Hold the Forevers

“I know,” I growled and then released a sigh. “I know.”

“Let’s forget about it. This isn’t before. You’re young, smart, and funny. You love your job. You have an amazing life in Atlanta. We’re going to have a Romy and Michele type of night, complete with ridiculous dancing and a helicopter ride.”

I snorted. “Did you invent Post-its?”

Marley rolled her eyes. “Obviously.”

Once we reached the front of the line, we grabbed our drinks and then went to “mingle.” And by mingle, I meant, mostly stand near the empty dance floor and wonder what I was doing here.

“I don’t like any of these people,” I whispered to Marley.

She snorted. “You were here for three years. You had to have liked someone.”

“Yeah, Ash.”

“Right.” She picked at her nails. “Well, there’s Shelly Thomas. Looks like she’s coming over here.”

I swallowed. It was the reason I’d come. I wanted to face my old nemesis. The person who had made my senior year living hell. Now that I was here, it felt childish. Like, what would I get out of this confrontation with Shelly? I didn’t care about her. She couldn’t hurt me anymore.

So, I took a deep breath, and let it out. “Let’s just go.”

“What? Really?” Marley asked.

“Yeah. Come on.”

I took one step before I heard a voice behind us. “Marley Nelson.”

I didn’t know that anyone else even knew Marley here. But I did know Derek Ballentine. He’d been the star of Holy Cross’s basketball team. He’d been good enough to play at UNC on scholarship. I had no idea how he knew Marley.

Marley’s eyes widened in shock and then narrowed to pinpricks. “Derek.”

“How are you doing? I haven’t seen you since—”

“I remember,” she snapped.

I glanced at Marley. She sounded … angry. Like really angry. Who was this Marley who actually got irritated by some strange guy? A Holy Cross boy at that. Marley mostly didn’t give any fucks about anyone.

“Hey, Derek,” I said to defuse the tension.

He smiled at me. He’d always been handsome, but the years had been good to him. He was no longer just tall and gangly. He filled out his sharp suit from years of basketball. Must have been doing well enough for that suit.

“Delilah, right?” he asked.

“That’s right.”

“You dated Ash Talmadge.”

My cheeks heated. “I did.”

“He’s a cool guy.”

I nodded. “Sure.”

“Leave her alone, Derek. Can’t you see you’re making her uncomfortable?”

“Oh, calm down, minivan,” he said with a laugh. “We’re just reminiscing.”

“Minivan?” I asked.

“We should go. Good-bye, Derek.”

Marley grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Derek. But she did nothing to douse my curiosity.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” she asked.

“You freaked out on him.”

“He’s an asshole.”

I pulled her to a stop. “Okay. But I’ve never seen you act like this.”

She clenched her jaw. “He went to Harvard Law when I was there for my PhD. He’s an ass.”

“But he’s hot.”

Marley ground her teeth and looked away. “So?”

“Oh my God, are you into him?”

“No!” she gasped. “How could you even suggest that? I hate him!”

“Fine line.”

“Maybe for you!”

“All right.” I raised my arms in surrender. “If you say so.”

I glanced back at Derek, wondering what exactly he’d done to Mars to elicit such a reaction. Marley wasn’t like me or Josie. She wasn’t one for dramatics. If she said she hated him, well then, he must have earned it. I found it surprising that it had never come up. Marley always divulged everything. Why would she hide this?

But when I looked over at Derek, I noticed the person who stood next to him. My heart clenched at the sight of Ash in a suit, holding a glass of whiskey.

Pulled by an unseen magnet, his eyes found mine. So impossibly blue in this light.

He smiled. An invitation.

I wanted to go to him. I wanted to dive deep into him. It would be so easy. I could see it in the curve of his lips and the arch of his eyebrow and the twitch in his jaw. If I gave in here, I’d never look back.

But I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t ready to give in and never look back. It was the first real time that I’d ever tried to move on from both Ash and Cole. I needed to be alone. I needed to see if there was someone else out there worth my time.

Just because I hadn’t found anyone promising yet didn’t mean I needed to run back to Ash. Even if my heart thudded at the prospect. At a piece finally going back into place. Not quite whole. Not without them both. But fuck, close enough.

“Lila,” Marley whispered. Her eyes darted between us. “Are you going to talk to him?”

Ash raised his glass to me. And oh, how I wanted to go. It had been hard without him. Without Cole.

Ash was finishing his MBA. Cole had taken his dream job as a Falcons scout, putting him on the road most weeks out of the year.