Page 131 of Never Ever Getting Back Together

“Wait, you knew?” Skye asks, and Perrie gives a one-shoulder shrug.

“I can’t believe that clip they played of you, Maya,” Kim says. “Where do they get off? It wassoout of context.”

“I have a bad feeling a lot of the show’s gonna be out of context when we watch it at home,” Perrie says.

Lauren, Kim, and Francesca nod in unison, and the rest of us groan.

“So, now what?” Kim asks. “Jordy’s just gonna be… single?”

“Well, I don’t want him,” I say, and Skye snorts. “Which one of you is gonna snatch him up?”

The girls all purse their lips for a long pause, and then burst out laughing as one.

“I’m good, actually,” Kim says, while Perrie makes a gagging motion.

Skye’s gone quiet and is staring at the floor, so I excuse us and ask her to come for a quick walk with me. We find a door leading to an outside area, where we huddle near the wall in case someone from the audience recognizes us. For now, though, there’s no one in sight. Just us and the frigid night air.

“So,” I say. “That… was a lot.”

“Yeah,” she says with a tight smile. She’s hugging her arms around herself, though, like she’s trying to stop something from spilling out.

“You seem upset?” I say, touching her arm. To my relief, she doesn’t pull away, but instead leans into me.

“I don’t want to ruin things,” she says, and my stomach tumbles.

“Probably better to get it out in the open now you’ve said that,” I say lightly.

“Right. Yeah. It’s just… that was going to be our last week together, and we missed it. I’m not trying to fight about that, but… tonight, they’re flying me and the other girls straight home.”

Oh. In all of the excitement, I’ve somehow forgotten this one very obvious detail. Somehow, in my mind, it’s become a given that Skye will be there every day when I wake up.

But tomorrow, she won’t. She’ll be in another country. And I’ll… I guess I’ll be on anothercontinent.Assuming they’re still planning on flying me home tomorrow, that is. Isaac assured me days ago that would be the case, once I’ve completed a solo press appearance tomorrow morning. Solo, as in separate from Jordy, thank god.

“Do you see why I didn’t want to label us until we knew what the next steps were?” she asks wryly.

“We’ll figure it out,” I say.

“That’s what Jordy said once.”

“It’s only a seven-hour flight.”

“That’s what Jordy said.”

“You were a kid without a bank account.”

“I’m still a kid without much of a bank account.”

“I’ll get a job.”

Skye tips her head to the side and crinkles her eyes at me. “Maya.”

“I will, I damn well will. I will visit you, as often as I can, and we can take it day by day. If we want it to work, we’ll make it work. We,” I say firmly, “are gonna figure it out. Okay?”

“Mm.”

“Okay?”

“Okay,” she says reluctantly.

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