Page 92 of The Fate Of Us

In between her words, I hear the brunette, Rory, whisper to her friend,“But he still makesme nervous,”while Cora whispers back to her,“Me too.”

“And secondly, Nate is twenty-six and is already taken.”

I whip my head to her. “No, I’m not.”

“Well, you practically are.”

“I thought he was with Adaline Moore?” I hear one of the girls whisper ahead of me.

My eyes land on them. “Where’d you hear that?” I ask quietly, but both of them gofrozen again.

“Okay… it isn’t just Jacob who makes me nervous now,” Cora whispers.

“I just got chills…” Rory says back to her, running a hand along her forearm.

“Okay, it doesn’t matter!” Flo exclaims, her laugh tangling around her words. “I onlycalled you in here to tell you that you can go home early. I’ll see you on Saturday.”

The girls’ eyes are a twin of one another, wider than they were when they saw me. Rory’slips pry open. “Can we—”

“Yes, you can take the leftovers. But leave that box for the woman’s shelter, I’ll take themtoday.”

“Okay, see ya later, Flo. Bye, Jacob!” They both mutter their goodbyes before thebrunette, Cora, turns and locks eyes with me again. “Oh, yeah. Bye, Nate Patricks.”

I shake my head as my lips form a smile. “Just Nate is fine.”

Then they both run away, giggling.

The wine that I’d been idly swirling in my glass meets my lips, the liquid courage glidingdown my throat as I nod my chin at Flo. “They seem nice.”

Her chuckle and eye roll told me all I needed to know. “They’re a handful, but my God, are they good employees. The least I can do is let them talk to my famous friends at the end of a busy day to say thank you.” She takes a sip from her glass before putting it down on the counter. “So, spill it. Why are you here?”

Jacob nudges her arm. “Because he’s sad and in love, I thought we established that?”

“I’m not sad,” I shrug. “I was in the neighbourhood, thought I’d stop by.” Neither of themsays anything. “Well, I was passing, the production lot isn’t far from here when you think about it.” I nod to Jacob. “Thought a catch-up might be nice.”

Again, neither of them says anything, which was ironically the loudest thing in the room.

And here’s the thing about anxiety, well, mine anyway— it makes me hyper-aware ofeverything. I can see the words that people will speak before they speak them. The overthinking in my head makes me question obscure things. I pick up on things that others usually won’t recognise.

Like the way Jacob’s left corner of his mouth is half an inch higher than the other one. Hedoesn’t believe a word I’ve just said. Now I’ll start to panic because he’s one step closer to knowing the truth. Then I’ll keep talking. Not because I want to, but because I want to hide for as long as possible.

Which is stupid, when you think about it. I don’t know why I’m trying to hide why I’mhere when it’s the reason I came here in the first place. To talk to my friends. To get guidance. To not keep them at arm’s length about me and Addy anymore.

Which was what happened the last time I was here. With Flo.

I came in here the day after Asher showed up. I denied that I was there because I neededto talk to someone. I said I was fine. Flo’s head is titled a tad more to the left than it usually does. I told her that I had some personal stuff going on. And before I knew it, I’d told her everything.

From water balloon to Polaroid…

Everything.

I drop my head with a sigh, the weight of their stares too much to handle. There was nopoint in doing this dance with myself anymore. What was the point of hiding from the two people who saw straight through me?

Once the shakes in my breath had simmered, I lifted my eyes, my lips twinging, finallyready to break open.

“I kissed Addy.”

“WHAT?” Were both of their responses. Equal pitch, and the same gasped tone. Quitefreaky, to be honest.

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