Page 105 of Getting Over You

“I think you need to leave,” I tell EJ. “Can you get him out of here?”

“Gigi,” EJ begins, “he’s not—”

“I don’t care. Please get him away from me.”

“Gigi—”

“EJ,” I plead, hoarse. “Please, just go.”

He looks at me apologetically and then looks after Cade with that same sorrowful expression. “I’m sorry, Gigi. He’ll feel like an asshole tomorrow.”

“I know he will,” I say. “He should.”

EJ nods, waiting to see if I’ll say more. I don’t, and wordlessly, EJ follows Cade up the dunes, back to the parking lot.

I pop all the balloons with force; I rip down streamers, and I destroy the cake with both hands like a ravenous child. I curse atthe sky and swear off men and look up prices for an impromptu flight to Europe.

And then I call my mom.

“Gigi? What’s going on?”

“Can I—” I fight to get a deep breath with the tightness in my throat. “I want to come home.”

There’s only one place I care to go before leaving Geddington Beach behind me forever. When I open the door to Beach Brew, the morning after Cade’s failed birthday celebration, I don’t expect to see EJ. I knew it was a possibility, sure, but l am really after some caffeine before my flight, not a heartfelt goodbye.

My heart can’t take anything else.

After I talked to my mom, I called Rory. She offered to let me stay at her place for the night and said she’d gather my things from EJ’s and have them ready before she came to get me from the beach. I expected her to leave me with her roommate, escape back to EJ’s. But she stayed with me and even stayed alongside me as I shamelessly cried myself to sleep.

I feel weak in the knees as Rory and I walk into Beach Brew the next morning, my hands shaking with nerves.

“Your usual?” EJ asks. “On your way to work?”

I shake my head, handing over my bills.

EJ hands them back and shakes his head in return.

This time, I don’t slip the bills into the tip jar. “I’m leaving. Rory’s taking me to the airport.”

“You didn’t tell me,” EJ accuses, looking at Rory. “What gives?”

“I was sworn to secrecy,” Rory tells him. “I didn’t know until late last night.”

EJ narrows his eyes at me. “If this is because of my brother—”

“It is,” I say. “It is. But that’s okay.”

“Gigi. If you’d call him—”

“I don’t want to talk to Cade,” I say, holding up a hand to stop EJ. “I’m here for coffee.”

EJ looks to Rory. “Don’t look at me,” she says. “There’s nothing I can do.”

“She’s right,” I tell EJ, walking to the pickup counter. “But for what it’s worth, I’m happy to see you before I go.”

Once I get my coffee and we’re situated in Rory’s Jeep, she turns to me. “You sure you don’t want to say bye to Belinda?”

I wince. “I’m positive. I can’t bear to look at Cade right now, let alone her.”

---