Page 100 of Up All Night

We ate in silence for a few minutes, our lunch feeling awkward and strained, until a voice rang through our silent lunch.

“West?”

We both looked over to see who had called his name.

Standing next to our table was a beautiful woman. Her long dark hair shone in the sun, so straight and sleek that it looked like she’d just come from a salon. She wore a sleeveless blouse tucked into a pair of off-white dress slacks and heels. I had no idea how she walked in them. Her makeup had that perfect ‘I barely wear any makeup but it actually has several steps and layers’ look that I had never been able to master. She looked like the epitome of a wealthy and successful career woman.

“Rachel, hi,” West said, clearly in shock at having run into her.

ThiswasRachel?

West stood, giving her a hug, and then stepped back. “It’s good to see you. How have you been?”

Ugh. Why did he have to be such a gentleman?

“I’ve been doing great,” she smiled. “I got that promotion I was working towards and have been living the dream. What about you?”

“Not too much has changed for me.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Still working with my dad, and the company is doing really well.”

“I’m surprised to see you this far out of the city, enjoying lunch on a Saturday,” she said, finally noticing me.

“Yeah, I’m actually on a date,” he said, smiling at me. “This is Halle. Halle, this is Rachel.”

She gave me a small smile and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

I clasped my hand with hers. “Nice to meet you, too.”

West’s phone buzzed against the table, breaking my weird eye contact with Rachel.

Okay, so she’s definitely not a fan of mine. Or possibly more about how West is out with someone on a Saturday when he wasn’t willing to do that with her when they were dating.

“Well, I won’t interrupt your date.” She turned back to smile at West. “It was great running into you.”

“Yeah, great seeing you, too,” he said.

She went in for another hug, and I tried to not roll my eyes. Did she really need to hug him again?

West’s phone buzzed again.

Rachel looked down at his phone on the table. “Oh, the familiar sound of West’s phone buzzing.”

Jealousy coursed through my veins at how she knew West so well, probably better than I did. She was this perfect, beautiful, successful woman, and I wanted to hate her for it, but I couldn’t. Despite my jealousy of her past relationship with West, I actually had a lot of respect for a woman like her. She had made her own path in this world and looked like she was killing it.

She looked over at me and gave me a sad smile. “Good luck with that.”

Then she waved goodbye and headed down the sidewalk into one of the shops.

West sat back down. “So…that was Rachel.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

Another buzz from his phone vibrated the table.

West let out a frustrated sigh, but I didn’t know if it had to do with his phone continuing to sound with notifications or running into his ex-girlfriend, maybe both.

“If you need to get those,” I gestured to his phone, “please don’t stop on my account,” I said, going back to eating my food.

But as amazing as the food tasted, my stomach was a queasy mess. I pushed down a couple more bites before setting down my fork.

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