Page 129 of Until You

“That’s it, huh?” Eric asked, flicking his hand toward the tarp covering Lanie’s store.

He saw no reason to hide it. “Yeah, that’s it.”

“So she told you she her job was the time management thing, but she was really opening a designer clothes store?”

“Yeah, that’s the bottom line, I guess.”

“And your law firm was trying stop her store from opening.”

Tyler’s eyes narrowed. He knew what the boy was up to, but he saw no reason not to go along. The fact that it ate at his soul was penance. “Yes.”

“Lanie must hate your guts.”

“She doesn’t hate me. She said she knew I had no idea it was her.”

“So if you don’t hate her, and she doesn’t hate you, what’s the problem? Why are you breaking up?”

“Sometimes things are complicated, Eric.”

“I call bullshit.”

“Language.”

Eric stopped on the sidewalk. “You want me to tell you more about my date last night?”

Tyler was getting whiplash. He pointed across the street. “How about we have this conversation at the restaurant? I thought you were hungry.”

Eric grinned. “Good idea.”

After they were seated in a booth and had placed their orders, Tyler thumped the table with his index finger. “Okay. I ordered you food, now I want to hear about the date.”

Eric grinned. “Claire Hoffstetter. She’s the one I wrote the poem for.”

“Wait. The one who showed it to the entire school?”

“Yeah, only Claire didn’t do it.”

“Then who did?”

“Her friends, but they weren’t her friends. Turned out they were jealous that I wrote a poem for her, so they made fun of it.”

“And Claire let you think she did it?”

“She knew I was hurt either way, and she had let her friends read it. She thought it was her fault it happened so she deserved the blame. She figured I’d never want to go out with her after all the hell I went through.”

Tyler scowled, smelling a setup. “And how’d you find this out?”

Eric held his gaze. “She wanted to date me, so she found the guts to tell me the truth.”

The waiter showed up with their appetizer, and as soon as he left, Eric continued talking. “You know what’s really pathetic? A sixteen-year-old girl has more guts than you.” He took a sip of his drink and grinned.

Fuck you, Ericwas on the tip of his tongue, but given Eric’s age and the fact that he’d just pointed out that a sixteen-year-old girl was more mature than him, he held back.

“My situation is different than yours,” Tyler said. “Sure, we both have the whole misunderstanding issue, but neither one of us was mad at the other. We were just both very upset that I hurt Lanie’s store opening.”

“But now she’s leaving, and you’re letting her go.”

“I’m not just letting her go. I’m respecting her decision. She’s losing her job and she can’t find another one here. So she’s moving to Atlanta to work with an old friend. She says she doesn’t know if or when she’d move back, and we both know I’ll be here. So we’re ending it when she leaves.”

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