Page 90 of Change My Mind
She smiled as Jesse wrapped an arm over my shoulder and led me out of the kitchen.
Fifty-Five
ADDIE
Iwas starting to think that Josh had a perma-smile on his face because I could still feel the edges of his mouth tipped up in the impression of a smile as he smashed his lips against mine.
The last ten minutes had felt like they just happened to me, and were not a part of my life that I was actively taking part in.
Josh had shown up dressed like Zeus, indicating that he had been eavesdropping earlier, before his little ambush.
And didn’t that just reveal all I needed to know about him as a person?
Then his Zeus persona had introduced himself to my parents as my boyfriend, which made the colour leave my already pale dad’s face, and Mum muttered something in French and hadn’t returned to speaking English yet. Lucy had tried to figure out what the fuck was going on without actually asking. Rachel looked readyto fight.
I wasn’t clear on whether it was me or Josh that she was going to throw hands with.
Clara had thrown on her fakest of smiles, and then suddenly, there was the cold press of lips on mine, and I was rendered immobile.
I didn’t know how long I stood stock still with Josh’s mouth on mine, but the moment his tongue tried to prise open my mouth, I found the wherewithal to push him away.
“What the fuck was that?” I spat as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“I was just saying hi to my girl,” he said, a loose smile on his face as he tried to pull me back in.
“Your girl? We went on one date, and I’ve not been in touch with you since. What about that made you think I was your girl?”
“You invited me to this engagement party,” he said dumbly.
I scoffed and wiped my mouth again. “No, I didn’t. You invited yourself, and then you didn’t give me enough time to tell you that you couldn’t come because it was for family and friends. Of which you are neither. And I should have been more honest with you some time before this very moment, but I don’t think I see anything beyond that one date happening between us. We are not well suited to one another, and there is nothing that could make me change my mind on that one.”
As the smile finally dropped from Josh’s face, I turned away and looked for the person that I always sought out first whenever I went into a room these days.
He wasn’t in the dining area, which meant that he was probably in the kitchen.
I started walking towards it, only to be stopped by Steffy at the dessert table. A jolt of pain wrapped up in a thick blanket of guilt pierced through me as I remembered she might also have feelings for the man I was irrevocably in love with.
“Hey, Ads, have you seen Eli? I need him to divulge the secrets of the filling he used for the quiche because I think I want to marry it.”
That made me pause. “I haven’t seen him for a while. Why wouldn’t he already know you feel that way about the quiche? Weren’t you the one he was testing them out on?”
Steffy’s light brown eyebrows drew together. “Why would he do that?”
“Are you two not dating?”
She laughed. It was a bright, airy laugh. “Absolutely not. I mean, we have been hanging out, but no, we’re not dating. He was helping me create a menu for my work Christmas party—I swear I have to organise them earlier and earlier each year—and we’re friends, I guess. He’s talked me out of swiping right on a lot of guys with fish.”
It was my turn to frown. “Fish? Are you into fishing now?”
“No. I think it’s the closest they can get to a dick pic, so they just whip them out whenever.”
“So, you’re not dating Eli?”
“Has he said that we’re dating?”
I stuttered before finding the right words. “Well, no. But things have been hectic recently, and I kept seeing you around, so?—”
“You put two and two together and got five? It’s funny, I thought you were the smartest of us all, Addie. It’s good to know that there are flaws in the intelligence.”
