Page 114 of Getting Over You

“I know you’re not doing well,” she says, coming into the room and shutting my door. “You can lie to me if you want. But I don’t like seeing my sister not act like my sister.” I sit up in bed, ready to protest. “And don’t get mad, but I totally told Mom about your tattoo the second you told me.”

I roll my eyes. “I regret it now. I kept telling myself I was doing it because I wanted it, because I wanted to do something daring and kind of unlike me.”

“You wanted to impress that guy with tattoos,” Mollie says.

“Yeah, I did. And look where I am now. Exactly where I was meant to be the whole summer, anyway. Just crying over a different man that can’t manage his feelings, so he crushes mine.”

“You need ice cream.”

My shoulders sink. “I don’t know if I can eat,” I confess.

Mollie looks at me with doubt. “I’m not giving you a choice.”

We get back home as the sun is setting. There’s a random car parked in the driveway.

“Probably a coworker of Dad’s,” Mollie says. “He’s been having work meetings in his home office all summer.”

I know that truck. But it can’t be. There’s no way Cade is here right now, all the way from South Carolina. There’s no way.

“It’s funny,” I say as we pull into the driveway, “because that guy from South Carolina? That smashed my heart into bits? He drove a truck like that, dark blue and everything. I’m losing it, obviously, because I thought it was him.”

Mollie smiles sympathetically, reaching over to squeeze my hand. “Heartbreak is a bitch, dear sister.”

“That it is,” I say as I get out of the car.

When I open the front door, I hear laughter from the living room. Specifically, my dad, his chuckle booming so loud it’s reverberating off the walls.

“Oh man, Cade,” he exclaims. “You’ve got some stories. Man.”

Cade. My dad just said Cade.

I’m losing my mind. My father didn’t just say—

“Gigi!” Mom says. “You didn’t mention he was funnyandcute! It almost makes me not hate him.”

Oh, my god. No way.

Cade Deans is sitting on my living room couch next to my mom. Sharing jokes or something with my dad. He flashes a dimples-popping smile at me.

Son of a bitch.

My mind is racing, thoughts whirling around so fast I’m getting dizzy. I wordlessly sit down on the sofa next to my mom. Then I get antsy, stand up, and head outside, plopping down onto the front porch.

My head in my hands, shaky breaths spilling out. I hear the door open, then shut.

“I brought an ‘I’m sorry’ coffee,” Cade says as he sits next to me. “It’s from the gas station up the road, though. Best I could do.”

I don’t take the coffee as he tries to hand it over. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Apologizing,” he says as he sets the coffee at his side. “You’re the greatest woman I’ve ever met, and I treated you just like everyone else. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s the epitome of a dick move, because you aren’t like everyone else, Gigi. No way.”

“Did you come up with that?” I ask. “Epitome of a dick move?”

“EJ,” Cade admits with a humorless chuckle. “EJ did.”

“You are the king of mixed signals,” I tell him. “You know that? You spend all summer wanting to sleep together. And then youdecide you don’t want me in your life at all just because I wanted to celebrate your—”

“I know,” Cade says, stopping me. “I know. I was, I am, the world’s biggest asshole.”

---