I grabbed a tissue and wiped at my face.
“You can’t know that.” I narrowed my eyes at her as I blew my nose.
“Oh, yes I can.”
“You haven’t even met him.”
“I don’t need to,” she said. “No wait—yes, I do, but not to confirm that. It’s obvious.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I stood up and walked across the room, dismissing her comments with a wave of my hand. I couldn’t be in love with Aiden Hunter—it was just too soon. He certainly wasn’t in love with me.
“You don’t see it, do you?”
“See what?”
“Even that friend of his—Redeye—he could see it. All his friends could, so why can’t you? Why else would they have put up the money for a ticket to fly you down there? They knew you loved him or else you wouldn’t have agreed to go back after all the misunderstandings. They knew you could get through to him because they knew he was in love with you, too.”
I shook my head, but her words were difficult to deny. I turned away from her and found myself looking at the plastic faces of my superheroine collection. They all seemed to be grinning at me with amusement and possibly even psychic knowledge.
“I’m not ready for that,” I finally said. “He lives a thousand miles away, and I’m completely jobless right now. Isn’t that why you came over here anyway?”
“Yes, it is,” Mare said as she coaxed me back to the couch and refilled my glass. “As long as you are in denial, we might as well talk about that. Now, what happened at work?”
“I told off my boss,” I said with a shrug and then quickly gave her the details. “I couldn’t put up with his crap anymore, so I quit.”
“No backup plan?”
“Not really.” I ran my hand through my hair, getting my fingers tangled up in it. “I talked to Nate’s recruiter, and he’s going to get some interviews lined up for me, but I don’t have a real plan, no.”
Mare leaned back against the couch and looked at me for a long moment.
“You really are different,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“The Chloe Ellison I know never would have done that,” Mare explained. “She never would have given that jerk a piece of her mind, and she never would have walked out of a job without another one lined up.”
I slumped. She was right.
“I fucked up,” I said.
Mare laughed.
“The Chloe I know never says ‘fuck’ either.”
I pursed my lips and scowled at her.
“I do…sometimes.”
She laughed again and evenly distributed the remainder of the wine in our glasses.
“You didn’t fuck up,” she said. “You stood up for yourself, and I’m proud of you.”
“You are?”
“Definitely.” Mare tipped the glass to her lips, peering at me over the edge. “I’ve told you before about saying what’s in your head. You’re always so concerned with other people’s opinions and reactions that you never do it. You keep it locked up inside.”
“I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings,” I explained, fully aware of how many times we’d had similar discussions. “You have to think before you act, and that includes opening your mouth.”