Then I called Devi to vent. As usual, she said all the right things. The things I knew were right as soon as I heard them. She said he was the world’s biggest asshole if he hurt me. But she also said I didn’t really know how he felt, so to stop torturing myself over the worst case scenario.
“How is he treating you?” she asked me, like she did every time we spoke.
“Good, I guess.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I mean, obviously we have wicked sexual chemistry. And he seems to like having me around.”
“Of course he does. Because you’re awesome.” Leave it to a best friend to point that out. “What else?”
“He laughs at my jokes.”
“Because your jokes are fucking funny.”
And on and on we went, until I was feeling somewhat better about things, and super confident that Devi definitely loved me. Which went a long way to cheering me up.
When we got off the phone it was six o’clock and I was still no closer to knowing how to proceed with Jesse. We were supposed to meet at six; at least, before he decided to keep doing whatever he was doing and meet me late.
On my birthday.
I dragged myself up from the fetal position and thought about that.
We’d had dinner plans. Birthday dinner plans. And now I was supposed to sit here by myself waiting until he said it was time to meet him, while he hung out with Elle… or whatever the fuck he was doing?
To hell with that.
I got dressed in the super hot halter dress I’d picked out to wear tonight, got myself date-with-a-rock-star ready, and texted Flynn to meet me in the lobby.
“Where is Jesse?” I crossed the lobby toward him; he was already waiting for me.
“In a meeting,” he said.
“Where?”
“At the restaurant.”
“What restaurant?” I stared at him. “Therestaurant? Like the one where we’re having dinner tonight?”
“Yes.”
I digested that. I’d picked the restaurant myself based on Maggie’s recommendation, and she’d worked her magic to get us a table on short notice. And now he was using it for his pre-dinner date with his ex or whoever?
“Is he with Elle?”
Flynn cocked his head a little, maybe surprised by the question, processing it. He didn’t say anything for a really long time.
“I don’t think so, Katie.”
His tone said he knew so, but I didn’t fully buy it. I didn’t particularly buy anything Jesse’s staff told me, because who was to say they didn’t lie to cover for him on a daily basis? Surely they’d done it with his groupies, maybe they’d done it with other women he’d dated, and maybe they’d done it with me.
“Take me there,” I said.
He hesitated. “We’re not supposed to be there until eight.”
“You can take me or I can take a cab, but either way, I’m going now.”
Flynn drove. I sat in the backseat, a nervous wreck, trying to figure out what I’d say to Jesse if I found him with Elle. I kept picturing all the glamorous images I’d seen of her on magazine covers and wondering what she’d look like in person. Wondering how I’d keep my dignity when it became clear to all that she was now with Jesse, again, and I wasn’t. Or, maybe she wasn’t, but I definitely never had been.
