Page 123 of Fix Them Up
I frowned, my eyes flickering between Willa and Elias, who shared knowing looks.
I raised my hands. ‘I’m fine! I don’t know what your problem is. Either of you.’
‘You look terrible.’ Elias grimaced. ‘Your skin is so pale. You have bags under your eyes. You look –’ He clicked his tongue. ‘Dead.’
‘Dead,’ I repeated hysterically.
‘Elias,’ Willa chided. ‘She doesn’t look dead.’
I raised a hand. ‘Thank you.’
‘She looks dug up.’ Willa took a sip of the champagne Elias placed in front of us. My mouth fell open as I turned to my so-called best friend.
I made a noise in my throat. ‘Pot, kettle, bitch.’
Willa pointedly looked away, and Elias gave an amused whistle as he turned, opened a bottle of prosecco, and artfully handled six flutes in one hand.
‘Elias’s right,’ Willa said after a moment. ‘We’re going through it.’
‘I think you’ll find he said I look like shit, not you.’
‘Trust me, under this make-up, I look like shit.’
I touched her knee. ‘Wills, let’s talk about it. It might make you feel better.’
Willa gave an acute shake of her head. ‘No. I can’t right now.’ I deflated, and Willa turned to me. ‘I will when I’m ready, Kat. I promise.’
I squeezed her knee. ‘Good.’
Willa and I turned to watch Elias shake up a margarita. His biceps flexed, and Willa threw an olive in her mouth as she openly ogled him.
‘Willa.’ I smiled for the first time in weeks. ‘You are incorrigible.’
‘He knows what he looks like. And I know he isn’t exactly batting for my team.’
I hummed and glanced behind us. Aidan sat in a booth on his own. His hair was floppier than usual, as if freshly shampooed. Our eyes met, and he looked down and pushed up his thick-framed glasses to inspect the menu.
‘Aidan is sat over there.’
Willa stiffened but made a nonchalant hum. ‘He comes here every Thursday.’
‘To see you?’ I teased.
Willa huffed. ‘I seriously doubt it. We are not friends.’
‘I don’t think he wants to be friends, Willa,’ I said in a sing-song voice.
‘Ridiculous,’ Willa said, sipping her drink. ‘We’ve been rivals since we were kids. It’s always a battle of how he can win. By now, he’s probably heard from his dad about –’ Willa couldn’t even say her own business name out loud. That was how ashamed she was of how things had gone. ‘He’s probably here to rub it in.’
I glanced back over and found that Aidan was gone.
‘He’s gone.’
‘Who cares about Aidan? We’re here to celebrate our client win, baby!’ Willa said, knocking the rest of her champagne back. ‘Elias, another, please!’ she shouted across the bar.
Willa turned to me. ‘I’m going to miss you so much.’
I bit my lip and told her the thought that had haunted me for two months. ‘What if he’s moved on, Willa? It’s been weeks, and we haven’t spoken. We only knew each other a few weeks, for god’s sake. I miss him so much, but it also feels like a dream now I’m back here. I’ve wanted to call him a million times, but he asked me not to. So what if I go back and see him and it’s not the same? Or he laughs and says he didn’t mean it. Or he is seeing someone new? I wouldn’t blame him.’
