Page 35 of The Moment You Know

The words were out before Jules could stop them, making Paige blink at her.

“What do you mean, you know?”

“I ran into David when I got to the hospital. He was parked outside your room in a chair,” Jules told her. “I almost didn’t recognize him with the longer hair and beard.”

Paige pursed her lips; David obviously hadn’t left when he’d said he was. “So, he told you what happened?”

Jules picked up her waffle with both hands. It was basically a sandwich with a layer of peanut butter, sliced bananas and a generous drizzle of honey between two waffles; she actually couldn’t remember ever eating a waffle with silverware. “He told me his version,” she said, taking a bite. “But I’m sure he glossed over a lot, so I want your version.”

For the next fifteen minutes, Paige told Jules as much as she could remember and when she was done, Jules gave her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry I told you he would never get involved with her.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. You believed it. And I wanted to believe it.”

“Now we know what he meant when he said he’d moved on and was in a good place. Although, it’s hard to believe that being with Ashley qualifies as a ‘good place’.”

“I don’t know. They seemed happy.”

Jules then shared a few highlights of her talk with David and in doing so, remembered something. “So, what were you doing at Bender’s?”

“I was meeting someone for a drink,” Paige answered slowly, then waited.

“You’re just now telling me you had a date? Almost twenty-four hours after you had it? That’s not okay. This friendship thing has to go both ways, you know.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want any pressure or expectation placed on it. I knew if I told you, you’d be excited as shit and want to make a big deal out of it, which would only make me more nervous about it going well—”

“I’m offended. When have I ever made a big deal out of anything?”

“How about always? And in case you hadn’t noticed, you’re making a big deal right now,” Paige pointed out.

“It was your first date in forever. So, in this one instance, I think I’m allowed to make a big deal out of it—”

“One instance?”

Jules pointed a finger at Paige. “You’re lucky I don’t hold grudges, because this is grudge-worthy. Now, you can start earning my forgiveness for not telling me about your date by sharing every detail of it. And I do mean every detail.”

Paige made a face at Jules’s tenacity. “Well, for starters, it was just going to be a drink, not a date—”

“Having a drink counts as a date.”

“—and then it turned into a date, but we never actually had the date. Which means there’s nothing to tell.”

“Um, no. There’s plenty to tell. Like, does this ‘someone’ have a name?”

Paige paused. “His name is Hale.”

“What kind of a name is Hale?”

“It’s a name. And before you say another word, let me remind you that you went out with some guy named Miller last year—”

“God, even with a concussion your recall is amazing. I’d totally forgotten about him,” Jules mused, then steered the subject back to Hale. “So, how did you meet Hale?”

“Online.”

Jules pulled Paige’s phone out of her pocket, making sure there weren’t any new calls or texts from Linda that Paige would see and think had to be dealt with, before sliding the phone over. “I’m going to need a face to go with his name while you fill me in on his occupation, personal stats, and whether or not he had bad breath. Because he kind of sounds like he would.”

“He didn’t have bad breath,” Paige denied as she took her phone and pulled up Hale’s profile picture for Jules to look at.

Jules raised her eyebrows. “Damn. He’s hot. Like Robert Downey, Jr.”

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