guess.”
“You’re not excited about that?” She watched me closely and frowned. “Are you waiting for…?”
I saw that she was hesitant to say his name so I rushed forward with my own question. “Have you talked to him recently?”
She froze.
“What are you girls talking about?” Cord frowned. He had lounged back with his arm thrown over Marissa’s chair. He pulled his tuxedo collar out now and exchanged a look with Ben.
“Nothing,” Marissa said quickly.
Angie frowned at her.
“So have you talked to him recently?”
“Why would she have talked to him? He’s your—”
“Yes.” She shoved back her chair and stood up. Her hands held onto the table. “I called him after he left. I have no excuse for that.”
I shoved my chair back as well. My heart was starting to pick up its pace and my cheeks were warm. “What did you promise him? What were you after? Were you going to drive there if he said yes?”
Angie’s eyes had widened and she was white in the face. She stood with us, but held onto her drink with a death grip.
“Alex, I’m sorry—”
“Sorry for what? What’d you do?” I needed her to say it. I needed to hear the words.
“For…” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “For—what do you want me to say?”
“The truth .” It ripped out of me.
She gulped. The blood drained from her face. As she started to sway on her feet, Cord jumped up and caught her elbow. “Hey, whoa. Hey. You okay?” He frowned at us and then shook his head. “I think maybe we should call it a night. There’s stuff going on between you three, but I don’t think it’s worth Marissa getting sick.”
Angie snorted. Her hand found her hip and she stuck it out.
Marissa swayed more unsteadily on her feet. She was still holding onto the table and her knuckles had grown white.
“Okay.” Cord shot us another dark look, but drew her against him. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then draped his coat around her shoulders. “Let’s head home, huh?”
She nodded, but clung to him.
Angie glared after them. She threw back the rest of her punch and then ground up her cup into pieces. When they fell from her hand, she growled in disgust. “I can’t believe her. Really, I can’t believe her. She knew about you and him. Hell, she knew before when she was trying to go at him. Is she mentally screwed up or what? Is it her ego? Does she really have to conquer every guy out there?”
Justin came up to the table at that moment. He took one look at Angie and spun around on his heel.
She snorted after him. “That’s probably for the best. I’d unleash my anger on him and that’s all sorts of wrong.” She sighed and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
My shoulders bounced up in a careless shrug. “Whatever. I’ll deal.” But that wasn’t the truth. The truth was that it stung, a lot. Tears threatened to fall, and I swallowed a lump down my throat. I couldn’t dwell on it. That would make me think of what she’d done and inevitably that would make me think of Jesse. I was really trying to stop thinking about him.
“Hey.” Eric approached with a frown and two glasses in his hands. He handed one to me. “Justin said something was wrong.”
Angie gave him a ‘duh’ look. “And I bet he warned you
Robert Chazz Chute, Holly Pop