Page 80 of Anatomy of a Meet Cute
Duke blinked at her as if the eye movement alone could finish the sentence.
Sighing, she mustered her best big-girl behavior and finished the sentence she didn’t want to say. “Grant was right ...”
“Yup.”
“About the boundary-for-my-mom thing or being mad about Anjo?” As soon as she asked the question, Sam wished she hadn’t. Jehan became suddenly very interested in a throw pillow on the couch behind them.
Duke shrugged and wrinkled his nose like the answer tasted sour. “Both. You didn’t need to entertain your mom’s projects. As we’ve discussed, you needed to establish a boundary for them.”
“And you clearly didn’t have the headspace for the progress report. As previously stated, getting you to admit you need help is like pulling teeth,” Jehan blurted. Then, catching Sam’s miserable look, she dropped her head on Sam’s sagging shoulder and said, “We still love you, though.”
“Speaking of Grant, still loving you, and headspace ...,” Duke said, moving the conversation along as he crunched an almond, “what are you gonna do about all this? You can’t totally ignore him unless you want Dr.Franklin to be your new adviser.”
“Just sort of hope that an asteroid hits the planet so I don’t have to figure it out.” Sam laughed halfheartedly.
A stitch in the corner of her heart where she stored the happy memories of herself and Grant twinged, and she caught her breath. The way he watched her when he thought she wouldn’t notice. Standing in his kitchen watching him make a coffee filter out of a paper towel after the first night she’d slept over. He’d run out of them, but they were too happy snuggled in bed to run to the store. Even the cut of his silly sweaters.
And those were the small things. The things she could stand to think about. Not the big things, like him walking her through how to work with Dr.Franklin. Or the way he’d rallied interns when the doulas couldn’t get on the intranet. The ways he supported her ...
But she couldn’t be with him and be flawed. The two of them just didn’t fit. It was better not to think about those big things. Drifting too near to those memories felt like singeing her heart.
Sam blinked, pulling herself out of her thoughts while her friends waited for a real answer to the question. Clearing her throat, she said, “Obviously, I’ll call Anjo, apologize, and then speed write the progress report.”
“Is that before or after you talk things out with your mom and put the final touches on the center’s grand opening?” Jehan asked.
Sam frowned. She was starting to develop a headache, which she blamed on this conversation and not the excessive amount of sugar and dairy she had decided to eat for breakfast. “I’ll call them from the car on the way to my mom’s—”
“I know this is gonna sound terrible, but could this be a place where you need—wait for it”—Duke grinned, then stopped smiling after Sam leveled a murderous gaze at him—“help? Like, would you let Jehan and I help you?”
“I don’t even know where you two would start. I’ve made such a mess,” Sam deflected.
“If you can work it out with your mom,” Jehan said, her tone patient as she put a hand on Sam’s, “I think I have a catering solution. I can’t get my initial deposit back from Dorothy’s. Since I’m not getting married, maybe they’d be willing to let us use my deposit to cater your mom’s event?”
“And no one can resist my southern charm,” Duke added, layering on a near-cartoonish amount of drawl, then said, “Let me call Anjo while you sort things out with your mom and you kiss and make up with Grant.”
“I’ll apologize to Grant, but I’m not making up.” Sam said the words with enough bite that Duke held up the hand that wasn’t holding his ice cream spoon in a calming gesture.
“Are you—” Jehan started, then closed her mouth when Sam shook her head with the force of a toddler on the verge of a meltdown.
“Trust me. He may have been right. But ultimately, we just aren’t compatible. I overpromise and run late. I can’t get along with my mother or Dr.Franklin. I constantly have to check my shirt to see if I spilled food on it. That’s just not Grant’s world. He is always the guy with the right answers at the right time. He wears a watch and sticks to what it says. His relationships are figured out—he even gets along great with Dr.Franklin.”
“Okay,” Duke said, making wide eyes between her and Jehan. “So you are breaking up with him because he likes Dr.Franklin?”
“No. I’m breaking up with him because we aren’t a match,” Sam said resolutely. “Grant gets boundaries, not boyfriend material.”
“Maybe this is just your first fight with him?” Jehan said, gently nudging Sam with her shoulder. “First fights always feel like the end of the world.”
“Not the end of the world. Just the end of us as a couple,” Sam said, feeling exhaustion creep back into her bones.
“But—”
“Please, I really don’t want to talk about him anymore,” Sam cut in over whatever Duke was going to try to say on Grant’s behalf. She just didn’t have it in her to relive any more memories of him right now. Or anytime soon, really.
“So no making up with Grant, then.” Jehan sounded skeptical and opened her mouth to say something more, but Duke gave her a look that basically begged her not to make the situation worse. “All right. It sounds like we all have the start of a plan, so maybe we’ll just work from there. Assuming you will accept our help, Sam.”
The wordsnoandthankswere halfway out of her mouth when Sam stopped. While she could probably find a solution on her own, did she have to? Her friends had been with her the whole way; she’d simply been too caught up in all her plans to appreciate them fully before. Leaningher head on Duke’s shoulder and taking Jehan’s hand, she said, “I’d love your help.”
“That’s our girl,” Jehan said, giving her hand a squeeze. For a heartbeat, the three of them stayed put, just enjoying the warm, fuzzy feeling that came with seeing friends after a long, hard day.
