Awkward Love (Stumbling into Love 2)

Even she was out of sorts. That told me exactly how fucked-up this situation was.

“It’s great to meet all of you,” Will said, looking at Ali and Kira before his eyes landed on Damian again. He gave a tight smile, but I didn’t think anyone would notice it wasn’t real except me, because I knew his smiles. I’d studied them. I liked them. God, I was so fucked.

“Will’s been a great asset to the company. I think he has a strong future with Crane Entertainment, so you’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other,” Dad said. “That’s why I wanted you guys to meet. In fact, I was even considering asking him to go with me to LA in the fall.”

Dad always spent a few weeks in LA during the fall. If he wanted Will to go…holy shit, this was definitely serious.

It was weird how something could hurt and relieve you at the same time. Again, I wanted nothing to do with Crane, but I wanted Dad to look at me and talk about me the way he was about Will at the moment. I knew Dad was proud of me, but it was different when he spoke about Crane compared to anything else. Strangely, he would be prouder of me as his assistant than what I was doing on my own.

“Oh, wow. That’d be awesome, sir. And I don’t do anything special.” Will looked at me, concerned. I could see it there. He knew how I felt about my dad and the business, and now my dad was raving about Will to me. But even though I didn’t have a right to be, I was angry at Will too. For not telling me where he worked and for impressing my dad in ways I couldn’t.

“Oh, I see Roger Cardiff just arrived. I wanted you to meet him. He’s…” That easily, my dad began to pull Will away. He looked over his shoulder at me once but kept going, and I turned away.

Kira grabbed my wrist, then looked at Damian. “Excuse us a minute. He has to help me…pee.”

I had to help her pee? She couldn’t think of a better excuse than that? But I couldn’t even find it in myself to be embarrassed.

Kira dragged me away, and when we finally found an empty room, she said, “Oh my God. Like, what in the fuck was that shit? Will works with your dad? What are the odds? How did neither of you know? Wait, you don’t think he knew, did you? It’s weird that he didn’t want to say where he worked. What if he knew? No, he couldn’t have known. Could he? No, sorry, ignore me. He didn’t know. I’m rambling. That’s usually your job. It’s just, my mind is fucking blown right now.”

I fell back against the wall, looked up, and closed my eyes.

“Shit. I’m sorry. I know this has to be a lot.” She came over and hugged me, her cheek against my chest.

I meant to thank her. Meant to agree and go off on this fucked-up situation and wonder with her if Will could have known, if he could have been using me, even though logically I knew it didn’t make sense. None of those things came out. What did was, “Are you and Ali together?”

Her silence and the way she tensed up against me were all the answer I needed.

“Like together, together? Like serious together, or fucking around together?”

Kira pulled back slightly. “Serious together. It happened unexpectedly. I didn’t even know she was feelin’ me. I didn’t even know I swung that way, but we were talking about the summer and our goal to have fun and go for what we wanted. Apparently for her, it was me, and as soon as she said it, everything clicked into place. Like it was right where I belonged, and I don’t know how I didn’t know before, but…I love her.”

Christ, it shouldn’t matter. I didn’t know why it did. I wanted Kira happy, I wanted Ali happy, and I sure as shit could never be happy with either of them in that way, but it felt like a betrayal. Like one more thing to add to this night. Ali was who I could never be to Kira, and Will was who I could never be to my dad… “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I wasn’t ready? I wanted to protect it a bit, and…I had a feeling you’d be weird about it. Please don’t be weird, Jay. This doesn’t change our friendship.”

But in some ways, it did, because they’d be a couple and I’d be the third wheel.

“I can’t…I can’t do this right now. I love you, and we’re fine. We’re always going to be fine, but it’s just a lot.” Because of course everything had to happen in the same night.