Page 57 of Jilted

“Come on. I’ll tell you about the fall of seventh grade when Wilder started wearing his dad’s shit—cologne, sweaters—to come off more mature when he hit on our thirty-year-old math teacher. He was thirteen at the time.”

I laughed. “How can I refuse that invitation?”

Andrew grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the chair. “You can’t. Let’s go.”

I snort-laughed and covered my mouth. “I’m definitely going to sip his drink the next time I see him drinking out of a can. If he likes cosmos so much, why didn’t he just make a batch and drink it out of a red plastic cup?”

“We were fifteen. He thought he had to act like a tough guy, and tough guys drank beer on TV, not red drinks in martini glasses.So he’d dump out the beer and pour in girly drinks—cosmos, Malibu and pineapple—I wouldn’t be surprised if he had hard Shirley Temples in there sometimes.”

“I guess it’s a good thing he grew up to be so brawny, since he has a penchant for things that might get him teased. Lucas already spilled that he likes mud masks and watches reality TV.”

Andrew held up a finger. “He’s also a closet Swiftie. He’ll deny it, but the dude knows every word to ‘Shake it Off.’”

My phone buzzed, giving me a fifteen-minute reminder about my afternoon meeting with the boss. I wiped my mouth with a napkin. “Gosh, I didn’t realize how long we’ve been siting here.”

“I’ve got enough material about Wilder to amuse us for days,” Andrew said.

“I bet you do. So we might need another lunch sometime.”

He grinned. “It would be my pleasure.”

I’d started to slide out of the booth when Andrew reached across and touched my arm. “Hey, I feel like we’ve had a lot of laughs at my friend’s expense. So give me one minute more to tell you a few things about him.”

“Okay…” I settled back into my seat.

“I couldn’t afford to go to Yale for undergrad. My family is comfortable, but not eighty-thousand-dollars-a-year comfortable, and I also have four siblings. Ivies are competitive. All the kids have better than a four-point-oh, so there aren’t many academic scholarships. Then at the last minute, a scholarship came through—a full ride. I thought it was strange, but I wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. Two years ago, when I started working for Wilder, I was looking through some files for paperwork I needed, and I found a file with the name of the organization that had given me the scholarship. Wilder had taken some of the money his mother left him and set up a charitable foundation just to pay my tuition without me knowing. He knew I’d never take the money from him if he tried to give it to me directly.”

“Wow.”

Andrew nodded. “To this day, he doesn’t know I know. So please don’t share that with him. But that’s the kind of guy he is. And it’s not just money. When we were in high school, he played for one ofthe national junior rugby leagues, but he played for the worst team. He could’ve played for the one that won the championship every year. All the teams were clamoring for him. But his coach from middle school coached the shitty team. Guy has some health problems, and Wilder still visits him to this day.”

I nodded. “He’s actually mentioned his coach.”

“Recently I screwed up royally with my girlfriend. I was going to hide it from her, but Wilder talked me into coming clean. He might have a history with the ladies, but he’s always been honest.” He paused. “My point is, Wilder’s only going to tell you the bad shit. But it’s not hard to find the good stuff, if you take the chance to get to know him. He keeps most people at a distance, but the ones he lets in are there forever.” Andrew pointed to me. “And if you tell him I gave him any compliments, I’ll deny it.”

I smiled. “Your secret is safe with me.”

I went back to work, and later that afternoon, I was sitting at my desk still thinking about what Andrew had said. Hadn’t I already seen glimpses of the man he’d described? The loyalty to his brother. Small things like bringing me sugar-free desserts after finding out I’m diabetic, changing his flight to come with me to sell my old wedding dress, and inviting my dad to a rugby game. There was a soft heart under that hard exterior. And I couldn’t deny that I was ridiculously attracted to him. My heart began to race before my brain caught up.

Screw it. I’m doing it.

I was tired of staying in and reading self-help books to figure out who I was. It was time I figured it out by living. So I picked up my phone and texted.

Sloane:If the offer is still open, I’d love to come to London a few days early.

17SLOANE

“Your seat is this way…” The flight attendant pointed to her left, so I headed down the aisle.

But she had to have made a mistake. The seats were all too spacious in this section. I double-checked the seat number on my ticket as I walked to 9B. Another flight attendant walked over, greeting me with champagne.

“Umm… I’m not sure I’m in the right area.”

He took the boarding pass from my hand and gestured to a roomy chair that converted to a lay-flat bed. “This is it.”

“But this doesn’t look like economy.”

He smiled. “It’s definitely not.”

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