Page 110 of Party Favors

I felt compelled to fill in the silence. “And I didn’t stay because I don’t have feelings for Adrian.”

His eyebrows flew up in surprise. “I thought you were in love with him.”

“I was never in love with him. I had a crush on him. A crush that very quickly fell apart when I examined it.” Especially when I compared it against the way that I was in love with Max. “It was just all smoke and shadows. Nothing substantial.”

“I thought you wanted to be with him,” he said, like he couldn’t understand what was happening.

“I don’t.” I paused and then added, “Is that why you didn’t talk to me after you overheard us?”

He hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “I guess I figured that if you were so willing to go out with him, you weren’t interested in dating anyone else.”

Did he mean himself? It looked like he was going to join me in beating around this particular bush. “I’m not the only one who went out on a date with someone else.”

“Who?”

“Arabella.”

“That was not a date,” he said. “I told you, she had some things she wanted to return to me. Nothing happened.”

“It seemed to me like a convenient excuse to see your extremely gorgeous ex-girlfriend that you dated for forever and I ...” My voice trailed off at the expression on his face. “What?”

“You’re jealous.” He said this like it delighted him.

“What? No.” This wasn’t about my feelings of insecurity when it came to his ex. And he didn’t get to be happy about my jealousy when he had felt the same way, even if he hadn’t said so yet. “You can’t go radio silent because I went out with someone when you did the exact same thing.”

“It wasn’t the same, though. I don’t have feelings for Arabella.”

“And I just told you that I don’t have feelings for Adrian!”

“Then why did you go?” he asked.

“Honestly?” Here it was. Time to be direct. I willed my heart to stop pounding so hard against my rib cage, but it didn’t listen. “I think I wanted you to stop me.”

“I would never tell you who you should spend time with.”

“Neither would I. I wanted to, though.”

“Same.” His admission thrilled me. “But I don’t want you to go out with him or anyone else. And if I’d known that me seeing Arabella would upset you, I wouldn’t have gone.”

That was like a confession, right? He didn’t want me to date anybody else? And he wouldn’t have spent time with his perfect, evil, stupid ex if he’d known I didn’t like it? “It wasn’t fair for me to test you like that. It’s something my dad used to do and I hated it.”

“What do you mean?”

“When things started going south in my parents’ relationship, he would say things like, ‘If you just lose twenty pounds, we’d be happy again.’ Or ‘if you kept the house immaculate and wore makeup every day for me, things would get better.’ She was never good enough and he was constantly moving the goalposts. I don’t want to do that, so I’m sorry that I did. I should have told you how I was really feeling.”

As if he sensed that I needed the support, he reached out and took me by the hand. “And how are you feeling?”

But there was another explanation that I needed first. “Why are there so many women texting you on your phone?” At his look of surprise, I added, “You date around a lot, right?”

“I already told you that I’m not dating anyone.”

“I thought you meant not dating anyone seriously, but like casually.”

He glanced down at our joined hands. “Not casually, not seriously. And how do you know who is on my phone?”

I felt my face flame up in response. “I may have inadvertently looked at your phone, which I shouldn’t have done and I’m sorry that I did, but in my defense, you should have a password on it.”

“I should.” He nodded with a mischievous smile, like he knew something I didn’t. “The women texting me are people I work with. Most of my colleagues are female.”

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