Page 87 of About Last Night

“I’m over it,” she says. My expression must show my skepticism because she amends, “Mostly. I just don’t want to go back there.”

Jesus, what the hell happened? I think.

“We didn’t sleep together,” Willa says. “We had a moment, it passed, and now we’ve moved on.”

I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest oversimplification in the history of the world, but I don’t press.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you eventually,” Willa says. I exhale loudly in relief and Willa laughs. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m holding back to torture you a bit.”

“Mission accomplished.”

“You deserve it.”

“I totally do.”

“I’m sorry for what I said to you last night,” Willa says. “I mean, you needed to hear it, obviously, but I could have been a little gentler about it.”

“I probably wouldn’t have gotten the message if you were.”

“True.”

We eat for a few minutes and I’m ginning up the courage to ask her about her date when Willa says, “I channeled my anger with Greta toward how you treated Toni because there are some…slight similarities.”

Willa isn’t looking at me so I know not to probe too directly. “Oh?”

“Very slight. More of a turn your head and squint kind of similarities.”

I hum my response, hoping that Willa will elaborate. When she remains silent I ask the question I’ve been dying to ask for hours.

“So, how was your date?”

Willa glances up at me. “Let’s just say I have a new friend, and only a friend. Probably more of a business contact.”

“Were you not attracted to her?”

“Oh, no. She’s a smokeshow,” Willa says. “But she was also terrifying.”

“In what way?”

“A very sexy way.”

I press my lips together to keep from smiling.

“I’m definitely not ready for that,” Willa says. “Once I told her, she dropped the whole I want to eat you for breakfast facade and we had a great time.”

“Well, it was good for you to get out there again.”

“Agreed. Now, enough about that. How long did you stay last night? Did Greta ever show?”

I fill her in on seeing Shae and the news about Toni.

“Yeah,” she says slowly. “I’ve been keeping up with her social media, too. I wasn’t trying to punish you by not telling you. I knew you couldn’t take the idea of Toni being over everything so soon, so I kept my mouth shut.”

“That’s not it,” I say. “I’m glad she’s moved on. She needs to move on. I just hate how I did it. That I was cruel.”

“You’re a better woman than I am, because I would be livid,” Willa says.

“I don’t have any right to be, though, do I? I broke it off, whatever there was to break off.”

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