Page 93 of Flirty Dancing

Dining hall in thirty?

See you then.

Archer grabbed only coffee and a bagel, knowing his stomach was too worked up for him to eat much. Mateo was waiting with a mug at a small table in the back corner. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he’d barely slept all night. Archer imagined he looked much the same. Plus a black eye.

“I’m so sorry—” Archer started saying as he sat, right when Mateo spoke.

“Archer, I—”

They both stopped.

“You go,” Archer said, swallowing down the urge to babble. His heart hammered.

Mateo took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

Archer blinked. “You’resorry? For what?”

“For lumping you in with Caleb. That was really unfair of me. You’re not Caleb, and it wasn’t the same thing, at all.”

Archer shook his head. “No, I never should have said anything to him—”

“Archer. It’s okay. How could you possibly have known that he would turn around and do what he did? That’s low, even for Caleb.”

“Still, I fucked up. I’m so sorry that I told him anything at all, even though I was only trying to defend you.”

“I know you were.”

Archer willed his heartbeat to slow down, because the thudding pulse was distracting.It’s okay,he said to himself as he took a deep breath. He met Mateo’s eyes. They both smiled. His cheeks flushed as his gaze dropped to Mateo’s long fingers wrapped around his coffee mug.

“Are you okay?” Archer asked. “Having that story out?”

Mateo shrugged. “I already went through it once. This is more of the same.”

“Yeah, but… God, I can’t imagine having personal shit like that in the news.”

Mateo nodded then paused, looking like he was debating if he should say the next thing or not. “I reached out to Abby.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” He blinked, eyes watery. “I’ve spent so long trying to block out that part of my life, but this made me realize I never made things right with her. And now her name is in the press again, because of me.”

“Because ofme,” Archer said.

Mateo sighed. “Because of Caleb.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“Briefly. I apologized—for now and for back then—and asked if she would like a public apology, too. She said no, she doesn’t want to fan the flames. But… she’s in New York filming right now and actually asked if we could meet up for coffee sometime.”

Archer blew out the breath he’d been holding. “That’s great, Mateo. That must have been hard.”

“I should have done it sooner, but I’ve had my head up my ass a little bit. Guess I can thank Caleb for yanking it out.”

Archer laughed. “Now that’s an image.”

Mateo smiled, but then it slid from his face. “Why do you think he did it?” he asked quietly, almost as if he was wondering to himself.

“I think he was trying to get back at me.”

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