And yet, the few times Ihadseen him, he'd said things that made me wonder if he was planning to end our arrangement early. It wasn't anything he'd said outright, just little hints about making some changes and starting over.
Without me?
It wouldn’t be a huge surprise, given how badly my performance last night had turned out.
As these thoughts swirled through my head, I realized that I still hadn't answered his question about what I'd been thinking.
Jeez, where to begin?
To think, we hadn't even discussed yesterday's awful encounter with Mackenzie, much less anything that had happened afterwards.
In the end, I decided to go in chronological order. "The thing is, I need a favor." I glanced toward the restaurant. "If we run into anyone I know, could wepleasenot say that I'm not going back to the waffle place?"
"Why not?"
"I'm just trying to minimize any drama later on, you know?"
His gaze grew troubled. "With Mackenzie?"
"With anyone." Fumbling for the words, I tried to explain. "It's like if you tell the whole world that you're having a giant birthday party with a hundred people, but only one person shows up, you look like a total idiot. But if you don't say anything at all, you can actually have a pretty nice time with just the one person."
"Anna—"
"I know. It doesn't make sense. I'm just saying, it's a lot better that way, when the party's over."
Was my party over?
Probably.
And now, there was something else I needed to tell him "By the way, I should've said it sooner, but I'm sorry for flipping out yesterday."
"Don't be."
"But I am." I tried to laugh. "Especially after you stopped me from playing in traffic."
"Forget that," he said. "If anything, I should be apologizing toyou."
"For what?"
He shoved a hand through his hair. "Shit, where to begin?"
At some of the better memories, I couldn’t help but smile. "You weren'talwaysso bad."
"That's whatyouthink."
"But back to the job thing," I said, "I overreacted. I know that. It's just that things have been kind of rough, you know?"
His eyes filled with pity. "Anna—"
"I'm not asking for sympathy," I clarified. "I'm just saying that's why I acted like I did, and—"
"Anna," he repeated.
"What?"
"The thing with Mackenzie, forget it, all right? You're done with all that."
If only that were true."I am not."
