Page 134 of Love Not Qualified

“Water works fine for me too,” I added, my eyes involuntarily squinting at the guy. There was something between the two of them, I just didn’t know what.

“I’ll have a beer,” David said.

“You’re on medication,” Merielle said through gritted teeth then offered the guy a smile. “One Hugo and three glasses of water, please.”

He nodded, then turned around with his shoulders slumped. “Coming right up.”

David and Merielle argued about the alcohol, but I was too focused on the woman under my arm to offer them any kind of attention. She was biting her lip, her fingers beating a drum on the side of my leg.

“Were you two together?” I asked, trying not to show how hard my heart was beating.

Her head snapped to me, eyes bulging. “What? No.”

“Then why do I have the feeling like something it’s going on?”

She sucked in a breath, throwing a quick glance at him over her shoulder. “He’s always flirted with me and I don’t know, I just felt bad when he saw us together. I never cut off his advances because I thought he knew we could never be together.”

I didn’t need to ask why. I knew it was because the kid was the same age as Ryker.

My hand caressed the back of her neck. “You don’t have to feel bad about it.”

“Yes, I do. I could’ve told him to stop trying and not feed him a false reality.” Then, all of a sudden, she got up from her seat. We all stared at her, not sure what she wanted to do. “I’ll go apologize.”

I frowned. “What? You owe him nothing.”

Haelyn looked down at me and I knew I had nothing to worry about. I didn’t know if she wanted to reassure me, but by the look in her eyes, I knew this was just a chapter she wanted to close.

“Okay,” I breathed out.

“I’ll be right back,” she said before walking away from the table and finding her way to the bar.

I decided not to follow her with my gaze and instead, try to know her friends better. “How is your leg doing?” I asked David.

He huffed. “It would be better with some alcohol inside my system.” David eyed Merielle and she just smiled at him with her teeth.

“Trust me, alcohol doesn’t make anything better.”

David took a moment to reply. “Yeah, I know.”

“Hey, um...” Merielle started, looking around us, probably for her friend. “Can I ask you something?”

I planted my fists on the table, getting closer so I could hear her better. “Sure.”

“Is Hae eating okay? We haven’t talked about that and I wanted to make sure she’s doing better. I would ask her but I have a feeling she’d get defensive about it and things just settled down and the last thing I want is to have a fight with her.”

I couldn’t help the smile on my lips. Merielle’s care for Haelyn is something I’m grateful for. I could count on her that whenever something was wrong with my girlfriend and I was too stupid to notice, she’d tell me and help me fix it.

“She’s still not eating properly, but we’re making progress,” I assured her and I noticed how her body relaxed the moment I got the sentence out of my mouth.

“She’s coming.”

Haelyn placed a hand on my back and my blood instantly warmed. She sat down next to me with a smile on her face and was surely looking a lot better than how she was when she left the table.

“What did he say?” Meriell pried in.

“Eric is sad because his girlfriend broke up with her—not because of me. He said he let go of the idea of being with me when you showed up last time.” Her smile stretched when she turned to me, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Then he’s a smart guy.”

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