Page 70 of Fake It Till You Break It
I understood exactly why she did it, but that didn’t change the fact that she shouldn’t have gone behind my back. I think that’s what hurt the most. But the truth was, I missed her. A lot. And even though I was still mad, I wanted to see her again. Talk to her again.
Now the only problem was, how would I apologize without actually apologizing and looking like a total jerk?
MIA
I ALMOST TRIPPEDon a pot of orchids as Mom pushed me out of the house. She was in such a hurry that she almost walked out of the house in her bedroom slippers. “Why do you have to drive me to school again? I thought your car was fixed.”
Mom linked arms with me. “The craziest thing happened yesterday. I went into the garage to get my purse from my car, and the tire was completely flat! Like a pancake. Anyway, Finn said he’ll come over to check it out later, but I need to run some errands first with Mrs. Adler. So I won’t be driving you to school after all.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry, I already got you a ride.”
Right on cue, Jake pulled up our driveway. The sunlight glinted off of his windshield as he and his mom climbed out of the car together. Shoving both hands in his pockets, he gave me a hesitant shrug. “I heard you needed a ride?”
Trying to hold in the smile that leaped to my lips at the sight of Jake, I glanced over at the guilty expression on Mom’s face. “I thought you said you were done with all of this matchmaking.”
With wide eyes, she held up both hands in surrender before dusting them off. “Oh, I am. This is the last thing we’re going to do for you two. Get together. Don’t get together. To be honest, we don’t really care anymore. We’re officially abandoning this Jakia ship once and for all.”
Mrs. Adler came over to Mom and wrapped her arm around her waist. “That’s right. We have better things to do with our lives instead of worrying about you two all the time. Not only are we best friends, but now we decided we want to be even more. We’ve decided we’re going to be business partners.”
Forgetting about Jake for a moment, I turned to look at Mom. Her face was bright with excitement. “Really?”
“Yep, Mrs. Adler is going to quit her job at the office and help me expand the wedding-planning business into a catering business, too.”
“I always hated that place anyway. It’s too cold and smells like old moldy papers.” Mrs. Adler laughed with joy as she clapped her hands together in excitement. “Your mom and I are going to be very busy. Too busy to meddle in your lives. From now on, you’re both on your own.”
“Speaking of being busy,” Mom said as she glanced downat her watch and grabbed Mrs. Adler’s wrist. “We have to leave now if we’re going to make our meeting with the Whitmores.”
“Right! Well, you kids have fun. We’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
Our moms zoomed out of there quicker than me during biology dissection day. Now that we were alone, Jake and I just stood there, awkwardly looking at each other out of the corners of our eyes.
Coughing in my fist, I kicked at a rock on the sidewalk between us. “I guess this means that you and Finn are okay now?”
He shielded his eyes from the sun and shrugged. “Not okay. But… we’re getting there. I think.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad. And I know that I already said it, but I’m so sorry I emailed Finn behind your back. I just thought that was what you needed. Which was stupid of me. How do I know what you need? I just know what I need, and I need to tell you how sorry—”
With a soft chuckle, Jake waved his hand in front of my face to make me stop. “You know what? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting so annoyed with the word sorry. Aren’t you?”
“To be honest, yeah. I’ve been saying that word a lot lately.” I chewed on my lower lip and searched his face. “You’re not mad at me anymore?”
“No, I still am. I mean, you were right. I did need to see Finn. To clear the air between us. But you still shouldn’t have gonebehind my back like that. You won’t always be right.” He let out a short laugh. “Plus, you’re lucky that I like you too much to hold a grudge.”
With a sigh of relief, I smiled. “But at least I’m right this time. And what about us? Are we… good?”
At first, he just stood there, staring at the ground, and I started to get nervous. Finally, he took three huge steps and wrapped his arms around my waist in response. “We’re perfect. Jeez, I’ve missed you. Even when I was super annoyed with you, I missed you so much.”
God, this felt so good. I leaned into his shoulder. My fingers played with the collar of his shirt. “I missed you, too. So, what now?”
He laced his fingers through mine and pulled me toward the street. “How about we take a walk?”
Huh? That was basically the last thing I expected him to say. “Now?”
“Yeah, I promise it’ll be a short one.”
“… okay.”
