Page 55 of The Surrender
“I can’t believe he’s shown up like this,” Lloyd mutters. “Just tell him you’re seeing someone.”
“Yes, just shatter his heart.” Charley rolls her eyes at Lloyd.
“Hi,” Nick says.
I take a forkful of rice off Jude’s plate and eat it as I look up at him. “Nick, what a surprise.”
Lloyd chokes on nothing, coughs, then loses himself in his beer as everyone scowls at him.
Nick laughs, uneasy. Guilty. “How are you, Amelia?”
“I’m fine.” My eyes constantly dart to the men’s, praying.
“The kids are getting big,” he says, and Lloyd and Charley murmur their agreement.
“Good to see you, Nick.” Lloyd smiles. It’s more of a grimace, actually, and I notice his gaze keeps moving to the men’s too. “Again.”
Nick ignores the sarcasm, his eyes flicking to my friends. “Charley, Abbie.”
“Nick,” they murmur together over their mouthfuls.
Jesus, I thought the atmosphere was horrific before. Add an ex-boyfriend to the mix, and you get a whole new level of uncomfortable.
Please go!
“Amelia, can you give me a couple of minutes?”
Oh God.I slow my chewing, hating this, wishing he would just stop loving me. “Not now, Nick.”
“Then when?”
Everyone visibly withers at the table, and I die a hundred times over, caught between that wretched guilt and absolute dread that Jude is going to leave the bathroom any moment and find Nick at the table trying to win me back. “I’ll call you,” I say, desperate. Anything to get him away.
“You will?”
“Yeah, I’ll call you.” I drop my fork, unable to eat another thing, and stand. “Excuse me, I need the ladies’.” I give Lloyd a look, one he can’t possibly mistake.Get him out of here.
He reads it well and springs to life. “Come on, Nick, I’ll walk you out.”
I leave the table and peek back, seeing Lloyd guiding Nick to the door. “Fucking hell,” I whisper, reaching the men’s. I knock on the door. “Jude?”
“Go back to the table, Amelia,” he says shortly, making me recoil.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Go back to the table.”
I think better than to question him, backing up, certain I wouldn’t want to be within exploding distance of him right now. He needs to calm down, and I don’t know what to say to help him.God damn you, Charley.I sheepishly return to the table. Could this be the worst dinner ever?
“Well, that was tense,” Abbie says.
I can’t even look at Charley. I’m fucking fuming, and she knows it, but had she not grilled Jude, he wouldn’t have left the table, and I might be in a whole other load of messy right now.
Charley juts her lip out. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“It’s not me you need to make it up to, Charley. It’s my boyfriend.”
“I will.”
