The fact that it was Corey…
“I promise to bring him back in approximately the condition I found him in. Better, maybe!” Corey continued, showing off all his perfectly straight, white teeth as he smiled.
One of Simon’s canines was a little crooked. I’d always loved that about his smile.
Simon sighed, pressing a kiss to my cheek. I couldn’t tell if it was more for Corey’s benefit or mine, but the brush of his lips made the loss of his warmth a little less painful as I leaned forward, letting him get out from under me.
“I’ll see you later?” he asked. Corey wouldn’t notice the uncertain waver in his voice, but I could hear it loud and clear.
“I’ll hunt you down if I don’t,” I promised, meaning every word. I could accept that Simon had agreed to be Corey’s best man, and that meant he’d go through with it, because he was nothing if not true to his word. Icouldn’taccept losing any more of the only day I’d ever get to experience being his boyfriend, for as close to real as I was ever going to get, than was absolutely necessary.
Simon beamed at me, his lopsided smile showing off that one crooked tooth I’d just been thinking about.
I was on my feet before I’d made a conscious decision to rise, pressing my lips against his. The line betweenfor showandfor real-ishwas a blur now, but that meant I could take advantage of it.
“Don’t be longer than you have to,” I said. It was silly—Simon didn’t want to hang out with Corey any more than I wanted him to, and I knew that.
I was being needy. I couldn’t help it.
“I won’t,” Simon murmured, rubbing our noses together. “You’ll barely have time to miss me.”
“I already miss you.”
Simon laughed, eyes glittering. “I love you, too.”
My knees weakened, threatening to give out on me. He’d said it before, a casualdo you know I love you?—normally when I’d done something embarrassing—but this felt different. It felt, almost, like he was saying it the way I wanted him to mean it.
How was I meant to forget about this after the weekend?
“Go,” I said, proud of myself for getting the word out with my head spinning like it was.
I missed him the moment he stepped away, having to fight against the urge to follow.
“Eat your breakfast,” Simon called back.
I took another bite of the croissant still in my hand. I could barely taste it now, too busy watching Simon’s retreating back.
19
SIMON
“He seems happy,”Corey said as we threaded our way through the breakfast crowd, walking so close to me that our elbows brushed. Not that there was a whole lot of choice, given how many people were suddenly around.
Itwasstill an intimate wedding by the standards of Theo’s family, despite the expanded crowd. Delilah had said she’d had to fight her mom on it, so this must have been the compromise.
“Who?”
Corey stopped, looking at me with a raised brow. “Theo,” he said, as though he was talking to the biggest idiot he’d ever met.
It wasn’t impossible he was, though not for the reasons he thought. Iwasan idiot. I was an idiot for letting… whatever was going on between Theo and me go as far as it had.
I still didn’t understand it, but I knew it wouldn’t last. Eventually—weeks or months or even years from now—Theo would realize what I’d known since we met. That I could never be enough for him.
I was currently standing beside a man who hadn’t been enough for him, and I had the self-awareness to know I must have looked ridiculous next to him. He was model-beautiful—on account of being a model—successful, well off—even if not quite at the Hargrave family level.Glamorous.
People had called me a lot of things over the course of my life—most of them nice things, even—but never that. I had all the glamour of a wad of wet paper towel.
“He is,” I said all the same, straightening my shoulders. If nothing else, I wanted Corey to believe Theo had moved on. That hewashappy. That his heart wasn’t broken, thathewasn’t broken. That whatever had happened between them—and I still didn’t know what that was, other than that they’d broken up and Theo hadn’t dated since—he was over it.
