Page 37 of Don't Remind Me
“There you are. I didn’t think you were going to answer.”
Then why did you call twice in a row?
I bit down my irritation. “What’s up?”
“I need a final head count for the baby shower. Did you decide if you’re bringing anyone?”
I peered up at Dani’s building, the whisper of her lips lingering on my cheek.
There was no way. And not just because she was Alec’s ex and that would be awkward as hell. But because as soon as she encountered the two of us side by side, she’d realize the same thing everyone else did: that I was nothing but a poor substitute for the person she really wanted.
The faulty brother, always on the outside. Someone who could be a colleague, maybe even friend, but one she’d always want to split the check with.
“Just me,” I told my mom.
Why did it feel like that wouldn’t be enough?
Chapter Fifteen
Dani
I was drunk.
Not my usual warm-tingly tipsiness, either.Drunk.I’d only had three tequila shots and a few sips of rum and Coke, but my dinner had pretty much consisted of chips and guacamole, and I hadn’t been pacing my drinks like I usually did on the rare instances I had hard liquor.
I now understood why it was called that, by the way. Because that was how it hit—hard.
Robin and Kelly sat in the booth alongside me, more tequila shots lining the small round table of the karaoke bar. It was Saturday night, a week and a half since the art gallery “not date” with Jase, and if I’d had any doubts about just how much of a “not date” it was, those had been well and truly cleared up this past week.
Jase was avoiding me.
I hadn’t been sure at first. I’d woken up Thursday morning feeling like a Disney princess, ready to fling open my windows and break into song while birds helped me get dressed for the day, still flying high on the incredible donation Jase had landed for me. I hadn’t even been nervous to head into the office to share the news with Talia and finalize the details, worries about hate mail and death threats far from my mind. Geffery had escorted me to and from my car, but aside from his company, it had felt no different from the hundreds of other times I’d gone into work.
It had taken two days to get the silent auction finalized and squared away, and by Monday, I’d been eager to get back to Ardena. I could pretend it was just because I liked the atmosphere, which I did, but that wasn’t what had put the flutters of excitement in my stomach. It had been the thought of seeing Jase.
For a “not date,” that night had been more fun than any actual date I’d ever been on. And it wasn’t just the paintings. It was how easy it was to talk to Jase. How effortlessly he made me laugh. How hours fell away with him without me noticing, and how never once throughout the night had I felt the need to hide.
Maybe I should have. Maybe I’d shown too much. Maybe I’d made him uncomfortable by kissing him on the cheek.
I didn’t know.
What I did know was he hadn’t been there when I’d shown up on Monday. And when he still hadn’t come in by the afternoon, I’d asked Aubrey if he was sick. She hadn’t heard anything from him.
I’d thought of texting him but then worried that’d be weird. After all, ithadn’tbeen a date. He didn’t owe me a phone call.
But when he’d come in Tuesday, perfectly healthy in all his tall, rugged glory, I’d gotten only a cursory “Hey” before he disappeared into the kitchen. Whereas before the gallery, he’d make hourly trips up to Jillian’s office to get something, or sometimes just to check in, this past week, he’d only come up a grand total of two times, not even looking at me when he did.
That was what hurt the most, the not looking. Like he’d seen enough of me and wasn’t interested in seeing more. Like he’d rather I was invisible.
Only, I didn’t want to be invisible anymore.
Hence, karaoke.
I wore a pink slip dress that had hung untouched in my closet for years because I’d been too intimidated to wear it before tonight, and a pair of lace-up stiletto boots that spent more time on my shoe rack than on my feet for the very same reason. Robin and Kelly had convinced me I looked sexy, and you know what? Ifeltsexy. Free. For once in my overly analytical existence. And maybe it was the tequila, but I liked that feeling.
Someone on stage started a rendition of “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson, and when the chorus hit, we all sang along at the top of our lungs before bursting into laughter.
“Whyhave we neverdonethis before?” Kelly shouted, her blond hair crimped and pulled back in a messy half bun.
