“Fuck me,” I groaned again.
“Give me a second… I just walked through the door,” Zoey said, from behind me.
I whirled around. “Geez, I didn’t even hear you come in.”
Zoey laughed. “I guessed as much. What were you swearing about?”
This was my chance. I had to tell her... now. But looking at her gorgeous, kind, trusting eyes, I froze. “Uh, nothing… just burned my fingers on boiling pasta.”
“Oh, are we having pasta for dinner?”
“Yup.”
“Yay,” Zoey said. “I’m starving, and I’m exhausted.”
“Sit down,” I told her. “I’ll get you a bowl.”
We sat down together, and I justified my cowardice by telling myself that Zoey was too tired to deal with that particular conversation tonight. I would put it off for tomorrow night and like it or not, I would tell her then. I would just have to make it clear that I was done with dealing once I got rid of my last bit of pot.
I just prayed she would believe me. More importantly, I prayed she would forgive me.
26
Zoey
“Hi, you,” I said, picking up the phone.
“Hi,” Devlin replied. He sounded a little off.
“Is everything ok?” I asked.
“Everything’s fine,” he nodded. “I just… what are our plans for tonight?”
“We didn’t really have major plans,” I admitted. “I thought we’d order in some food and watch a movie? Is that ok with you?”
“Sure,” Devlin replied distractedly. “I just… before that… can we talk?”
“Oh… sure,” I nodded. “You sound nervous.”
There was a small pause. “I am.”
I smiled, realizing that it probably had something to do with the dinner tomorrow with his parents. He had been a little shaky the whole of today, and I knew this was a big deal to him. I had promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make him feel calm and supported. I had picked out my dress for the dinner. I wanted to make an impression, and I wanted Devlin to be proud of me.
“Don’t worry,” I said softly. “Everything’s going to be fine. I’m right here with you.”
“I love you so much, Zoey,” Devlin said, and his voice was pregnant with emotion.
I smiled. “I love you too.”
After he hung up, I ordered some pizza and then put on some classical music. I was tidying up the living room when the doorbell rang.
“That can’t be the pizza already,” I said frowning.
I went to the door and opened it to find mom and Seth standing there with smiles on their faces. “Surprise!” Seth said. “We’re crashing.”
“Oh my God,” I said, taken completely by surprise. “What are you guys doing here?”
“We realized that we weren’t going to get an invitation to come see your apartment or your roommate,” mom said, wagging her eyebrows at me. “So we invited ourselves… and we brought Chinese takeout.”