Page 110 of Falling into Place
“No, but I’m close. I’m at Elemental.”
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” Carly said, closing her laptop. “I’d love to see you. I miss you.”
Sasha didn’t return the sentiment but said she’d see Carly soon. While she waited, Carly went to the counter to order another drink and a chocolate croissant—Sasha’s favorite.
Couldn’t hurt, right?
A few minutes later, Sasha came through the doors and headed for Carly’s table. Carly turned to the side, knees out from underneath the table, poised to get up and hug her friend if that was the vibe, but Sasha just sat down across from her.
“Ooh, is this for me?” Sasha asked, eyeing the pastry. She dug in before Carly had a chance to respond.
Carly threaded her fingers together in her lap. “How are you?” God, she hated how awkward this felt. She’d never felt awkward around Sasha.
Sasha swallowed and wiped her mouth. “Better than you, probably.”
“I ... What?” There were so many issues she could be referring to, but Carly had no idea which one it was. She obviously hadn’t spoken to Sasha about what had gone down over the last week.
Had Brooks?
“I heard you got let go.”
“You did? How?” Literally no one knew about that except her mom. She hadn’t even told Benjamin what had happened, just that Mode hadn’t worked out and she was in the process of looking for something else.
Sasha took another bite, nodding as she chewed. “Mai called me. She gave me the rundown and wanted to make sure the magazine wasn’t, like, planning to blacklist Mode or anything. She promised she’d taken appropriate action, and she didn’t expect any additional negative publicity to come from it.”
“Oh.” Carly stared down at the wooden table, wide eyed. “Wow. Okay, then.”
She felt Sasha’s eyes on her and finally met her friend’s gaze. What was Sasha thinking? Did she feel vindicated by what happened? Had she come just to rub Carly’s mistake in her face?
Sasha leaned back and propped one arm across the empty chair beside her. “Honestly, what the fuck is that Princeton lady’s problem?”
“Oh, thank God,” Carly breathed out. Her elbows hit the table and her forehead dropped into her hands. “I thought maybe you came to gloat.”
Sasha snorted. “Come on. I might have been mad at you, but you’re still my best friend. I came to check on you.”
Tears built behind Carly’s eyelids. “I’m so glad to hear that.” She looked up and reached across the table. “I’m so sorry. I should have talked to you about Brooks before anything happened. I never meant to go behind your back. I think I was just kind of blindsided by all of it, and I definitely never thought he’d feel the same way about me. I got caught up in it and I messed up. I hope you know how important you are to me.”
“I do.” Sasha grabbed her hand. “I might have overreacted, too. In that moment, I thought you two were just messing around, and was terrified of losing the traction we’d made at the magazine. I was upset because I thought you were being careless, not because I’m against you being together. Actually, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. You’re pretty good for each other.”
Well, that was like a punch to the gut.
“I was so upset for you after I got off the phone with Mai,” Sasha continued. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when it happened and that you didn’t feel like you could call me. But I figure Brooks has been there for you, right? At least one of us has been.”
Carly just blinked at her. She pulled back, resting her hands back in her lap. “You ... you know he broke up with me, right?”
“Hewhat?”
“Well,broke upprobably isn’t the right term. We never got around to labeling anything in the first place. But yeah, he, uh, ended things. Monday afternoon.”
“Monday afternoon ...” Sasha repeated, almost to herself. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “That idiot.”
“Why do you say that?”
Sasha waved a hand as if it was irrelevant. “Why? Did he give you a reason?”
“He said he needs to work on some things, like dealing with what happened with your parents and how he responds to the things he sees at work. And that he needed to step back from us while he did that.”
