My friend bagged up my clothes, and I paid. We said our goodbyes, but as I walked to the door, she said one more thing. “Good luck with getting your girl.”
I turned and saw a cheeky smile on her face, and in that exact moment, someone else walked in. Ruby’s face dropped when she saw them. I turned around and realized why Ruby was suddenly feeling less friendly.
It was Tyler.
“Look who’s back in town.”
I sighed intensely, not wanting to engage in this interaction. Still, Tyler was blocking the door, and there wasn’t an easy way around him.
“Yeah…”
“Sounds like you’re getting a little high and mighty. You’ve got your dorky gaze on the wrong girl. She isn’t going to scrape the bottom of the barrel and entertain the likes of you. We’re getting back together any day now, so you should move on.”
It was so crazy hearing how delusional Tyler was. From where I was standing, Chloe hadn’t given Tyler any reason to think they were going to be an item, yet he was holding onto that idea with all of his fingers.
“Cool.”
I had thought about telling Tyler how deluded he was and how he had treated Chloe poorly, so why would she get back with him? But it felt way better to just shrug it off. He was pathetic. There was no reason the entertain his nonsense. I was too old for that high school bullshit anyway.
“I’ll see you later, Ruby.” I walked out of the boutique and got into my car.
As I drove back to my grandmother’s house, I felt really good at handling the situation. I arrived back at my grandmother’s, planning on spending the afternoon relaxing and getting ready. However, almost the moment I stepped through the door, Nana Lucy put me to work.
“Sean! You have to help me harvest these vegetables.”
There was no way I could say no. I put my new purchase away and headed to the garden to help out. Like most things Grandma had me do, it was physically taxing, but it did give me time to think. But that ended up being a bad thing because I just replayed what happened between Tyler and me in my head.
Tonight was going to be the first time Chloe and I would be out in public together. Things could change once we were around other people. Would Chloe’s attitude be closer to Tyler’s? Would she be embarrassed?
I was getting more and more annoyed as the day went by, and I fucking hated it. It was triggered by Tyler and his stupidity. I wasn’t worried about the two of them hooking back up, but the time Chloe and I had been spending together was kind of isolated. This would be a whole new experience, and I had no idea what that would mean for the two of us.
Chapter Ten – Chloe
I stood outside the hotel ballroom where the reunion was being held, waiting for Sean. I was feeling pretty nervous about entering with him even though we were just going as friends.
No one knew we were lovers. Not that anyone would care if they found out. Our classmates were too old to be petty about stuff like that. Or maybe they would. The big thing was would I care if people knew we were lovers…?
What a silly word – lovers. Would Sean describe our relationship like that? Did we even really have one? Did I want to have one with him? The thought frightened me a little, but it mainly excited me. He was so sweet and pleasant, and I wanted him in my life for more than a weekend.
Sean arrived a few moments later. The second I saw him, I wanted to have my hands all over his body. He looked so sexy in his stylish outfit. I just wanted to rip it off. But I kept it PG and controlled the animalistic urges building inside of me.
“Hey.”
“Hey. You look really nice.”
“You think so?” Sean looked down at his outfit. “I bought it today. I thought it would be nice to try something new.”
“It was a good choice,” I smiled.
“You look good too.”
I felt my face getting hot and looked down at the ground, tucking my hair behind my ear. When I glanced back up, and Sean was staring. We stood there for a few beats, a bit lost in one another, before I realized we were acting extremely weird.
“We should probably head inside.”
“Yeah, of course.”
We walked into the hotel together, maintaining a bit of distance. It seemed like we were both pretty nervous. This was new territory. It felt like a relationship debut even though we weren’t together – not like that anyway.
The ballroom was pretty full, maybe a hundred people. The party was in full swing with people dancing, talking, laughing. It looked enjoyable. I spotted Tyler at one end, so I had Sean and I sit far away from him. He wasn’t going to ruin tonight.