Page 39 of Stone Promises

“Fine. Talk to you tomorrow then,” he says, disconnecting the call without saying goodbye.

Could he know what I’m doing tonight? No, it’s impossible. I didn’t even know what I was doing tonight until a few hours ago. I put my phone away so there will be no more interruptions. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Julian?” Chad asks. “He wanted to go out with you?”

“He wanted to see a new band.”

“Why didn’t you tell him you were with me?”

I pause, taking a thoughtful drink before I answer him. But instead, I ask a question of my own. “Why haven’t you called him?”

“Because he’s had something I’ve always wanted.” He stares at me in the dim light of the restaurant. Even in the relative darkness, I can read his eyes. And I’m pretty sure they are telling me all the things I wanted to hear when I was fifteen. All the things every girl wants to hear. But is it too little, too late? “That’s my excuse,” he says. “What’s yours?”

“Uh . . . ” Like in the backseat of the car, it seems he’s rendered me speechless. “I guess I didn’t want to stir things up.”

“He knows you’ve been talking to me though, right?”

I nod.

“And he’s not happy about it,” he says.

“He thinks you’ll hurt me again,” I tell him.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Mal. I promise.”

“He’s just watching out for me like always.”

Pain washes across Chad’s face. I know I hurt him when I say things like that. But he needs to remember that I can’t just forget the past. He needs to know life went on without him and he can’t simply waltz back into my life and pick up where we left off.

“Will you tell me about you and him?” he asks. “You know, like when did you start dating and for how long?”

“There’s not much to tell,” I say.Except for maybe that he cheated on me, ruined our friendship, and further broke the trust I placed in men. “We got together after my mom died. He helped me through it and I guess I was at the point where I needed something more. But we only dated for a year.”

“What happened?”

It’s too soon to reveal all my secrets to the boy who abandoned me. “We just wanted different things, I guess.”

“But you stayed friends. That’s good.”

I nod. “It took a while to rebuild our friendship, but we got there. And now he and Melissa are my best friends.”

Chad’s eyebrows shoot up. “So there’s a chance for you and me after all, huh? I mean, if you rebuilt your friendship with Julian . . .”

And therein lies my dilemma. Julian cheated on me. He did one of the worst things a boy can do to a girl. How can I forgive him for that and not forgive Chad for merely forgetting me when his parents moved him away?Maybe because losing Chad felt so much worse than losing Julian.

“Maybe,” I say. “But there is so much I don’t know about you anymore.”

He spreads his arms wide open, leaning back in his chair. “What do you want to know? I’m an open book for you, Mal.”

I really want to know what sent him to rehab. What horrible thing happened that made him realize he needed to get clean? What life-changing event prompted him to sober up? The thing he said would make me hate him. But I don’t ask. I don’t ask because I fear it might have to do with another woman. One who gave him an ultimatum perhaps. One who he loved so much he got clean for. The thought of him being in love hurts my heart. It physically causes my chest to constrict and my throat to tighten.

Our server arrives, placing a large pizza on the table. I look at it and then smile at Chad. “You remembered?”

He leans over to get the champagne out of the ice bucket, waving off Mario when he rushes over to help him. “Of course I remembered. I remember everything about you. I remember you like spinach on your pizza. And that you don’t like red M&Ms. And that you prefer your water without ice because you think your body will have to work too hard to get it back to body temperature.” He turns away from me, popping the cork in the other direction, laughing at me when I plug my ears. “And that you hate loud noises that sound like gunshots.”

He pours us each a glass and then raises his. “To . . . possibilities.”

I hesitate before raising mine. He frowns. “Come on, Mal. Throw a guy a bone here. I’m really trying.”

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