Page 19 of Winging it with My Ex
I pull myself out of my momentary absent-minded daydream and check my phone.
Are we still on for some snow angels?Jett’s text makes me smile.
Not all of our dates have been fancy. Before it got too cold, we had a couple of simple picnics—just like we used to back in high school. PB&Js, chips, water. Nothing special, except we were together.
That was before senior year, when Jett picked up two jobs to impress colleges. He’d study late, work later, and I’d bring him food just to squeeze in time together.
It didn’t matter where we were—as long as I had him—it felt perfect.
It’s a date.I text back.
My head is spinning, and I can’t stop myself from smiling. If he tries to kiss me tonight, I don’t know that I’ll have the willpower to stop him.
I’m not sure I’d want to even if I could.
Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted him to kiss me as much as I do now. I’m desperate for his lips to be on mine. I want to just sink into him… and let myself fall.
I take a big breath and gather my purse. Typically, I’m in no real hurry on a Friday afternoon, but today? I practically skip to the exit.
Jett makes it hard not to want and hope. Plan.
My head and my heart are still at war... all the time.
On one hand, he hurt me. On the other hand, we’re both older. This whole thing has taught me that not only am I different, but he is too.
I hate to admit it, but maybe breaking up was good for us. It gave us time to grow. To experience life and pain. Aside from the breakup, all my experiences with him were wonderful. Whatif we’d stayed together and instead of growing together, we’d grown apart?
How much more would that have hurt?
As gutted as I was back then, it would have been one hundred times worse if we’d gotten married and then divorced. What if we had kids? Things between us could have been so much more complicated. Hurt so much worse.
Maybe all these years separated were a gift that I didn’t really understand until now. We’ve grown closer. I see him with the understanding of an adult and vice versa.
A flash goes off as I step out of the exit door. It’s not until that moment I realize I’ve walked through the school on autopilot, and it takes me a minute to register that Greer Davis is shoving a microphone in my face.
“Were you in on it? How did Jett talk you into it?”
I blink. In on it? Talk me into it? “What are you talking about?”
Her lips curve up in that predatory way she has when she’s got a bone and gnawing on it. “You didn’t know that the Back-to-School bash pond dip was part of a plan to trick you into pretending to fake date Jett?”
My heart thuds so loud I’m not sure I heard her right. Jett and Vivi? Together? Falling into the pond wasn’t an accident? I’m so in shock that I respond, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Of course, I knew about the fake dating…but what?
Greer levels her gaze with me. “You didn’t know? That whole ‘accidental pond dip’ at the Back-to-School Bash—JettandVivi staged it to get you two trending on social media. That was their plan to force you into fake-dating him.”
Vivi and Jett plotted to toss me in the pond so they could trick me into dating him?
Greer’s eyes light up because I’m not keeping a poker face at all. She knows she’s spilled the tea on something I had noclue about. “So you really didn’t know that your best friend was working with the guy who broke your heart?”
The waterworks hit. Tears are instant and trickling down my cheeks.
At this point, I need to bathe in holy water and delete the internet.
That Jett-shaped scar on my soul had finally started to fade. The last six weeks had done more to heal the hurt I’d carried than I can actually verbalize.
He’s done it to me again.
Only this time, I’d allowed it. Practically jumped at the chance to let him.
