Page 21 of Play With Me
“We leave next week.”
“Where are you going?”
“Not far.” I hesitate. It’s long enough that her eyebrows fly up.
“You’re going to Switzerland!”
I clear my throat and look down at the table, suddenly wishing we were going literally anywhere else. “Yeah.”
This was the trip I always wanted to go on with Nora, and she knew it. As soon as we found that lead about Eleanor and JEQ spending time in Switzerland. She always thought I was joking.
But the more I think about it now, the angrier I get. Nora bailed on me with this trip, just like she did our whole relationship.
“Well, that’s great,” she says brightly. “I hope it’s fruitful.”
“Fruitful?”
“You know, that you get some good clues. Or at least that it’ll be fun.”
Fun? Farrah’s sucked the fun out of it. My irritation heats up then, without me seeing it coming. It’s bullshit that I’m going on my own, without Nora. This was alwaysourthing.
“It’ll be good for Cap to spend time with her though, right?” Nora asks, thankfully not reading my thoughts this time.
“Yeah, it will, even though the last fucking thing I want to do is spend a whole week with the woman who dumped her own son like—”
I cut myself off, looking toward Cap, whose eyes are on me, though thankfully he’s out of earshot. I hope.
“So, you still haven’t forgiven her.”
I gather up her books. “Come on, Cap’s waiting.”
We cut across the open space toward him. “I know we showed up unannounced, but Cap’s really hoping you’ll hang out with us a bit before we go. The guy said your exams would be over by Monday, and—”
Nora makes a frustrated sound, then snaps her head up. “Wait, what guy?”
“The guy in your building. The same one who said you always go to the library on Fridays.”
“Murray?” she exclaims. “How did you—”
“He told me a surprising amount about you.” She doesn’t need to know I had to ask my brother Griff to help me find out where her apartment was. He’s good at stuff like that.
Nora presses a palm to her forehead, grimacing, and that old familiar punch of screwing up lands in my gut.
“Nora, I’m sorry, okay?” I hate how defensive I sound. “I knew you weren’t going home for Christmas, so I figured you might have some time.” She doesn’t say anything, and somehow this means I can’t stop. “You wouldn’t return my texts! How else was I supposed to know where you’d be?”
“That wasn’t an invitation to come over here and make plans without telling me!”
Heat flares in my chest. “Well, what would you have said? ‘Sure, Jude, no problem. Let’s hang out like we used to before I took off across the fucking ocean without telling my best friend my plans!’”
Nora’s jaw is set, but I see the slightest tremble in her lip.
Oh shit.
But now the whole library is staring, Cap included. And for once, I feel self-conscious about it. I wasn’t expecting to have this fight at all, but especially not here.
Finally, I say, “Let’s just get Cap and go. We’ll take you home, then get out of your hair.”
A moment later I’m dragging a bewildered Cap away from the librarian—he’d been trying to talk him into buying Nora a new pair of glasses, apparently—and heading down the stairs.
