Page 199 of Choosing You

“I don’t need to ask him. You’ve already stayed there before and he didn’t care. And it’s not like we don’t have the room.”

“What about Katherine?”

“She’s at her parents’ house in New York with Lilly.”

“I still think you should ask—”

“Jade, you’re staying at the house no matter what anyone says, so stop worrying about it.” He stands up. “Let’s go see Frank before he falls asleep again.”

By the time we get there, he’s already sleeping. Ryan’s waiting out in the hall. “Dad said you’re going back to Connecticut for the rest of break.”

As soon as he says it I realize I don’t have a story to tell Ryan. How am I going to explain this to him?

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Ryan. It’s just that—”

“Dad said it was his suggestion.”

“Um, yeah. It was,” I say, wishing Frank had told me the story he apparently gave Ryan.

“He said something about how Garret’s family does all this stuff for Christmas and how you’d have a better time there than here. But is that what you really want to do?”

“Yeah, it is.” I can’t look at him when I say it. I don’t like lying to him and I really don’t like making him feel bad.

“My familydoesmake a big deal over Christmas,” Garret says. “I guarantee Jade will have a nice holiday.”

Ryan ignores him, keeping his focus on me. “He said you’re leaving tomorrow, but can’t you stay a couple more days? You just got here. We barely had any time together.”

“I can’t, Ryan. We already got the plane tickets.”

“We won’t see you again until school’s out. I can’t get out there to pick you up until May.”

“I know.” I wish I could tell him the real reason I’m leaving because now he thinks I don’t want to spend time with him. And that’s not true at all. I had all these things planned for Ryan and me to do over break.

Ryan gets quiet and I know he’s mad at me for leaving but he’ll get over it. He never stays mad for long.

The three of us sit in the waiting area for the next hour waiting for Frank to wake up. Ryan’s girlfriend, Chloe, shows up and we wait some more. Frank’s still sleeping so we decide to go out for dinner.

Chloe’s in med school and she’s all about eating healthy, so we go to a restaurant where you make your own stir-fry. You don’t actually make the stir-fry. You just pick the ingredients and give it to the guy to cook.

“Look, Jade. Vegetables. Your favorite,” Garret jokes as we’re lined up at the stir-fry station. Luckily they have egg rolls and fried wontons, so I load up on those and go back to the table. As I’m eating, Garret comes back with some stir-fried green beans and sets them in front of me, moving aside my plate of egg rolls.

“Why are you putting something green in front of me? I can’t eat that.”

“Just try it,” he says, digging into his own heaping plate of vegetables.

I cautiously try a green bean, preparing to spit it in my napkin. But it’s really good. It doesn’t even taste like a green bean.

“What did you put on those?”

“It’s a secret. I made my own concoction at the sauce bar.” The cocky smile appears. I haven’t seen it for a while and I’ve missed it. “You like it, don’t you?”

“Maybe.” I eat another green bean.

“I could make you something else. Like chicken? Or some other type of protein? Actual food instead of that fried crap you’re eating.”

“If you could make it taste like this, I’ll have some chicken.”

He gets up and heads to the stir-fry station.

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