Page 7 of David

“What’s in it for you?” I toss at her. “This still feels like a chore to me. I need to be on my best behavior and have no one to talk to at the wedding other than you.”

“You’re silly,” she says, smiling. “The whole town will be there.”

“People we don’t know.”

“It’s a small community. Everybody knows everybody.”

“These are the wealthiest people in town.”

“Okay. All right…” she concedes. “They may be the wealthy folk, but there are still a lot of people in town. Besides, you and I live fairly well.”

That’s subjective, but anyway, I stay quiet.

“Finally, you ran out of objections,” she says, and I wave her off.

“I hate this,” I mutter, flicking my laptop open and waking my computer.

“Listen…” she says in a serious voice this time. “You can’t avoid Thea or these people for the rest of your life. You like Rain and adore her place.”

“It’s not about that,” I say, brimming with frustration. “And we’re back to square one. I told you it’s not about these people and their money.”

“You feel like an outsider, even though these people didn’t do anything to you. You need some time to adjust, and trust me… This sensation will fade when you find your people. Speaking of people. What happened to that guy?”

“Which one?” I ask, my fingers flying across my keyboard as I answer an email.

I know what guy. And I know she won’t like my answer.

“Don’t ask me if we’re seeing each other. We’ve never dated.”

“But?”

“There is no but. We broke up.”

“Oh. So you’ve never dated, but you broke up.”

Her answer is dry, and my fingers freeze while my eyes travel to hers.

“What?”

“That explains your foul mood.”

“They’re not connected.”

“I bet they aren’t. What happened to him? Was it Cole or something?”

“Klaus.”

“What happened to him? Please don’t tell me he hooked up with one of your friends.”

For one, I don’t have that many friends.

And that ties into the fact that lately, I’ve become the last stop for men who end up finding the woman they want in my circle of friends.

I’ve heard about that happening to men but never thought it could happen to me.

So I can’t be mad at her for bringing that up.

“No. It wasn’t about that.”

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