Page 103 of Devilry

He grabs fistfuls of my shirt and kisses me. Hard, needy, and apologetic. “I’m sorry, Cole.”

Confused and resigned, I kiss him back.Me too, baby. Me too.

Instead of walking straight back to Harper and Miles, I head over to a seated Callie and crouch down beside her. “Callie is it?” She throws her hand on her chest, my voice scaring her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

She looks around the room and then back at me. “Where are Aiden and Elijah?”

“That’s what I came to talk to you about.” I clear my throat. “Do you think you can go back there and check on them? Make sure they don’t kill each other.”

Eyeing me suspiciously, she rises from her seat, and wordlessly hurries toward them.

With each step back to my table, the adrenaline that had been coursing through me lessens. Anger and confusion wasting away until I'm numb.

All of this happened because I thought it would be a good idea to surprise Elijah.

If I had stayed home, this would've never happened. Aiden and Elijah would still be friends, and Elijah and I wouldn't be teetering on the edge of the one thing we both didn't want to do.

I get back to the table, defeated. The expressions on both Harper’s and Miles’ faces show they’re not sure, but also not oblivious to the fact that something just went down.

Grabbing my wallet out of my back pocket, I calmly place two fifty-dollar notes on the table. “I have to get out of here.”

“Harper,” Miles says taking control. “Go home with him. I’ll cover here and see you both there.”

22

Elijah

Staring at my phone, I will it to ring. To make any noise that alerts me to some form of contact from Cole.

But there’s nothing.

Today was supposed to be the start of our weekend together celebrating my birthday, but since the night at Sakéhouse, Callie and I haven’t left one another’s side. Today we’ve been vegging out on the couch, my head in her lap, while she mindlessly flicks through the TV pretending like she hasn’t spent Thursday night, all of Friday, and most of today waiting for Aiden to finally show up. While I obsess and wonder whether me stupidly telling Cole to leave was me breaking up with him, and not even realising it.

My only intention was to try and reason with Aiden, salvage our friendship. But he just continued to make his disappointment and disgust in my decisions very loud and clear.

I didn’t know what it was with him, whether it was jealousy like Cole had mentioned or he was just worried about my welfare, but when Callie showed up and gave him the dressing down of a lifetime, I realised maybe this, his reactions and his actions, aren’t really about me at all.

He’d stormed out of the restaurant without a second glance, leaving Callie and me to both pick up the pieces of our wonky and mangled hearts, as well as the check.

“Are you going to actually do anything with your cell, or just keep holding it like a new hand accessory?” Callie asks, stroking her fingers through my hair.

“I’ve texted him three times, Callie. Surely he can give me something.”

I can’t work out if I’m hurt or angry, and the longer this radio silence between us continues, the more confused I become.

He should’ve never come to the restaurant, and it kills me to even think like that, because I know with every part of my being he came with—albeit slightly selfish—very good intentions. But I know what we’re like together. The magnetic force. The combustion. I knew it was making us more reckless. And I knew that that recklessness would eventually get us in trouble.

We’ve come so far from those two people having dinner at Carne that first night. That had been innocent, or at least just a testing of the waters. But now, we’re in deep. Deep enough that I knew we were becoming impossible to hide.

Now it’s the weekend, and we had plans. Plans for my birthday. Plans for just me and him.

“Text him again,” Callie instructs.

Sitting up, I put my elbows on my knees and rest my head in my hands. “I’m sure that’s the opposite of what friends are supposed to say.”

“Maybe, but on the off chance he thinks you don’t want him, you need to tell him you do.”

And I do, don’t I?

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