We didn’t even talk afterward. She just fixed herself up and left me standing there. I felt fucking stupid. The next time I heard her name, she was dating that pretty boy from LA.
Been feeling stupid ever since.
I scroll down her feed and find my favorite picture of her. I don’t even know why I like it so much. It’s just a picture of her holding a margarita and smiling at the camera. I’d rather not think about who took the picture.
Instead, I stare at the crinkle of skin near her eyes. The small dimple on her right cheek. The small heart tattoo on her middle finger. I shift my position in bed, lying further back into the mattress and palm my dick. I keep staring at her picture,my cock growing hard under my grip, and deliberate just tugging one out. I tsk loudly, annoyed with myself, and pull my hand away. Closing the app, I open my text messages and find my conversation thread with Selina.
You up?
6
CONNIE
“Do your parents know you’re in town?”
Jamie waits for me to answer from across the restaurant table.
I’ve been home for almost a week now.
“Yeah.” I take a sip of my Paper Plane before continuing. “But they’re in the south of France vacationing with the twins.”
Jamie and I come from the same background. Upper class and bougie. But Jamie chose to walk away from it all, whereas I still rely on my trust fund.
“I can’t believe they’re eighteen now,” Jamie says with a chuckle as she signals the server for another round.
My parents divorced when I was young, and my mother remarried and had the twins, Edward and Matthew, when I was eleven. I love my brothers, but we’ve never been that close.
I laugh. “Don’t remind me, I already feel ancient.”
There’s a small lull in the conversation as Jamie sips her Malbec. I watch her smile fade, eyebrows slowly dipping in concern.
Great.
I already know where this is going.
“So, have you talked to him?”
She doesn’t have to say his name for me to know she’s talking aboutOliver. I look away, idly watching the other tables before finding her gaze again. The ache still smarts even though I’ve been desperate to ignore it. Maybe if I don’t pay it any attention, it will go away.
“I blocked him. What’s more to say?” I answer simply, playing with a few breadcrumbs on the white linen of our table.
“And that’s it?” Jamie has thatIf you don’t start crying, I’ll start crying for youlook in her eyes. “You don’t want any closure?”
“Not everyone needs to pour their heart out to have closure, babe.”
I mean it as a tease, but there’s a sliver of irritation that still filters through.
“But Connie.” Her look only intensifies.
I laugh, trying to break the tension. “Can we not? I don’t want to talk about this on my birthday.”
I turned twenty-nine today.
I woke up spiraling into an existential crisis about the passage of time, then promptly went to a spin class and cycled until I forgot how to think. I might have shed a tear or two in the dark of the spin studio, but there were no witnesses, and it was most likely sweat now that I’m thinking about it.
Jamie gives her head and shoulders a small shake as if snapping herself out of it.
“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry — sorry.” She flashes me a watery smile. “I just worry about you.”
