Page 87 of Perfect (mis)Match

I opened my mouth to answer but was interrupted by the front door opening. Chloe walked in loaded down with bags and froze when she saw me.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Hi Chloe, nice to see you too,” I deadpanned.

“Vincent stopped by to see where I was,” Paul explained. “And now I’m trying to make sense of how he could be so goddamn stupid as to break Piper’s heart.”

“Well, at least invite him all the way in,” she said as she bustled by. “Because explaining that much stupidity is probably going to take a while.”

We stared at each other in silence, neither one wanting to break first.

“Fine,” Paul sighed. “Come in.”

At this point, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to continue the conversation. Paul had clearly picked sides, and now an angry Chloe was also going to confront me.

I followed Paul to the sitting area outside the open concept kitchen where she was bustling around.

“Can I get you a drink?” Chloe called from the kitchen. “Beer? Whiskey? Shots of tequila?”

“No thanks, I need to get back to the office after this.”

I eased into a chair.

“Because work is more important to him than anything,” Paul added snidely as he sat down across from me.

Tough crowd. But I knew I deserved it.

I was surprised when Chloe came out of the kitchen and plopped down next to Paul. Here I’d thought things were rocky between them, but they looked like a united front.

United in glaring at me.

“You know, Piper is the reason Chloe and I are back to normal,” Paul said. He reached over and took her hand in his, giving me the tiniest twinge of envy.

“It’s true,” she added, a small smile tugging at her lips as she placed her hand over Paul’s. “She gave him a little push and…well, the rest fell into place.”

“I thought I was keeping our relationship simple and easy by not pushing Chloe to say any more than she wanted to. What I didn’t realize was that she was bottling up a lot of heartache, and sheneededthat push to be open and honest with me.”

“At the same time, I didn’t make it easy for him. I was doing way too good of a job hiding my real problems from him.” She bumped against Paul and gave him an embarrassed smile. “Did you hear about my missing earring?”

“A little…” I said, unsure of how much I could let on that I knew. “It was your grandmother’s, right? And it got lost in the hotel suite.”

“It led to agiantfight,” Chloe added, looking a little sheepish. “Which is why Paul ended up staying at your place.”

“I met Piper for lunch, and she suggested that we go to Veritique to have a replica made. Perfect solution. Obviously, it’s not the same as having both original earrings, but they can be worn as a set again, and every time she wears them, she’ll know that both earrings were given to her by people who love her more than anything. They’re a symbol of family, love, and our commitment to work through our problems no matter what.”

“You could learn something from our challenges, Vincent,” Chloe added. “Life will always throw problems at you, which means you need someone in your corner to help you weather them. Having someone you can rely on, who’s there for you no matter what, helps even out the ups and downs.”

“Yeah, and you won’t always be able to lean on the Lost Boys to fill in the empty parts of your life. Eventually,hopefully, every one of them is going to get as lucky as I am, and they’re going to find their special someones.” He lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of Chloe’s. “Have you thought about that? We’ll be off writing the story of our lives, and you’ll be…”

“Alone,” Chloe said.

The word echoed around the apartment. I wanted to fight back, to speak up for myself, but every word they were saying rang true.

“Well,” I finally said. “It’s too late now. Piper wants nothing to do with me.”

“Do you blame her?” Chloe asked pointedly.

“Ouch, tough crowd,” I joked.

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