Page 29 of The Promposal

She leaned in and whispered, “I thought it might be nice for the adults to have a place to escape to.”

That she had been involved with the planning kind of surprised me. Maybe she and Dr. Drummond were more serious than Kenyetta had let on.

“Good thinking,” I said. “You haven’t by chance seen my sister, have you?”

“Yes. I saw her in the house, in the library.”

“Thanks.” I started to walk away because I’d done enough interfering recently, but I couldn’t help myself. “Hey, Dr. Okafor?”

“Bahati, please.”

“Bahati. I know this is none of my business, and you didn’t ask what I thought, but I’ve been where Kenyetta is. My dad got married a bunch of times, and I’ve had more stepmoms than anyone should have. I know what it’s like to be the only person in your father’s life and then to have to suddenly share him with someone else. Maybe you could show her that you becoming part of her family doesn’t mean less time and attention, but more.” Bahati looked at me, and I didn’t know her well enough to read her expression. Had I offended her? I’d probably overstepped. She was a grown woman and a doctor, for crying out loud. She didn’t need my help. I began to walk away. “But what do I know? Still just a teenager.”

I found Ella in the library, reading a magazine.

“Mercedes is here,” I warned her. “We had some words. None of them were nice.”

“I saw her take off a little while ago.”

“Did she leave by her own choice or was an exorcism required?” I asked.

Ella just smiled and shook her head at me.

“So why are you holed up in here instead of being out with the party and getting all glamorous?” Like I knew she normally loved doing.

She shrugged one shoulder. “I kind of wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a bit.”

Uh-oh. “And what did you and your alone thoughts talk about?”

“Mostly Trent.”

I sat down in the armchair across from her. “And?”

“This morning I found out that Liam Fiorelli is going to be okay. He’ll have some scarring on his face from the fire, which is a shame because he’s ridiculously gorgeous, but he’s going to make it. And I think it’s kind of sad that I was more upset about my favorite rock star getting into an accident than I was about my so-called boyfriend kissing another girl. I’ve been trying to figure out why, and I think it’s probably because I knew this was coming. Not the him kissing somebody else part, but I’ve been preparing for our breakup for a while. I hurt the whole time he ignored me, and we drifted apart, bit by bit.”

“Oh, Ella.” It was so sad.

“I think that’s why it doesn’t hurt quite as much today. I’m not devastated, when I probably should be.”

“Well, are you at least going to confront him?” Because Trent deserved to be confronted. And possibly slapped around.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

I hit the arm on my chair with my fist, which made it ache a little bit. Looked like I wasn’t fully recovered yet. “Don’t let your fear of confrontation let him get away with it!”

“It’s not that I’m afraid to talk to him. I know I sometimes run away instead of standing up for myself. But there’s nothing to be said. If he doesn’t know that what he did was wrong, me telling him it was messed up is not going to help. He’s a footnote, and I deserve to be treated better. I’m accepting what’s happened, and I want to let go. I’ll feel sad for a little while, and then I’m going to move on with my life.”

She was way too forgiving. “I can’t believe you’re letting him off that easy. He should suffer at least a little.”

“I think you took care of that for me.”

I snorted. “In case you were wondering, punching a cheating jerk is highly satisfying.”

“If only I’d had this article a few weeks ago, all of this might have been avoided.” She held up an issue ofSeventeen. “Remember this? I used to love this magazine.”

We were about the right age for it now, but Ella had subscribed to it when she was eleven and then graduated toCosmopolitanwhen she was fifteen. I had secretly read some of her stash, and the one thing I remembered aboutSeventeenwas an article that said I should practice kissing on my hand. Which turned out to be faulty advice since kissing Jake for the first time was nothing like kissing my hand.

“Why?” I read through a few of the article titles on the cover. “How would knowing how to straighten your hair like a pro have helped you out?”

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