Page 6 of Fall For You

“Oh, you know. Same old, same old.”

I study “Evelyn” a little more closely, trying to determine if we’ve already met. She doesn’tlookfamiliar; but then again, it’s been a while.

“Evelyn,” my aunt says. “Have you met my niece? This is Jo.”

“Jo,” Evelyn repeats. She’s smiling as she leans forward to shake my hand, but it’s a vague and genial smile that gives away nothing. I still have no idea whether or not we know each other.

“Evelyn,” I reply, equally vague.

“And this is her husband, Carter,” my aunt continues, which leaves me gaping in surprise.

I wait a beat, expecting someone to correct her, but no one does.

“Oh, yes. I know Carter,” Evelyn says, not missing a beat.

Carter, meanwhile, has gotten to his feet. “Well, ladies,” he says, already making tracks toward the door. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I do need to get back to work. So, I’ll just see myself out.”

I stare after him for a moment, unsettled and annoyed, with all the questions rattling around in my head. Then I scramble after him.

“Carter. Wait up,” I say, catching up with him in the hallway.

He pauses, hand on the doorknob, eyeing me warily. “What do you need?”

“What was that back there?” I ask. “Was that the concussion talking, or does Vi still think we’re married?”

Carter smiles. “Well, I don’t know. I guess it’s possible. I mean, we never got fake divorced, so…”

“Yeah, ’cause there isn’t any way to do that, remember? It’s not a thing—you told me that.”

Carter sighs. “Yes. I know that. I was just kidding.”

“Yeah but, why?—?”

“Why was I kidding?”

“No. Stop it.”

“Relax, okay? I think your aunt was kidding, too. I think she just wanted to bust our balls, a little.”

“Maybe,” I say, but I’m not convinced. “She didn’t sound like she was teasing.”

“Well, what do you think it was then? It could be that the concussion has made her forgetful. Or it could be that Vi thought Evelyn was coming on to me and she wanted to warn her off. After all, it would hardly be the first time someone has used our quote, unquote, marriage to do that.”

I wince a little because he’s not wrong. However, the person he’s talking about—the only person that I know of who routinely went out of her way to warn women to stay away from Carter—was me. “Wasshe coming on to you?” I ask—proving that old habits never die. “I must’ve missed that.”

Carter shakes his head. “No. If Evelyn were going to come on to anyone, I think it would probably have been you.”

“Me? But— Oh.”

“Exactly. But I don’t think that’s likely either. She and her wife seem very happy together. For what it’s worth, they have tickets to my Valentine’s Day dinner. So, I think you and I can mark ourselves ‘safe from being picked up by Evelyn today’.”

He’s still chuckling about that as he slips out the door, leaving me frustrated and confused as I slowly retrace my steps back to the parlor. Had he brought up the dinner again on purpose? Could I help him with that? Should I? Does he even want me to? I wish I knew.

The truth is, when I left Heartwood behind me, I lost track of Carteron purpose.

I’d fucked up by leaving him. I’d made mistakes. Big ones. There had been no possible way to walk them back, and it was too painful to keep reliving them. But, now that I’m here, it’s embarrassing to realize how much I don’t know about his life anymore. Embarrassing, and more than a little sad.

We were friends before we were lovers and I hate that I wasn’t able to keep any of that alive.

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