“I’m really sorry,” I said. “I hope you can understand.”
“Wow.” He nodded, but he looked surprised. “Wow. Um, okay.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I know you’re probably not used to being the one who gets turned down.”
“That’s one way of putting it.” It was hard to tell if he was annoyed or not. He looked confused more than anything else. Was he upset? He looked at me more closely, though he wasn’t quite looking at my face.
“Look, you know, if you want to just be friends, maybe we can hang out—”
“Nice hickey you’ve got there,” he said. I brought my hand up to my neck; I hadn’t realized I even had one. Parker walked over to his car. “Have a good one,” he said, and then he got in and drove away.
I knew my mother would come out any second and want to know why Parker left, and then she’d probably see that I had a hickey and want to know where that came from, so I just got into my own car and took off, even though I’d just gotten back. I called Tara.
“Oh, good!” she said. “I was just about to call you. I need a coffee. Meet me at Stacatto.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
*****
Tara was already there, sitting at one of the outside tables when I arrived.
“I got you an iced latte,” she said as I sat down.
“Thanks.”
“Um, wait a second, Chloe.” She leaned over and brushed my hair back. “Is that a hickey I spy?”
I pulled away. “It might be.”
She grinned. “Oh, you’re so bad! I love it. From Graham, I assume.”
“Yeah. Definitely not from Parker. He just happened to be at my house when I got home and I sort of broke things off with him. Except that we weren’t even dating, so it’s not like there was actually anything to end. It was kind of awkward and awful, actually.”
“Oooh.” Tara winced. “Did he take it badly?”
“Well ... not really. I mean, he wasn’t psyched or anything, but he certainly wasn’t brokenhearted. It was just a weird situation all around. I guess that’s what happens, though, when your parents try to interfere with your dating life. But things with Graham are going pretty well.” I tried to keep myself from grinning but couldn’t. “We slept together again. And it was so good!”
She squealed and clapped her hands and made me give her all the details. “I’m so proud of you!”
“Yeah,” I said, taking a sip of the cold drink. “I’m pretty happy about it myself, too.”
“Well, there was something I wanted to tell you too. Michael got in touch with me. Demanding to know if I was seeing someone else. Apparently, he’s coming to the Cape next week.”
“Are you?” I asked. “Seeing someone else?”
“No! You’d know if I was. But that day I ran into Graham at the coffee shop, I told him about the pictures and he said he didn’t care if I put them back up. So I did. And Michael messaged me!” Tara looked positively gleeful.
“You’re not planning on getting back together with him though, are you?” I asked, trying not to feel horrified at the idea. I sure hoped she wasn’t going to get together with him when he got here.
“Of course I’m not. I’m not an idiot. But he was very curious about whether or not I’d ‘found someone to replace him,’ as he put it. So ... I might’ve stretched the truth a little and told him that Graham and I were seeing each other. You should’ve heard how upset he was! Acting like he was all wounded that I’d found someone else. It was really unbelievable. So I asked him if he was still together with that girl, whatever her name is, and he told me that he isn’t. And then he asked if I’d meet up with him when he got here, because he wanted to talk.”
“Please tell me you said no.”
Tara hesitated, and I knew that she’d agreed to see him. “I just want to tell him in person,” she said. “I want to tell him that he’s a piece of shit, and I also want to be able to turn him down when he asks me back out. Because I know he’s going to.”
“Tara.” I shook my head. “He is an entitled prick. You’re really just antagonizing him. He is not someone who is used to hearing ‘no’ for an answer.”
“Well, he’s going to get used to it, because that’s exactly what he’s going to hear from me. Anyway. The other thing I wanted to tell you was there is an awesome party happening tonight. On the beach. And you should invite Graham.”