Page 101 of Misconception (Unrequited 2)

Michaela

Jenna Carter-Sotero stood from the beautifully set table and squealed. “Michaela, look at you.” She held her arms out, pulling me into a warm hug. “Oh, girl, you’re glowing. Congratulations.”

“You look gorgeous too, my friend.” When she released me from her tight embrace, I turned to the other woman at the table, Tali DiPietro. “Hey, Tals. Fancy meeting you here.”

She wrapped me in a hug and gave me a kiss on each cheek. “Congrats, Mic. You look gorgeous.”

Jenna was a woman who brunched, so when she found out I’d moved to the city, she set up this brunch with Tali, the manager of the band Blue is the Color. We’d gone on tour together many times, and we’d become friendly over the years. Our friendship mostly resided at work, but since we were both women who worked nonstop, we saw each other fairly often.

We sat down, and I took a long look at our table, then the ones around us, noticing a distinct difference. “Um…Jen, did you supply flowers for our table?”

There were three mini vases, all of varying heights, carefully arranged with pink roses, centered on our table. The other tables had a simple white carnation in a plain glass vase.

“You know it. This is a celebration. You can’t have a celebration without the proper decor. Gabriel had to stop me from requesting our chairs be slipcovered. He’s no fun.” Jenna sipped her mimosa like what she’d said was perfectly normal. And for her, it was.

I shook my head. “I don’t know how that man puts up with you.”

Jenna laughed. “He’d never admit it, but he’s just as fancy as I am. He adores my level of ridiculousness.”

A waitress came by to take our orders. As always, I wanted all the food, but settled on stuffed french toast and a fruit cup. Jenna and Tali went slightly healthier, but they weren’t currently growing an entire human inside them, so I didn’t allow myself to feel any guilt.

Once the waitress left, both women pegged me with their gazes. Tali crossed her legs, twisting her body to face me.

“So…” she said.

“So.” I bit back the laugh threatening to burst out of me. She so clearly wanted me to spill all my tea.

“Mo?”

I nodded. “Mo.”

She swatted my shoulder. “You have to tell me how you ended up shacking up with Moses Aronson, biggest flirt to ever exist. And young, right?”

Jenna clinked her spoon on the rim of her coffee mug. “And we have to discuss the advice I gave you during the Blossoms and Bones tour, which I now see was about Mo. Way to play that hand close to your vest, lady.”

I went over our night in Vegas—again, leaving out our marriage—the misunderstanding, the pregnancy, and working our way back to each other. Jenna obviously knew the first part, and I was sure she’d spilledthattea to Tali, but I hadn’t told her the rest.

“Whew.” Tali fell back in her chair. “And now you’re living together?”

I nodded. “It’s only been a week, and my stuff is still in boxes in the spare room. For now, it doesn’t feel like it’s really my place. It feels temporary.”

“Maybe you should unpack, honey.” Jenna kept her voice gentle, like she was stating the obvious to a small child while trying not to hurt their feelings.

“I should, but…” I trailed off, not wanting to put my worries into words.

“You’re afraid you won’t be staying long?” Tali supplied.

“Yeah. I mean, any roots I’ve ever grown have been pretty surface-level. With this little girl coming, Ineedto put down roots, but I don’t trust this yet.”

Tali considered me, rubbing her lips together. “Are you in love?”

A rush of heat formed a ball in my chest. Whether it was panic or overwhelming affection, I hadn’t decided. I’d asked myself if what I felt for Moses was love at least a dozen times lately. “God, I don’t know. What does that even mean when you’re thirty-four, pregnant, and pretty damn jaded? I’ve been down the love road before, and it didn’t make any kind of difference to the longevity of our relationship, you know?”

Tali straightened her silverware into perfect lines. “As you know, Jude and I took a long, bumpy road to get where we are. Trust was a huge obstacle for both of us. Like you, I’d been burned badly. The only difference is Jude did the burning.”

Tali had married her college love a couple years ago, had a kid, and had pretty much settled into marital bliss. She and Jude had worked for it, though. They had been separated for thirteen years before they finally got it right. My issues and mistrust seemed silly in comparison, but I’d learned a long time ago not to get into the comparison game. No one ever won, and most of the time, I’d limp away feeling beat up and shitty.

“And you still found a way to get past him and trust you wouldn’t be burned again.”

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