Page 19 of Finding Jack
He winced. “Don’t apologize. It makes me feel pathetic.”
“Sorry. For apologizing.”
The corner of his lips quirked up the tiniest bit. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s a little bit funny.”
He looked at me at last. “All right. Maybe a little.”
I reached down to scoop up another pebble and handed it to him. “Here. Throw that one.”
He took it. “Why?”
“I don’t know. That last one seemed to make you feel better.”
“True.” He chucked it toward the water, watching as it fell this time. “I don’t know why that works.”
“Are you imagining each one hitting a shark on the head?”
“What?”
“Nothing.” But it’s what I would’ve done, and it definitely would’ve improved my mood if my boyfriend had just dumped me for no reason.
He turned back to me. “I’ve still got the car all day, and I still know the best place to get fish and chips down the coast a little bit. Let’s go. Let’s just drive, and maybe I can find more rocks to throw.”
“I don’t know. That feels like it could get…”
“Awkward?” he finished. “For me, maybe. But I’m not planning to change your mind at all, so it shouldn’t be awkward for you. I just hate the idea of wasting this rental.”
Good old practical Paul.
“If I can stand to finish this drive, you probably can too,” he added. “You already did the hard part, right?”
“True.” He was being remarkably chill. “You really want to do this?”
He shrugged. “Sure. And it allows me to play this cool and save my dignity. But that playlist is toast.”
I laughed. “I’m in.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Paul had taken it so well. I should’ve predicted it based on his practicality. But honestly, a little anger would be good for him. I’d have to ask Jack to Photoshop a shark getting bonked on the head with a rock so I could send it to Paul and title it, “Therapy.”
Although…he’d probably realize it came from Jack. And that was probably the last person Paul wanted to think about.
Actually, Jack was the last person I should be thinking about either.
And yet it kept happening. Ah, dang.
Dang, dang, dang.
Chapter 9
By the time Paul dropped me off at home, it was full dark, and even though it was too early for bed, I climbed into my pajamas and dragged my comforter onto our sixth floor balcony. I wrapped myself up against the night air and stared out at the city lights, which for me constituted the sulfur lights on the apartment buildings across the street.
I hadn’t left this morning meaning to break up with my boyfriend. I hadn’t meant to spend the rest of the day with him after dumping him and have it be…fine. And it had been. He was quieter than usual, but his meticulous calculations had indeed found us good fish and chips and the perfect spot to watch the sunset. But he didn’t pout or anything. Didn’t even make one passive-aggressive remark, and if I’d had to carry a little bit more of the weight of keeping the conversation going, well…that seemed fair.
But I was super wiped. All that fresh air and boyfriend dumping. And really, I should be sitting here trying to figure it all out. Like why the impulse had come over me. But I didn’t want to. And when Ranée came home an hour later, I yawned and told her I was going to sleep without mentioning the Paul thing. I wasn’t in the mood for questions.
That didn’t keep her from jerking me out of sleep at way-too-early-o’clock the next morning when she landed on my bed with a weird cannonball/ninja roll.
