Page 36 of Wish We Were There

“So, uh... When’s Taylor getting here?” he asked uncertainly.

Kylie finally glanced away, looking over at the siblings. The three of them shared a long look, then finally Kylie turned back to Parker.

“Actually, Taylor’s not coming,” she said with a grim expression.

Parker blinked, processing. “He’s not? I thought you said—”

“We’re staging an intervention, Parker!” Kylie interrupted, stomping one foot on the ground under the table. “You’re this close to fucking everything up with Taylor! And I’m not going to sit and watch you blow it all up.”

Heat flooded Parker’s face in confused embarrassment, his mouth working silently. What was she even saying? How was he supposed to respond to that? “I—What? What are you talking about?”

“Kylie told us about you and Taylor,” Angie offered, holding a hand out to Kylie, who was huffing in frustration. “And we wanted to help, uh, make Taylor’s situation more clear.”

“Situation? What?” he stammered, still confused. What the hell was going on?

“Seriously?” Kylie scowled. “Don’t play dumb. I talked to Taylor, and I know what happened with you guys. Are you dating or not?”

His heart threatened to explode out of his chest. His eyes darted between all three of them—Kylie frowning, Angie carefully neutral, Dean annoyed.

“N-No?” he offered uncertainly. This, however, was clearly not the answer Kylie wanted to hear: she huffed and folded her arms across her chest in response.

“Why not?” she pressed. “Seriously? Why are you stringing him along like this?”

“I’m—I’m not!” he protested, shaking his head. “It’s, you know, it’s complicated.”

“I think maybe it’s not as complicated as you’re making it out to be, Parker,” Angie said, smiling nervously at him. “Taylor really likes you, and it seems like you like him, so there’s not really anything stopping you guys from being together, if that’s what you both want.”

Parker pressed his hands to his face, cheeks burning. Was this really why they’d invited him to dinner? To interrogate him about Taylor? The jumble of shame and irritation and betrayal was too overwhelming for him to string together a sentence, so he only rubbed his face for a moment, unable to respond. Kylie added,

“You really hurt his feelings, you know.”

“What?” he burst out, glaring at her. “What did I do?”

“Parker!” she bit back. “You’re almost thirty, dude. Do you really think you can tell someone who’s been practically throwing themselves at you that you want to back off and slow down, and not make them feel like you’re letting them down easy?”

“It isn’t like that,” he stammered. “I just... I mean, all the stuff I said before that—and what did he even tell you, anyway?”

“That he made it clear he wants to be with you,” Kylie answered. “And he told you everything about him and Zach. And that still wasn’t good enough for you!”

“That isn’t—It isn’t like that,” he repeated. His heart was pounding in his chest. “I just said I didn’t want to, you know, jump into anything without being sure. It's only been, what, four months? I just—I don’t want Taylor to do anything he’ll regret later.”

“They would have been broken up for over a year now, Parker,” Angie said. “It’s not like a rebound thing for him at this point.”

“Exactly! That shouldn’t be an excuse,” Kylie agreed. “So what’s really the problem, Parker?”

Parker was silent for a long moment, looking at Kylie with consternation. Taylor would never have put them up to this weird intervention, so why were they going after him like this?

“This is—This is stupid,” he finally stammered. His protests clearly didn’t convince Kylie, though, who continued to glare at him. “Why do you even care? It’s between me and Taylor.”

“Yeah, well, Taylor is our friend,” Kylie snapped. “And I’m not going to let you hurt him even worse! This has already been tough enough on him without you messing this up.”

“I’m not messing anything up!”

“We just want to see Taylor happy,” Angie interjected, her voice still low and calm compared to Kylie. “And if it takes us nudging you in the right direction, well...”

“I don’t need to be nudged,” Parker groaned. He would have protested further, but the waiter arrived with their drinks then, so the table fell awkwardly quiet as he passed them out.

“Ready to order?” the waiter asked cheerfully, seemingly oblivious to the tension between the four of them. A beat of silence passed, then Angie replied with a smile,

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