Page 57 of False Assumptions

Layla nodded.

“About the breakup?”

Layla nodded again, still not lifting her eyes from her plate.

“Oh my God. I can’t believe you’d even turn that stuff in.”

“I have to turn in poems on a weekly basis. That was all I could write about last week, so it was all I had. Dr. Moore said it’s some of my best work. When I told him I’d rather read something else, he wouldn’t hear of it. Participating in the poetry reading is a huge part of my grade. I don’t have a choice.”

Alyssa was all sympathy again. “I’ll be there for moral support.” She paused, thinking something over, then spoke slowly. “You don’t think Evan might show up, do you?”

“Oh God, I hope not.” Layla knew she’d mentioned it to him before, but that was in the planning stages. Had she told him the date? Maybe. “I don’t think so. Yeah, he’s an English major, but …” She bit her lip. The thought of him being there made her sick, and she pushed the rest of her pizza away.

Shaking her head, she decided not to think about it. It’s not like she could do anything anyway. And the odds of him showing up seemed small. “I don’t think he’ll come. It’s not really his thing. It’ll be fine.” Right? Right. It would be fine.

Alyssa seemed to pick up on her desire not to talk about it anymore.Thank God. “So, you’ll never believe what happened at work yesterday,” and she launched into a hilarious story that sufficiently distracted Layla from worrying about Evan coming to the poetry reading.

When they moved onto the brownies and ice cream, Alyssa moved on from work to discussing married life. Hearing about her friend’s wedded bliss—even if she complained about living with Darren as much as she talked about how wonderful he was to her—made Layla wistful. She’d started to believe that she and Evan had something real, had started to think in terms of a future together. And now that was all gone. Would she find that someday with someone else?

Except thinking about having that with someone else, even some unknown, faceless man, made her even more sad.

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