About That Fling (28 page)

Jenna bit down on a breadstick, chomping off a bite that was much bigger than she could handle. She chewed hard, wondering if choking to death might be preferable to this conversation. “Uh, that’s sweet, Sean. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though. There’s something a little uncomfortable about reconnecting with an ex, you know?”

“Tell me about it,” Mia muttered, dunking her breadstick in the marinara. “I’ve been working with mine, and I’ve gotta tell you, it’s awkward as hell.”

Sean laughed. “More awkward than having pizza with one?”

“I’ll defer to Jenna to answer that. You know in hindsight, I should have taken him up on his offer to turn down the contract.”

Jenna gulped down the last of her root beer, and wished for a meteor to fall on the table and end this conversation.

The meteor came in the form of two extra-large pizzas.

“One sausage and pepperoni with olives, one veggie-licious with prosciutto?”

“Right here,” Jenna said, gathering up a pile of napkins to make room on their table. She shot the server a grateful look, wondering if she’d ever been so happy at the sight of a pizza.

“Need any parmesan or hot pepper?”

“Both, please.”

Mia reached up to take the stack of plates the waitress offered under the assumption the massive quantity of cheese and meat was intended to feed at least a dozen people instead of a pregnant newlywed, her guilt-ridden friend, and the friend’s unsuspecting ex.

“God, this looks amazing,” Sean said. “You’re sure you don’t mind if I join you?”

“Does it look like there’s going to be any shortage of food here?” Mia reached for a slice. “If you want, you can share your pizza with us whenever it gets here. Might as well enjoy this one while it’s hot.”

“Thanks, ladies.” Sean frowned. “Hey, isn’t that your Aunt Gertie?”

Jenna jerked her head up and blinked. It did indeed look like Gertie, weaving her way through the crowd with her white hair rustling in the breeze from the overhead fans. She seemed to be scanning the room for someone, or maybe an empty table. There were none in sight.

Jenna looked back at Mia. “I thought you just texted to ask what she was up to.”

“I did,” she said, glancing at her phone. “She never responded. I didn’t even tell her where we were.”

Sean stood up. “Want me to wave her down?”

“Yeah, she looks a little lost.”

He stood—all six feet three inches of him—and waved his arms in the air. “Gertrude? Aunt Gertie! Over here!”

Gertie turned and blinked, then smiled. She began weaving her way toward them, threading past tables packed with families and frat boys devouring fragrant masses of meat and cheese. Jenna watched her aunt’s progress, not sure why she felt a faint sense of unease.

“Hello, sweetheart!” Gertie said, fluffing her hair as she arrived at the edge of their table. “What a surprise seeing you here! I thought the two of you went to Gerlake.”

“Change of plans,” Mia said, biting off a piece of pizza and fanning her mouth. “Pull up a chair and join us. We ordered plenty.”

Sean jumped up, vacating his seat. “Here, take mine. I see an extra one right over there.”

“Can you grab the other one, too?” Gert asked. “I have a date joining me.”

“Coming right up.”

She smiled at Sean and patted his arm. “It’s good to see you again, sweetheart.”

“You, too, Aunt Gertie.”

He hustled to an adjacent table and hurried back toting two chairs. Mia and Jenna moved over, making room for Gertie and her date in the space between Jenna and Sean. With everyone seated, Sean sat back down and picked up his phone. Jenna picked up her wine and took a tentative sip, not wanting to overindulge with this much potential for awkward tension at the table.

“I can’t wait to meet your gentleman friend, Gertie,” Mia said, swallowing her bite of pizza. “Is this the guy who went to Cornell?”

“Oh—well yes, he did, but it’s not Arthur. My date is Adam.”

Mia blinked. “What?”

“Adam.” Gertie frowned, glancing at Jenna. “Oh, dear, I’m sorry. We can find a different table if this is going to be a problem.”

“No, it’s okay,” Mia said, reaching for her root beer. “If Jenna can handle eating pizza with her ex, I can do the same.”

Jenna bit her lip and looked at Sean, who appeared to be engrossed in either a stock trade or a game of Angry Birds. It was tough to tell.

“You’re sure it’s okay?” Gert asked, looking from Mia to Jenna and back again. “I could try finding another table, though I don’t see anything free. I told Adam I’d find us a place by the time he parked the car.”

“I’m a big girl, Gertie,” Mia said. “Besides, I feel like I owe Adam an apology for some things I said earlier. This is my opportunity to make nice.”

