Page 55 of Going the Distance
“Three—no, four—missed calls from her and a couple of texts.”
“What’s she said?”
He clicked at the screen. “ ‘Please call me back when you have five minutes. Hope Elle’s okay’ and”—I watched his face fall—“ ‘I think we need to talk. Please call me tomorrow.’ ”
Ouch.
“She didn’t even put any kisses or anything. Or say goodnight. We always say goodnight.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
It was, because I didn’t have to call him; I could’ve just as easily called Dixon or Cam or Levi. And we both knew that, but Lee smiled at me, not blaming me in the slightest. He understood, and I was so damn grateful.
“What’re you gonna do?” I asked. “Do you want me to talk to her for you?”
“No offense, Elle, but I really don’t think that’s gonna help right now. I guess I’ll buy her some flowers, go over there, beg forgiveness. Isn’t that what I’m supposed todo?”
“You can’t get all your life advice from the chick flicks and rom-coms I make you watch.”
“They’ve served me well enough so far.”
I laughed, for the first time since before the breakup. I shivered thinking about it, before pulling the shutters down in my mind over yesterday afternoon. I didn’t want to think about the breakup, or Noah, or how much more I’d miss him, or that phone call…
My hands clenched into fists.
Stop thinking about it! Stop thinking about him talking to her and hiding things from you. Stop thinking about that photo and how close they looked. Stop picturing them kissing.
I clenched my jaw, squeezing my eyes tight shut like that might block the mental image. It didn’t go away, though. Noah and Amanda. Amanda and Noah. Kissing.
Nothing else could explain that phone call—he was hiding something from me, something Amanda knew enough about that she’d called himwhile he was with meto see if he’d told me. There had to be something more going on—maybe they had kissed, maybe at that party…I didn’t want to even think about the possibility that it was more concrete than just a hookup and that there was something serious between them. It hurt too much.
I opened my eyes to see Lee looking at me.
“You okay?”
I shook my head.
“You wanna talk about it?”
Part of me did, but right now I couldn’t bear to. I’d told Lee everything I could last night—including every word that I could remember of the phone call I’d overheard. And he hadn’t said much of anything in response. I knew Lee well enough to know that he didn’t want to say anything about it because he shared the same suspicions I did. Maybe he knew a little more about it than he was letting on but didn’t want to hurt me.
If I talked about it now, I had a feeling he’d tell me something I didn’t want to hear.
Then my dad said, “All right! Pancakes are ready!” and I was saved.
Lee went home to change after breakfast, before going to see Rachel (“I probably shouldn’t show up in last night’s clothes, right?”) and I was surprised when he called me only a few minutes after leaving my house.
“He’s gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he’s not here. There’s a note on the kitchen counter—says he has stuff to do back at college so he got an earlier flight back. Shall I break the news to myparents?”
I bit my lip. Had Noah told them already himself? Had he gone back early because he didn’t want to risk bumping in to me again, or was he going back to share the good news withherthat now he was a free, single, available guy?
So I said, “Yeah, sure. Someone has to, I guess.”
