Below that, she added “Working for Gabe.” They’d collaborated well on school assignments, and on the long-running fanfic they’d never finished, but they were older now. Plus, she’d be workingforhim, and she didn’t know how she felt about that.
Pressing down hard with the pen, she scrawled “Screw over Nathaniel” in the Pros column. She’d be damned if he got a job that should’ve been hers.
Again.
The pen tip hovered over the page, and before she could overthink it, she wrote “Closure with Gabe” underneath.
Because even after all this time... yeah, she missed him too. And more than that, she wanted—no,needed—to know why. Why everything had gone so wrong between them. Why he’d left and never come back.
This might be her only chance to get it.
And then, in a fit of vindictive pique, she wrote, “Ruin his life.”
Okay no, that was too much. She crossed it out.
What did shereallywant?
She wanted to see him. To spend time with him. To find out if there was anything left to salvage...
With a lump in her throat, she wrote in tiny, reluctant letters, “Friendship 2.0.”
Their relationship was complicated, mixed with love and affection, anger and hurt, and unfulfilled desire. But when she thought about Gabe, it was like a cavern opened up in her chest, a gaping emptiness where her heart and vital organs should be. If she had the chance to replace even a bit of what she’d lost, she had to take it. Maybe if he could just be in her life again, somehow, she wouldn’t feel the ache of loneliness as acutely as she had since he left.
Sure, she had other friends. She had her cousins. But she didn’t have anything like the friendship she’d had with Gabe. Someone she could be silly around, and say all the weird ideas that popped into her head. Where she knew he’d never...
Well, shethoughthe’d never leave her. That they’d always be friends,bestfriends, forever.
She’d been wrong.
Michelle blinked hard at the list. How about that? The Pros column outweighed the Cons.
In the back of her mind, a plan began to form.
The new gym location would be in New York City, and Gabe would have to come back at some point. She could arrange to see him in person, but where? He wouldn’t have an office here. Would they meet at a gym? A café, where so many freelancer meetings took place? A hotel lobby?
Michelle couldn’t envision herself getting the answers she wanted in a public place. Gabe was squirrely when it came to talking about his feelings, and she wouldn’t put it past him to act like his silence over the last thirteen years had never happened. She needed to catch him off guard, to keep him in close proximity for longer than a consultation meeting. In the past, she’d letother friends crash on her sofa during their visits to New York, so it would be perfectly normal to offer the same for Gabe.
The plan solidified in her mind. This was it—she’d insist he stay with her, mostly to work on the project, but also to wear him down until he told her why he’d completely abandoned her.
The renovation on her bathroom was due to finish soon. Her tiny one-bedroom apartment was the perfect place to achieve the closure she so desperately needed.
Michelle turned on her phone but instead of replying to the email, she grabbed Gabe’s cell phone number from the signature and sent him a text.
Michelle:I’ll do it.
Chapter 3
Michelle:I’ll do it.
Gabe:Mich?
Michelle:Who else?
Gabe:Right.
Gabe:Um, hi.
Michelle:Don’t “hi” me. If I help you with this, you have to meet my demands.