“In that case, we accept the invitation,” Gertie said. “I’m going to run over to the bar to order some drinks. Any idea what Adam likes?

Mia shrugged. “He’s not very experimental. Probably a Bud Light or something.”

Jenna took another sip of her wine and pushed it aside, wishing the waitress would bring a glass of water. Sean was smiling and nodding, pretending to follow the conversation while his thumbs fluttered over the screen. Jenna cut her eyes to Mia, who was watching Sean with a bemused expression.

“Isn’t this what you said the whole relationship was like?” Mia murmured under her breath.

“Pretty much,” Jenna murmured back.

“I see some things never change.”

“Sure they do. Isn’t that an iPhone 6? They didn’t have those when we broke up.”

“You’re right, I stand corrected.”

Jenna leaned closer, not that there was much risk of Sean overhearing or lifting his gaze from the phone. “Which is worse,” she whispered. “The ex who changes everything about himself after you split, or the one who doesn’t change a damn thing?”

“I’ll get back to you on that one.” Mia reached for another piece of pizza.

Gertie returned to the table and set down two mugs of beer. “I hope one of these is what Adam likes.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Mia said.

Jenna bit her lip and glanced toward the front of the restaurant. As if on cue, Adam appeared in the doorway, his dark hair tousled and windblown. His shirtsleeves were rolled up, too, but seeing his forearms made Jenna shiver in a way Sean’s didn’t. Adam was scanning the room, and Jenna sat breathless as his gaze moved from table to table, looking for Gertie.

The instant his eyes locked with Jenna’s, she felt a surge of static. He felt it, too, she could see by the way he stepped back, then moved toward her in slow motion, wading through a sea of bodies and noise and clatter.

“Ladies,” he said, nodding at Jenna, then Mia. “This is a surprise.”

“Adam.” Jenna took a deep breath, half of her wishing the ground would swallow her up, while the other half fought the urge to throw herself into his arms. “Uh, good to see you again.”

Sean glanced up from his phone, then stood and extended a hand. “Hey, I’m Sean. You’re Gertie’s boyfriend?”

Mia rolled her eyes. “I think you missed part of the conversation, phone boy.
”
’

“What?” Sean frowned and studied Adam. “Hey, you look familiar. Have we met before?”

Adam gripped the back of a chair, clearly undecided about whether to sit down. Jenna couldn’t blame him.

“I don’t think so. I’m from Chicago, just here on business.”

Jenna could tell he was deliberately standing a few feet away from her, but she could feel the tension radiating from him anyway. She glanced at Mia, who gave a helpless shrug, then looked down at her own phone vibrating on the table. She smiled, which Jenna took as a good sign. Mark must have replied favorably to the cleavage shot.

“Aunt Gertie grabbed you a drink,” Jenna said, nodding toward the center of the table where all the glasses had been shoved to make room for the pizza.

“Thank you so much,” he said, reaching for Jenna’s wineglass before she had a chance to say anything. “Mmm, Sangiovese? This is excellent.”

“Um, actually, that’s yours.” Jenna pointed to one of the mugs of beer. “But you’re welcome to finish off my Sangiovese. I’m done drinking for now.”

Mia glanced up from her phone, regarding her ex with a curious look. “Since when do you like wine?”

“I’ve been branching out,” he said, pushing the glass back toward Jenna. “Sorry about that. Here—I don’t want to take your drink.”

“Please, take it. I’m done. I’m sure Gertie or Sean would love the beer.”

Sean nodded, distracted, his eyes on Adam again. “Chicago, huh? I don’t know, I never forget a face. Did you go to school out here?”

Adam picked up the wineglass again and shook his head. “Nope, Cornell University Law School. Maybe I have one of those familiar faces?”

“Huh,” Sean said, clearly still puzzling it out.

“Have the other beer, dear,” Gertie said, nudging a mug toward Sean. Jenna shot her a grateful look, hoping the amber suds were enough to distract her ex from interrogating Adam. Across the table, Mia glanced down at her phone again and smiled. At least someone was connecting well with a loved one.

Adam turned back to Jenna. “I thought the two of you went to some fancy restaurant downtown?”

“We did, but we changed our minds.”

“A woman’s prerogative,” Mia murmured, tapping out a message on her phone.

“So I hear,” he said lightly. “Sorry, I would have gone someplace else if I’d known. Gertie wanted pizza, so I just thought—”

“Cornell University Law School,” Sean said, sticking with the basics of macho posturing and career comparisons. “So you’re an attorney?”

