Noa lets out a heavy sigh. “No, Claire. It’s not.”
I squeeze his hand harder, reassuring him he’s doing the right thing. I’m not sure what he ever saw in her, but she likely doesn’t deserve him .
“Then this is a joke, right?” Claire shakes her hands in the air. “I said we’d take six months apart, then we’d get back together. You can’t trick me into coming back to you sooner. I won’t fall for it.”
Can I slap her? I want to slap her.
I take a step forward, ready to fight this she-beast for mistreating my friend, but Noa pulls me back.
“You can keep the six months, Claire. I don’t need them anymore.” Noa says and without a word, pulls me to the door.
I wait until we are out the door before speaking up. “Isn’t she going to be ticked when she finds out we aren’t really engaged?”
“Yep.” He says simply.
“I guess we will have to get married for real now.” I try to lighten the mood.
Noa stops walking. “I dated her for seven years. Four months ago, I told her I wanted to get married. But she said she wasn’t sure. That she needed six months apart to determine her feelings. Who dates someone for seven years if they aren’t sure about their feelings?”
“Someone who doesn’t know how good she’s got it,” I whisper. “Noa, I know it hurts, and I don’t mean to be rude because I know you probably still have feelings for your ex, but I don’t think she’s as perfect as you once thought.”
He scrubs a hand over his face and starts walking again. “Yeah, I was too in love with her to see it sooner, but you’re right, she’s not the girl for me. Thank you for rescuing me.” He gives me an impish smile.
“You’re rescuing me too.” I shrug, and my heart breaks for the man who’s been mistreated. He doesn’t know what he’s worth because of his awful girlfriend.
“Do you want to marry that Grant guy?”
I choke on the air in my lungs. “What?”
“Well, you obviously love him. Do you want to marry him?”
Gosh, why does that question hurt so badly? Probably because I spent my teen years dreaming of exactly that.
“What I want and what he wants are two different things,” I say, dropping my gaze to pick at my red nail polish.
“We’ll change his mind,” Noa says.
Suddenly, I’m second-guessing this whole arrangement. “But is that the kind of guy I want? Someone who doesn’t act until it’s too late? Do I really have to make him jealous to get his attention?” Because what if this works, and I get his attention because he was jealous, but when the game is over, he no longer cares?
I can live a life without ever knowing what it’s like to be with Grant. I’ve been living it for years. But I can’t live a life with Grant and then lose him.
“I don’t know,” Noa answers.
I shake my head. “Alright, this is way too deep of a conversation to have without sugar.”
“Agreed.” He nods. “Wanna go grab a milkshake?”
“Yes. Absolutely yes.”
He grins over at me. “Maybe I should have proposed with a milkshake.”
“Eh. It would have been overkill.”
“Because a fake proposal isn’t overkill enough,” he says and lets me into his Range Rover.
I laugh and buckle up while he gets in the driver’s seat.
“You know, this is kind of weird though, isn’t it?” He asks as he starts the car. “A girl flirted with me in the library the other day, and I told her I was engaged.”
