Page 99 of Getting Over You

Which made me think about everything else EJ said. Which made me realize that the biggest asshole move I’ve made isn’t sleeping with Gigi and telling her it can’t be anything more, it’s sleeping with Gigi, telling her it can’t be anything more, and then acting like it can.

Tonight isn’t doing anything to dissuade that argument.

“Thank you for dinner,” Gigi mumbles as she lays across me on the couch. She plants a kiss to my cheek. “That was sweet.”

“Don’t mention it,” I mumble. “It didn’t take much.”

Her eyes sparkle, and that makes my heart jolt.God damn it, Gigi.

“It means a lot,” Gigi whispers. “Everything you do.”

I run my hand through her hair, staring down at her. I swallow. My jaw tenses.

“Everything okay?” Gigi asks, a divot forming between her eyebrows. Her lips jut in a concerned pout. I open my mouth to speak, maybe even tell her the truth, when my phone rings.

“My mom,” I tell Gigi. Her brow furrows, and she stands up, rushing to the bedroom and shutting the door.

I guess she thought I needed privacy.

“Hey, Caderade,” my mother sighs into the phone. “How are you?”

“Yourhow are youshave come in text form all summer,” I say. “What happened to daily pictures of your dog? Why did we change it up? When?”

“You keep telling me about a wonderful girl you’re spending all your time with. And the picture you sent of her—she’s cute.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, instantly regretting the night at the carnival, when I thought the lights were hitting her face just right as she stared up at the sky. Or at least regretting sending the photo I got to my mom as a reply to her picture of the dog. “I know. But she’s here right now, so cool it maybe.” Desperate to change the subject so Gigi doesn’t get suspicious, I say, “Why’d you call?”

“Well,” Mom says. “I… Well.”

“Mom,” I sigh. “Did someone die?”

She hesitates.

I try again. “Mom. Come on.”

“Eddy hadn’t been feeling too good lately, so he asked me to take him to the hospital.”

My stomach sinks, my chest one-thousand pounds. “Alright.”

“And, well…”

“Mom.”

“Eddy has cancer, Cade. The doctors… They’re thinking it’s cancer.”

I don’t know if I stop breathing on my own or my lungs decide for themselves.

Or maybe the weight in my chest has decided to crush my lungs, too.

“I… Fuck, Mom. What the fuck?”

“I know, sweetheart. It’ll be a long road here.” Hearing my mom’s voice go weak makes my own throat start closing.

I sigh. Everything clicks. I want to rip my hair out. “We aren’t getting the shop, are we?”

“He tried to tell you right after he found out,” she says quickly, like air rushing from a balloon. “He said he called, and you sounded so excited he couldn’t stand to tell you what happened.”

So, that’s why he told me he loved me.

---