Page 87 of Fake It 'til You Make It

I’ve never been the child outside the principal’s office and this agitated encounter is literally my worst nightmare.

‘Hi Victoria.’ My smile is meek but at least I try. ‘How are you?’

She leans her head to one side as if I’ve asked the dumbest question in the world. ‘Disappointed, Abbey. Very disappointed. I thought you and Andrew would be together forever.’

I shrug. What I want to say is:Me too, Victoria. And on the day I expected your son to propose to me, he told me he’d been screwing someone else behind my back. But don’t worry, he seems very happy now to be bedding half of the women on Tinder in New York.

What I actually say is: ‘Me too.’ And I say it annoyingly apologetically.

‘Now I find out that you’re dating some sportsman and you’ve brought himhere, to Andrew’s home, where all of his friends and family are going to see him ridiculed by you.’

What I want to do is: laugh, so hard. And tell her how ridiculedIhave felt byhim.

What I actually do is say: ‘I’m sorry you feel that way, Victoria. But it has been weeks since we broke up and?—’

‘And he hasn’t brought anyone with him, Abbey. Surely that tells you he’s still invested in what the two of you had. How couldhe not be? You’ve been together as long as anyone can remember.’

Actually, not true. We were together for a long time but I still remember when he would date anyone in school except me. I still remember how he took Maisie Daisy to prom instead of me. What did Victoria say about that back then? I’d bet Andrew didn’t get this treatment.

‘I guess sometimes people grow apart and not together,’ I tell her, hoping to put an end to the conversation.

‘Pfft. My Andrew clearly doesn’t see it that way.’ She leans closer to me and lowers her voice even further. ‘I had better not find out that this sportsman turned your head before you and Andrew were separated.’

I gasp. My mouth literally falls open. Howdareshe?

My mouth is still open as Victoria leaves my side, rounds the table and welcomes the latest guests to arrive. As if someone in the clouds is messing with me. As if this lunch couldn’t get any worse. The next people to arrive are Mom’s friend Francesca and her daughter, who happens to be responsible for my first ever heartbreak in junior high. The very same prom date I was just thinking about.

Maisie freaking Daisy.

I would rather stick pins in my eyes than be at this lunch.

38

ABBEY

I gave lunch my best effort. Mostly, for my mom’s sake. Also to put on a brave front because it was truly awful. The prodding and poking of me, the ‘ooh’s and ‘ahh’s and ‘that’s a shame’s about Andrew’ and I continued after the initial greetings and all through the meal.

Now, I’m heading outside ten minutes earlier than the time I asked Mike to collect Mom and I, under the guise of checking he isn’t early, because I can’t stand being amongst those women, especially Victoria and Maisie, for one second longer.

I feel proverbially beaten up.

But as the saying goes, when you think things can’t get any worse, they always can.

After firing an SOS message to my sister and Shernette on my way out of the hotel, I look up from my phone and run right smack into…

‘Andrew!’

His hair is slicked the way he wears it for work and he has one of his favorite Italian shirts tucked into cream chinos.

‘Abbey.’ He holds my arms to steady me but lets them lingerlonger than necessary, as if he has a right to touch me. ‘I’m here to pick up my mom but I was hoping we’d bump into each other.’

‘You were? Why?’

He titters, as if it’s a stupid question. Then he beams at me, the way he used to. As if nothing has changed between us. ‘I thought maybe we could grab a drink at the bar, like old times. I can’t remember the last time I was in this hotel without you.’

A drink? After the last two hours I just endured because of him? After everything he’s put me through?

I jerk my shoulders, forcing him to finally let go of me. He’s right, this hotel has always been special for us. We’ve celebrated graduations, anniversaries, even births here. And one lunch was all it took to obliterate those good memories.

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