Page 40 of I'm Not Done with You Yet

“I think a champagne tonight. We’re celebrating.” Thalia grins at me. “Maybe a Dom?”

“Wonderful. I’ll be back in a bit with your amuse-bouche.”

I wait until she leaves and then lean forward in my seat. “Do you come here often? She seems to know you.”

Thalia smiles. “A bit, yeah. It’s one of our favorite places in New York. But enough about me—how are you? It’s been what—nine years since we last saw each other?”

Here it is. I hadn’t expected her to dive into it, but okay. I’m ready. I’ve been ready for this moment for years now. “Since that night that we—”

She sucks in a breath through her teeth sharply, her smile frozen in place. “Yeah,” she says quickly. “Right, yeah. Since that—the incident.” For a moment, neither of us speaks, both of us lost in that terrible, beautiful night. A night of death, a night of endings. A night that I had thought would’ve cemented our bond to each other but had ripped it apart instead. “So anyway,” she rallies, regaining her poise, “what have you been up to ever since?”

“Well, I came back the next semester. I finished the program. I was hoping that you’d be back, too, but...”

“I couldn’t afford to come back after everything,” she says, looking sad. “I think you know about my financial situation.”

I nod. How could I forget? A waiter comes back with a bottle of champagne, which he opens and pours out for both of us. We wait until he leaves before Thalia holds up her glass and says, “To new beginnings.”

My chest flutters with hope. New beginnings, yes. That’s perfect. The champagne goes down like electricity, bringing me back to life.

“So, um.” I don’t want to bring this up, but I have to. I need to know. “You’re married to Ivan? How—tell me everything.” I mentally go over the words I just said to make sure they’re okay and don’t give away my obsession. No, they sound like perfectly normal words that a perfectly normal, non-sociopathic person might say.

Her mouth curls into a strange, mirthless smile. “Yeah,” she says, taking another swig of champagne. “We kept in touch after that first semester, and he visited me back in Nevada.”

“Wow, he went all the way to Nevada just for you?” The minute I say that, I realize that, well, yeah, he’s a billionaire. Vegas is probably one of his favorite spots. The old hatred toward him flares up.

“Yeah.” She refills her glass and tops off mine. “We were seeing each other pretty seriously, and he’s got a private jet, so it’s easy for him to fly anywhere he wants.”

Everything she’s saying sounds glamorous, but her voice is flat and slightly bitter.

“We got married a year later, and that’s the story of my life.”

I’m missing something here. “Is that where you live now?”

She snorts. “No, of course not! Ivan can’t possibly live in a sleepy town like that. We live all over, really. We’re based in Jakarta because that’s where his company is headquartered, but we spend our time flying back and forth to Singapore,Shenzhen, Dubai, London, et cetera. Wherever business takes him.”

“Wow, Thalia, that sounds amazing.” I hate how much of a fangirl I seem like, but really, I can’t hide my amazement. This is exactly the sort of life she deserves, and I’m happy that she’s living it. Happy for her, at least. Part of me is crying for myself, curling up in a dark corner and licking my wounds and sorrowful that it can’t be me she’s spending her life with. I drain my glass again to try and numb the pain.

“Yeah. Well, actually, things have been kind of difficult—Ivan’s been having some health problems that we’re trying to deal with.”

I’ve studied enough human interaction to know that this calls for empathy, so I frown and say, “Oh no, what kind of health problems?”

“It’s his heart. He’s got a genetic condition, and his work is making it worse.”

I shake my head and the world spins with me. I grip the edge of the table to steady myself. Dimly, I recall Ani had mentioned something about Ivan’s heart back in Oxford, though of course I thought nothing of it at the time. “That sounds terrible. Is he okay?” Even in my inebriated state, I know that’s a stupid question because she literally just said he’s got heart problems, so he’s obviously not okay.

Luckily, Thalia doesn’t seem to mind my idiocy. “He’s hanging in there, but it’s been hard on him. He’s such a workaholic. I mean, he’s used to being able to work twelve-hour days and then go out drinking with his clients until three in the morning, you know? All the doctors we went to told him to take it easy. That’s part of the reason why we’re here, actually. I had to come here for SusPens Con and my book launch party, and we decidedit would be good for him to come along and get away from everything. I’ve taken away his laptop and work phone. Gotta force the guy to relax somehow.”

“Wow, so Ivan’s here in New York?” I can’t seem to stop myself from spewing stupid shit.

“Yeah, he’s back at the apartment with Ani.”

“Ani.”

“Yep, Ani. We’re sisters-in-law now.”

We stare at each other for a beat, and then we both burst out laughing. I don’t know why we’re laughing, exactly, aside from the fact that we’ve drunk way too much, but hey, here they come with yet another bottle of Dom, and neither of us is saying no.

“I feel bad for laughing!” Thalia cries. “Sorry, I mean, I love her, but she’s always around! Even back in Indonesia, she’s always hanging around the office, and she insists on going with us to the doctors and everywhere.” She replenishes her glass and drinks deeply. “God, Jane, you have no idea how glad I am to see you. The last few years—they’ve been a LOT. Ivan’s family... they’re—you know, he warned me about them. He told me that they’re really big and tight-knit and his parents are very controlling, so I can’t even blame him for it, really—but holy shit, they’re like a whole other level of controlling. That’s why I couldn’t reach out to you.”

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