Frenemies

All right, I hadn’t done that, but I nearly had.

I wasn’t thirteen anymore.

The fact was that out of everything, the only thing I was certain about was that I had forgiven him. Holding onto that hurt did nobody any good, and we were totally different people six years ago.

Young. Stupid. Immature. Impulsive.

If we’d told each other how we’d felt, maybe our story would have ended differently. But we hadn’t. Neither one of us had ever taken the jump, even though I think we both knew.

I didn’t really believe in coincidences, but I did believe in the Universe. I believed that no matter your personal beliefs or your religion, there was something bigger than all of us out there. Maybe it took a shape or form or it didn’t, maybe it was a human being or maybe it was just the vastness of bright stars in the night sky.

The Universe had a plan—for everyone.

Maybe Mason was always supposed to be a part of my plan, but not back then.

Had I learned a lot since college? Of course. I knew how to run a business. I’d had relationships, both good and bad. I knew the true value of family now, even if mine drove me absolutely insane.

I didn’t know any of that back then, and I’d wager he didn’t either.

“Immy?”

I shook myself out of my string of thoughts. “I guess I’m scared of getting hurt again,” I admitted after a moment. “Even though it’s different now. I don’t know if I could take having my heart broken by him a second time.”

Hannah met my eyes. “You won’t have to, as long as you don’t make the same mistakes you did the first time around.”

Well, that much was true.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – MASON

Twenty Questions

“Can I have a dessert, peas?” Maya looked between both me and Matt expectantly.

I looked at Matt. “You’re the one who has to explain it to Fran.”

He snorted. “She made me bring Maya to a business dinner. You’re her dad.”

“I say she can have all the ice cream she wants,” I replied. “But I’m not taking all the blame for this.”

Matt nodded in agreement. “Fifty-fifty split. If I take her home hyper, there’s no way Fran will make us talk business over a three-year-old again.”

“We can hope,” I muttered. Thankfully, we’d covered everything we’d needed to. I just needed to report back to my boss in the morning.

I let Maya choose her dessert and placed the order. “At least we got everything cleared up,” I said to Matt. “It should be a simple open and close case. The employee was fired on fair grounds, so she doesn’t have much of a case to argue.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s what we thought, but we were advised to hire a third party to handle it.”

“Since she made allegations about your company lawyers, it was a good thing you did. I’ll give the file to Andrew tomorrow, and once he’s reviewed it, I’ll give you a call and let you know.”

“Do you think she’ll go as far as court?”

“Hard to say. She seems the vindictive type, but this is a pretty solid defense we’ve pulled together.” I patted the file as Maya’s ice cream was brought over and she dug in like she hadn’t been fed all day. “It’s not big enough for a jury, and most of the judges I know wouldn’t side with her anyway.”

“That’s what we figured, but you’re right; she is vindictive. She’s more concerned about the fact she was caught on camera than she was about the fact she was having private relations in the ladies’ bathroom.”

“There we go. She broke company policy and was fired. No lawyer worth their salt would advise her to go to court. It’s not as if she was fired for doing it in a public place on her own time.”

“Although she’s probably done that, too,” he finished with a mutter. “Anyway, enough about that. Fran said that girl you dated in college moved in next door. She went on about it for an hour, but I wasn’t paying any attention and I should probably have an update for her when I get home, because you know she’s going to ask.”

“I yike Immy,” Maya interjected. “She don’t burn my popcorn.”

“Thank you for the reminder,” I said, side-eyeing her.

Kids. You couldn’t get away with a damn thing.

“Don’t worry,” Matt said. “She cried at Fran yesterday because her popsicle was too cold.”

“Sounds about right.” I laughed. “I don’t know what’s happening. It’s been a long time, and I think we have some stuff to work through, but she doesn’t seem to hate me anymore, so there’s that.”

Matt chuckled. “Always a good start. Fran does seem to like her.”

“Of course she does. All they did was talk shi—trash about me.”

“Yeah, that’s the basis for any good friendship. Two of your exes trashing you in front of you.”