Miles was right. It had been eight months since things had ended between Hayden and me. Ishouldbe over it, but I wasn’t. I’d spent all that time trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. It wasn’t just that I’d lost him after believing I might love him. It was that I truly didn’t understand what had happened. We were happy—as least, I thought we had been—and then all of a sudden, he didn’t want me anymore.
He went out with someone else the next day. I’d figured she was the reason we broke up, but then there was a different woman the next week and someone else the next. I saw the pictures on the gossip sites that loved to talk about the Blake family. And it hurt every time.
“He’s your brother, Miles. You’re allowed to talk about him in front of me.”
“He might be my brother, but he’s also an idiot.”
“Don’t.”
“Fine. Forget Hayden. Back to the party. Please come with me?”
“Why?”
“Because you’re my best friend and I want you there.”
“You won’t even notice if I’m there or not.” The Blakes were hosting a party in their Boston hotel to celebrate the new expansion and partnership with some prestigious winery. The event actually sounded amazing, but going with Miles would mean being his third wheel. And there was the risk of running into Hayden.
I already had to see him way more than I wanted since he was so connected to my family. He’d grown up in the same circles as my sister-in-law Piper. And he was still Sierra’s boss. Avoiding him completely was impossible.Avoiding him as much aswaspossible had become my new mission in life.
“What can I do to change your mind?” Miles asked.
“Nothing.”
“What if I invite Kylie too? Or you can bring your family.”
“That would be a no.” My family included four young kids, two of whom weren’t even human. Parties like this weren’t their scene at this point in their lives.
“Just Kylie?”
“Still no.”
I loved Kylie, but she also loved drama and would do everything in her power to find a way to make Hayden jealous if she was at a party with both of us.
“Okay, fine. I’ll come over after the party and bring leftover wine.”
I smiled to myself. “You are the very best friend in the world.”
Miles’s laugh echoed in my ear. “You just told me I was the worst best friend five minutes ago.”
“I’m taking it back. You have redeemed yourself.”
“It was the promise of wine, wasn’t it?”
“No, it was the promise of your company. The wine was just a bonus.”
“At the risk of losing my newly reinstated best friend status, how does me coming over to drink with you alone in your apartment fit into your ‘live life to the fullest and experience everything the world has to offer’ plan?”
“It doesn’t.” I sighed. I’d been living on Earth for over four years, and I still felt like I wasn’t really experiencinglife, like I was still on the outside looking in on other people living.
“Shit,” Miles muttered. “I have to go, but we’re continuing this conversation later.”
“Okay, bye.”
“I love you. Bye.”
There was a click as the call ended, and I shoved my phone into the pocket of my tote bag. Without Miles to talk to, I was hyperaware of how alone I was. The train was full of people, but they were all busy with their own thing, having their own conversations. I’d originally thought that living in the city would make it easy to meet people—there were a lot of them, after all—but in all the years I’d lived here, Miles was the only friend I’d made who wasn’t connected to Sam or his in-laws.
I supposed feeling alone was part of the human experience, maybe the most human thing about my current life.
