Page 139 of Choosing You

The buffet has all types of foods I don’t eat; crab legs, lobster, shrimp, mussels.

“I’m not really hungry, Garret. You go ahead.”

He laughs. “Not a fan of seafood?”

“I didn’t eat much fish or seafood growing up in Iowa.”

“There’s a salad line over there.”

I give him a strange look. “When have you ever seen me eat a salad?”

“Okay, well, I’m not really in the mood for seafood tonight. Should we stick to appetizers?”

“That sounds good. Sorry. I usually don’t turn down food, but I just can’t do the seafood thing.”

“It’s no problem. Come on.” He takes me over to another buffet station that has even more appetizers than the servers were handing out. We load up our plates and sit down at a table.

“Garret.” A girl with long dark hair and overly white teeth comes over to us. She takes a seat next to Garret, getting a little too close.

“Sadie, I didn’t think you’d be here.” Garret sets his fork down as she gives him a hug.

So that’s who she is. The ex-girlfriend. And not a fake one either. Someone Garret actually picked. I put my fork down, too, no longer hungry.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT

A twingeof jealousy courses through me as I check out Sadie. She’s about my size, wearing a long but tight red dress with a plunging neckline that shows off some cleavage. My mind immediately thinks of her and Garret together.

“This is my girlfriend, Jade.” Garret puts his arm around me and my jealousy quickly fades.

“Hi, Jade. I’m Sadie. Garret and I interned together last summer down in DC.” She motions to a guy standing behind her. He’s tall with really short, dark hair. “This is my boyfriend, Evan.” She looks back at him. “Evan, come sit down.”

He smiles briefly as he sits down, seeming completely disinterested in meeting us. Garret and I both say hello anyway.

“Evan goes to Yale. I’m up visiting him for the weekend.”

“How’s school going?” Garret asks her.

“Good. Although they’re really piling on the work right now. I can barely keep up. I can’t wait for winter break. We’re going to Fiji this year. Well, Dad’s not. He has to stay behind and work on the campaign. He’ll be stuck in Iowa the whole time.”

“Um, Sadie, Jade is from Iowa.”

She reaches across Garret and puts her hand on my arm. “Jade, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. Really. I’ve never been there, but I’m sure it’s a nice state.”

She seems sincere. Although her comment was clearly putting down Iowa, it’s not like she was trying to be mean to me personally.

She sits back in her chair. “I feel like an idiot now.”

I smile at her. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

Garret squeezes my shoulder and kisses my cheek. He must’ve liked my response. Great, now I’ve just proved his comment about me being sweet.

Sadie leans closer to Evan. “I love that dress, Jade. Where did you get it?”

“Garret got it for me. I don’t know where he got it.” I look at him to tell us but he doesn’t.

“Wow. You did that, Garret?”

Evan says something quietly in Sadie’s ear, then stands up. Sadie gets up, too. “I guess we’re going to grab a drink and some food. It was good seeing you, Garret. Nice to meet you, Jade.” Evan drags her away as we say goodbye.

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