Page 73 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“What are the odds …” Nathan sighed. “Okay. Let’s do that. But I’m going to order everything,” he warned playfully. “We’re going to walk out of here with a couple of bags each, at least.”
He grabbed a menu, added a few more things to our order, and asked the waiter if he could make it to go.
I was so curious about his ex, their relationship, why they broke up, when … But that conversation had to wait until we were alone in my apartment. I could see from the corner of my eye how Dominique’s friends kept looking our way. It was making me uncomfortable.
A while later, our order was ready. Thankfully, Dominique hadn’t arrived yet.
“We’re going to need a few more hands.” I laughed. There were four bags and two containers with hot soups waiting for us to take away. “Let me ask Caleb to help us out.” I texted Caleb to ask for his help and to let him know we were leaving. He rushed inside a few seconds later, coat flying through the tables.
We walked toward the exit and said goodbye to Hannah and her friend. They both stared at Caleb, of course.
I had just taken a step out of the restaurant and spotted two girls fast approaching our way. One of them was obviously Dominique because, of course, we had to bump into each other. And from the look on her face, it was apparent she knew all about Nathan and hisnew girlfriend. Hi.
Dominique marched in our direction, staring at Nathan. She was a woman on a mission.
I jumped in the car, fleeing the scene, and Caleb handed me the bags he was carrying. I placed them all on the floor. I didn’t care to interact with her. At all.
“Nate,” she said with a vacant smile. I could see and hear them talking. Caleb left the door open, probably thinking Nathan would get in the car any second now. That made two of us.
“Hi, Nikki.”
“Could we—talk for a minute?” she asked, taking a quick look at me without making any eye contact. Nathan met my gaze, and I nodded, hoping he would keep it brief. A minute doesn’t hurt anyone.
The other girl who arrived with Dominique said hi to Nathan and joined their friends inside the restaurant. Caleb took the bags off Nathan’s hands and passed them to me.
Dominique took a few steps away from the SUV, looking for privacy. She seemed distraught. Caleb closed the door, making me lose the opportunity to hear anything.Caleb!
A minute turned intofifteenfreaking minutes, and Nathan finally joined me in the car with a weird smile.
“I’m terribly sorry about that, Murph.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I nodded, displeased, because really?Fifteen minutesI had to wait in the car for him to talk it out with his ex? Hell no.
“You okay?” He asked, seemingly relieved to be back in the car with me, but I could still notice a tad of concern in his eyes. And I wasn’t okay. I was pissed.
I pressed my lips and took a deep breath. “Are you really done with her?” I was not going to sugarcoat things for him. We were just starting out, and it was best to know right away where he stood with her. I didn’t want to be the girl he dated, only to realize he loves his ex and ride off into the sunset with her.
“What? Of course I’m done,” he said, grabbing my other hand too. “Murph, look at me.” I met his gaze with reluctance. “I’m sorry I made you wait. I didn’t mean for our conversation to stretch out as it did. She kept asking questions. I thought it was best to be done with that awkward conversation for good. Because I’mdonewith her, I swear it.”
“Okay,” I said in a whisper. I trusted Nathan. Not only did I know he wasn’t lying about it, but I could sense it in how my stomach didn’t go into knots or got attacked by hot tiny knives. I’d been accustomed to doubt. And to feel all these horrible things inside meall the timewhen Thomas explained himself about anything. As if my body could detect the bullshit and react to it. “And … are you okay?”
We’d made the conversation about me, but that didn’t mean Nathan hadn’t also gone through an uncomfortable situation just now. I wanted to make sure how he was feeling about it.
“I am now.” He kissed my cheek, and I settled my head on his shoulder.
“I swore your ex was British. I had no idea she lived in New York.”
“I met her a few months after I first started working here. When I was transferred back to London, we kept our relationship going. I still traveled to New York for work, so we saw each other fairly often. But it was practically a long-distance relationship for the most part,” he explained. I didn’t ask for any explanations about their relationship, but I appreciated him opening up to me about it. It was reassuring.
“Is that why you broke up? The long-distance?”
“Yes, and no. Long-distance is always hard, but the real reason we broke up is because she wanted to get married. I didn’t,” he said, taking a deep breath. It’s as if he were reliving the stress of his relationship just by talking about it. “Nikki’s a year older than me. We’d been dating for three years. She thought getting engaged was the next obvious thing to do.”
Thinking about Nathan engaged to someone else made my blood sugar drop to the floor.
“When did you guys break up?”
“Mid-August.”
Damn.