Adam turned and gave Sean a polite nod. “I’m in corporate mediation now. I work on contract with organizations experiencing turmoil.”

“Ah, let me guess—Belmont? That must be how you know Mia and Jenna.”

“That’s how he knows Jenna,” Mia said, looking annoyed. “He knows me because we once shared a last name and a bank account.”

“Actually, you never took my name,” Adam said, shrugging. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“I was speaking figuratively,” Mia said. “It seemed better than suggesting we shared bodily fluids.”

“Good point,” Adam said, taking another sip of wine.

“I know!” Sean snapped his fingers. “The bathroom.”

Everyone turned to look at him. “It’s over there,” Adam said, pointing to the far corner.

“No, I mean that’s where I know you from. You were talking with Jenna last time we were here. I wouldn’t have noticed, but she was gone a long time.” He cocked his head to the side, considering. “Wait, that’s who you had to run off and meet that night?”

Jenna felt all the blood drain from her head. She gripped her root beer glass, swallowing hard. “What? No, we just ran into each other. We’d been working together and stopped to say hello and—”

“Hey, it’s no big deal,” Sean said good-naturedly, returning his attention to his phone. “Just trying to figure out why he looked so familiar.”

“Glad we could piece it together for you,” Adam said, not looking particularly glad. Not that it mattered. With the mystery solved, Sean’s attention was already back on his phone.

“Wait, how come you never mentioned this?”

Jenna cut her eyes across the table. Mia was frowning, her own phone gripped in her hand.

“What?” Jenna said, palms feeling sweaty all of a sudden. “I told you I came here for pizza that night—August fifteenth—you know?”

She waited for Mia to get sidetracked, to recognize the date and abandon her line of questioning. But Mia shook her head.

“I’m not talking about the whole running-into-your-ex-on-the-anniversary-of-the-miscarriage thing, though I do think—”

“Miscarriage?” Adam frowned.

Sean looked up from his phone, apparently sensing he’d missed something major. “What?”

“Nothing.” Jenna said, digging her nails into her palms. “Go back to your game.”

Jenna felt Adam’s eyes drilling into her like lasers. She swallowed hard, her gaze still locked on Mia’s disapproving one. She opened her mouth to explain, but Mia shook her head and held up her phone.

“I’m not talking about that. Mark just texted. He said Ellen wanted me to ask you whether you liked the .32 Kel-Tec you were firing with or the .22 Ruger Mark III Hunter Adam had.” She looked from Jenna to Adam, then back again. “What’s going on here?”

Jenna swallowed again, wishing like hell she hadn’t emptied her root beer or given her wine to Adam. The last bite of pizza had formed a sticky lump in the back of her throat, or maybe that was a thick wad of guilt. On the table, Jenna’s phone buzzed. She shoved it away, trying to keep her focus on coming up with an explanation that might appease everyone.

“Jenna?” Adam asked. She looked at him, her heart twisting when she saw the stricken look on his face.

“I—”

“Sweetheart?”

Jenna cut her eyes to Gertie, who was studying Jenna’s phone with frank interest. Jenna felt a flood of relief, certain Gertie had a rescue strategy. She’d get her out of this, away from Mia’s accusing gaze and Adam’s bewilderment and Sean’s clueless oblivion.

“Yes, Aunt Gertie?”

“Why is my agent calling you?”

Jenna’s mouth went dry. “I, uh—I’m not sure.”

“You’ve spoken with her recently?”

“She called the house sometime last week, but—”

“You’ve obviously been in contact beyond that,” Gertie said, nudging the phone toward her. “You’ve got her name and number programed into your phone.”

Gert’s expression was more curious than angry, but Jenna’s palms were slick now with fear and dread and guilt. She opened her mouth to speak, but realized she didn’t have any words at all. Not for anyone. She looked from Sean to Mia to Gert to Adam, all of them staring at her with some mix of confusion and anger and betrayal.

Jenna stood up, legs shaking as she knocked her empty root beer glass over. She had to get out of here. She had to leave now, before everything came crashing down around her. If she could just rewind, take back all the lies and half-truths and cover stories that weren’t covering anything at all anymore.

Everyone at the table was staring, some confused, some angry, some hurt. “I’m sorry,” she said, righting her empty glass, only to knock it over again. “I didn’t know—I just—excuse me.”