Page 37 of Love to Hate You

There were a ton of questions from around the table about square footage—two thousand and eighteen to be exact—was it close to restaurants—only the best for his baby. Summer, on the other hand, had gone uncharacteristically quiet. Sitting stock still in her chair, devastation written in every inch of her posture, her lips working really hard not to quiver.

“So you’re leaving Ridgefield?” Summer asked in a hushed whisper, and the table went silent.

“I know what you’re thinking, Summs, and I promise you nothing will change. Ridgefield is only a couple hours by train. We’ll see each other all the time.”

“When did you even have time to look at houses?”

Autumn and Randy shared a guilty look. “We actually came back to the States a few days ago and spent the weekend in New York, and thought it would be fun to go house hunting on a whim.”

“When were you going to tell me you were thinking of moving out?”

“I didn’t know it would be this soon. I mean, why get everyone all excited if it didn’t work out. Plus, you know I’ve always dreamed of living there.”

“I know,” Summer said with the saddest fucking smile Wes had ever seen. “I’m happy for you. But it’s just a big change all at once. I mean, your job is here, your friends are here.”I’m herehung in the air, but Autumn wasn’t reading the room.

“Those things come and go, and you can’t move forward when you’re stuck in the same place.”

Summer winced at her sister’s statement, because she was stuck. Her business was in Ridgefield, she couldn’t just pack up at a moment’s notice and move based on some whim. Another reason why they could never work.

“You’re happy about this, right?” Autumn asked, once again playing on Summer’s loyalty to her family and selflessness.

“Why not? I mean, people come and go.”

“She just learned about this, maybe we should let the happy couple work it out,” Wes said.

Randy looked flustered. “I really thought I was doing a sweet thing. This is sweet, right, babe?”

Autumn took his hand and smiled. “It is. You are the most romantic person on the planet.”

“Eventually, my work will be stationed in New York, and I don’t want what happened between Wes and his ex-fiancée to happen to us. Distance is brutal on a relationship and he had to walk away from love.”

Summer’s eyes met his, and he felt the full weight of her judgment. “You gave up love for a job?”

“Not all of us have your choices.”

“Yes, you do. And you should choose love, every time. No question.”

And that was when he was reminded of the true romantic and naive girl who believed love ruled the world. She was a dreamer and he was a doer. Not that she didn’t work hard, but her dream was wrapped up in a thousand square feet of romance novels. His was one billion-dollar project after another. Another reason to not get involved—he’d already left a woman once for a job.

Randy raised his hand as if to speak. Frank, who seemed about as excited by the news as Summer and Wes, gave him the floor. “I want to do this right.”

Summer gasped. “So the right thing is she gives up her life for yours? How 1950s of you.”

Her dad put a hand on Summer’s arm. “I think what Summer is trying to say is that she and Autumn are very close and being away from each other will be hard.”

“But Wes and I did it. We flew back and forth for years.”

“But we’re not you and Wes. It’s not apples to apples. My sister and I mean everything to each other,” Summer said, her misery so acute it physically pained him.

Autumn straightened. “If I meant everything to you, you would be happy for me right now. No one has ever done anything this sweet for me. Ever.”

“I just feel like you’re giving up yourself to make someone else happy.

“Isn’t that the definition of love?”

“Not if you’re the only one sacrificing,” Summer said. “Can’t you two see that this is moving too fast?”

“You are such a hypocrite. You were willing to give up huge parts of yourself to make it work with Ken. I mean, you’re even considering going to his wedding to prove to, well, who knows, that you’re still friends.”

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