Page 119 of The Shake Off

She made it sound so easy. I watched as a small bird landed on one of the olive trees lining the terrace and began pecking at the branch. I wish I could fly around and eat olives all day.

“Tell me what happened with Ace.” Kit used that tone I’d heard her use on Murray, or one time when I’d gone to meet her for lunch and she was talking to a student who didn’t hand in his paper on time.

It was the tone that said don’t mess with me.

I flung an arm over my eyes. It would be easier if I didn’t have to see her face as I told her. And if I said it as quickly as possible, maybe it would be less humiliating. Ripping the Band-Aid off, so to speak.

“Penn-came-to-see-me-and-ordered-me-to-break-up-with-Ace-so-it-didn’t-mess-with-his-team-because-everyone-knows-I-don’t-do-relationships-so-I-got-very-drunk-Ace-came-over-and-I-threw-up-on-him-then-we-broke-up,” I got out and sucked in a deep breath.

Phew.

When she still hadn’t said anything after a minute, I lifted my arm to find her staring at me with her mouth wide open. She was probably trying to catch up with the speed at which I’d blurted it out.

“Kit?”

She held her hand up to silence me.

“We’ll get to Penn in a minute,” she managed, her brows shooting up. “You threw up on Ace? Like, you puked on him?”

I nodded, dropping my head so I couldn’t see her, though I had nowhere to go. I’d hit rock bottom.

Her hand shot up, trying to stifle the laugh which burst out. “Oh my God.”

“It’s not funny.”

“Yeah, it is,” she laughed. “You puked on Ace Watson. What did he do?”

I shrugged. “Dunno. I passed out, but he looked after me. I threw up on him, and he looked after me. When I woke up, he’d made me electrolytes and tied my hair back, and stayed to make sure I was okay.”

That was the hardest part. He’d wanted to make sure I was okay, and I’d been nothing but an ungrateful brat.

“I’m telling you, if you puked on me, I’d have to seriously reevaluate our friendship,” she smirked.

“Kit...” I whined, “it’s not funny.”

“It is, because you’re being blind and a little bit stupid. And it makes me sad that you’re not with someone when you have so much love to give. You’re missing out on something wonderful because of your awful parents.”

A thick lump formed in my throat, because she was right. I knew she was right. I’d avoided long term relationships my entire adult life because of my parents. I openly admitted it. The difference between this one and any one I’d had before was that I hadn’t ended it before the feelings kicked in. Right now, I did kinda feel like I could be missing out on something, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

“What happened after Ace had left?”

I sniffed, wiping my palm under my nose. Bell’s head turned from where she was still attending to Barclay. “Payton sniffies? You want tissue?”

“Yes, please,” I nodded, and Bell pushed off the floor and fetched a box from her trusty ambulance.

She thrust one crumpled tissue at me. “Here you go.”

“Thank you, cutie pie.”

“Welcome.” Bell dropped back down on the floor next to Barclay.

I looked over to Kit who was grinning at her sweet, gorgeous, empathetic daughter.

“After Ace left, I crawled back to bed, called in sick, and cried. I slept all day. Those electrolytes he gave me actually did make me feel better, once I managed to keep them down.”

I’d also made a half-assed attempt at seeing who was onTinder, but it hadn’t taken me long to realize it was a total bust. I’d triedBumbleandHinge, but they’d been a bust as well. Swiping through dating apps had once been my favorite game, but I couldn’t bring myself to go right on any of them.

Not Chad from Greenwich Village who worked on Wall Street.

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