“And he’s divorced and kind of pathetic about it,” Audrey added. “I love men who are a little pathetic. It’s why I asked Theo’s mom to work a little magic with him for me.”
I snorted, then felt evenmoredisloyal. Audrey broke into a grin, though.
“You can’t pretend to meyoudon’t like men who are a little pathetic,” she continued. “Because faking or not, you’re in love with him.”
A lump rose in my throat. For a handful of heartbeats, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Yeah,” I croaked. What was the point in lying?
Iwasthat obvious. I knew it. The only person I apparently wasn’t obvious to was Theo.
“Yeah,” Audrey agreed. “His mom tried to reassure me the two of you wouldn’t last because no one ever does with Theo. But you’ve been in love with him a while, huh?”
“Since the second time I saw him,” I admitted. Everything I’d said about that earlier was true. “I was too overwhelmed the first time or I think I would’ve fallen then. Wait,” I added. “You’re not after his money?”
Audrey raised a brow. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
Evidently I did not.
“Delilah’s maid of honor?” I tried.
She smiled at that. “I guess I am. Wow. I assumed you wouldn’t talk to me way back when because you were… intimidated, or whatever. I always hated that everyone seemed to be afraid of me.”
“I just didn’t get the impression you gave a shit about me,” Simon said. “Or anyone, to be honest. Sorry.”
Audrey laughed. “You know I was envious of Theo? Because he had a completely normal friend?”
I blinked at her. She shrugged.
“I am that,” I said wryly. “Normal the way you mean it, anyway.” I still had no idea who she was. Part of me wanted to look it up. The rest of me was now afraid to, if she was the kind of person who could shrug off an eight-figure trust fund.
Theo clearly didn’t know that, either. Or hadn’t thought of it.
Audrey smiled, curling her fingers around the edge of the raised bed and kicking her feet again. “How come you’renotdating, then?”
I shrugged. “Look at me,” I said. “And look at Corey. Or any of his other exes. They’re all… like you. Glamorous. I’m… like me.”
“You think he’s that shallow?”
“I don’t think he’s shallow at all,” I said, a surge of protectiveness running up my spine, making me sit up straight. “I think he deserves to have someone… like him. Someone he actuallywants,for a start. He doesn’t want me,” I added, voice cracking a little. “We established that a long time ago.”
Ten years exactly tomorrow, in fact.
Audrey hummed. I wasn’t sure if it was anI agree with youhum or anI think you’re an idiothum.
The safe bet was probablyI think you’re an idiot. Most people thought I was an idiot when it came to Theo.
Maybe I was. If I was, though, I wasn’t planning to change.
“I think?—”
I never found out what Audrey thought, because at the exact same moment, another voice called out, “There you are!”
“Mrs. Hargrave,” I said, with approximately the level of enthusiasm someone else might greet their executioner. “I’ll let you talk to Audrey.”
“Oh, no, honey,” Mrs. Hargrave said, waving her hands as she strode over. “I was looking for you.”
Alarm bells rang in the back of my mind. The wordhoneyrolled down my spine like a trickle of ice water.
