours, and I understand immediately. This is deliberate.
“Ethan!” Her voice is warm but her eyes are calculating. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“Paige.” His voice is carefully neutral. “How’s the astrophysics?”
Paige. The way he says her name tells me everything—this is an ex, and not a good one.
“Brilliantly. Just got accepted to the Keck Observatory program.” Her gaze slides to me, cataloging everything from my messy ponytail to my algorithm-covered notebook. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
“Piper,” I offer, deeply uncomfortable with the weird energy at this table.
“We’re working together,” Ethan says, and there’ssomething protective in how quickly he explains my presence. “I’m tutoring her.”
“Oh, wow!” Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Now thatisnew. How nice that you found someone patient enough.” She looks at me. “He can be quite a handful.” She smiles, but it’s all teeth
I bristle at her tone and don’t smile back, but Ethan just leans back in his chair, affecting boredom. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Actually, I’m meeting someone.” She touches his shoulder briefly, and I watch him fight not to flinch. “But it’s lovely to see you’re... managing.”
“I’m thriving, sweetheart.” But even I can tell he’s uncomfortable.
“Of course, you are.” She squeezes his shoulder once more, a gesture that looks affectionate but feels like a warning. “Don’t be a stranger, E.”
She glides away to where a bearded guy in expensive athleisure is waiting. He looks like he does CrossFit competitively and has opinions about IPAs.
Ethan watches them for a beat, then returns to his sketch with forced concentration.
“So,” I say, eloquently. “That was...”
“Yeah.” He's gripping his pencil tight. “That was Paige.”
“She seems...” I search for words that aren't 'terrifying' or 'like she eats men's souls for breakfast.' “...confident.”
He barks a laugh. "That's one word for it."
“You dated?” I venture.
He glances at their table, then back at me. “You really haven't heard the story? It made the rounds last year. Someone even made a meme.”
“A meme?”
“Don't ask.” He runs a hand through his hair, and even frustrated, it somehow makes him look better. “The thing is,she wasn't always like that. When we first met, she was...” He trails off, searching for words. “Sweet. Actually sweet. I don’t know. I really liked her.”
“What changed?”
“I don't know. Maybe nothing changed and I just finally saw who she really was." His jaw tightens. "Or maybe she got bored once the challenge was gone. Once she had me, I wasn't interesting anymore. Short version is we dated for two months, I thought it was serious, caught her with Brody at a party she told me not to come to. Turns out I was just keeping her entertained until she found someone more..” He gestures vaguely at where Paige sits with her new guy. “Whatever that is.”
“Oh.” I fidget with my pen, deeply uncomfortable because this sounds horrifyingly familiar. “That’s... that sucks.”
“Wanna know the best part? She told me I was ‘just filler.’ Her exact words. Like I was a temporary fix until the real thing came along.” He’s still sketching, but now there’s something aggressive about the strokes. “Apparently, I’m great for fun but not for, you know, actual relationships.”
I open my mouth, close it, open it again. Nothing comes out because what do you say to that when you’ve also been someone’s filler for so long?
“Sorry, that was...” He shakes his head. “TMI. You don’t need my relationship drama.”
“No, it’s—I mean, I get it.” The words tumble out wrong. “Not that I—I mean, I haven’t been anyone’s filler. Or maybe I have? But like, in a different way where they didn’t even know I wanted to be filler? Which is probably worse actually, and now I’m making this about me when you’re clearly?—”
“Piper.” He’s smiling now, that crooked grin that makes my stomach do things. “Breathe.”
