Page 26 of How to Get Revenge on a Cheating Ex
This feeling has to pass eventually, right? I’m not going to spend the rest of my life reeling from a breakup...am I?
Crap! I went and thought of the b-word again. I swallow down a wave of emotion before I can do something unforgivably embarrassing like cry.
Shelley arches her brows, which makes her entire head of helmet hair shift, and creases form along her brow. “It looks like you still have an opening in souvenirs,” she prompts.
I blink. Right. I’m not done working. “Um...”
Everyone stares at me. I avoid looking at Toni because she’s the only person here from school. The only person who might be wondering why on earth I’d just let Grayson’s application get dumped in the garbage, relatively speaking.
But she doesn’t say anything, and I’m on the spot.
I’d come up with my ideal staff ages ago, and Grayson was on it. So now I have an opening, and…there’s only one person I can think of whose promotion would annoy the crap out of Grayson. “I was thinking Zack Myers.
To my surprise, my voice sounds normal, and while my silence might have stretched way too long, no one seems to care.
The fact that I’m a walking zombie is hidden by the fact that no one wants to be here. They probably think I’m just hungover and miserable like they are. Or just miserable about having to work on such a gorgeous sunny morning.
“Zack,” Derek mutters as he sorts through the applications in his hands. He tosses it into the pile closest to me. “Done. What section’s next?”
I lean back in my chair, the muscles in my stomach unclenching for the first time all day.
It’s done. I got my petty vengeance on Grayson and...
And I don’t feel anything.
No triumph. No satisfaction. Not that I’d thought being a petty witch would make my heartache disappear. I hadn’t.
But still. It’s pretty anticlimactic.
The rest of the meeting is kind of nice though. Boring, of course, but I can deal with boring. I have to pay just enough attention that I can’t sit there and wallow in memories of a certain photo I can never erase from my brain. And no cell phones are allowed, so I can’t check my phone and stew over the text that’s still waiting for a response.
It’s from Grayson asking if I needed a ride. I didn’t respond, but he hasn’t seemed to notice. Then he texted asking if I wanted to hang out with his friends Cody and Macy tonight. Cody and Macy have been an on-again-off-again couple nearly as long as Grayson and I had been dating. When they were on-again, we did lots of couple stuff together. Typically. But the thought of going on a double date right now makes my heart sink. The idea of seeing Grayson at all is enough to bring on full-blown panic, so I don’t go there.
I didn’t respond to that text either. Mainly because I’m still just as clueless as I was last night as to what I’m going to say, and how I’m going to handle this.
Until I figure it out, I’m not going to say or do anything at all.
Avoidance. That’s a healthy coping mechanism, right?
I’m still in a daze when the rustling of papers and the squeak of chairs being pushed back alerts me to the fact that we’re donehere. I follow the rest of this crowd and spot a familiar redhead in front of me. “Toni, hey.”
She turns to me with a smile that seems to be part surprise, part autopilot.
“Looks like we’ll be working together again this summer,” I say.
She bobs her head with another smile. “Looks that way.”
We shift forward but the narrow door to the trailer has created a bottleneck and there’s a line forming to get out.
“So...” My brain is moving like molasses as I try to think of something to say. It’s been so long since she and I have talked, apart from the occasional small talk in class or questions about an assignment. I’m drawing a blank. “How’s your family?”
Her eyes widen slightly in surprise and I see a glint of amusement in her eyes. “Good, thanks.” After a beat, as we continue to shuffle forward, she adds, “How about yours?”
“Good.”My heart is breaking.“They’re fine.”
I want to tell her. I want to unload on a friend. I want to ask for advice. I want?—
“I have art class with Janie,” she says.
