‘You’re that couple,’ he told me softly.
‘What couple?’ I snapped.
‘That couple who are a couple even when they’re not being a couple.’
‘You spent five seconds with us,’ I argued.
‘Yeah, and it was enough to know that you and Nate aren’t over. You’re unresolved, and until you know whether or not you’re going to go back to him, I think I’m less likely to get hurt if I stay completely out of the cross fire. Look, I really do like you, Olivia, so if I’m wrong and you decide he isn’t for you, give me a call.’
And then he hung up on me.
I spent the next few days seething at Nate. Not just for the emotional damage he’d caused me but because my body had been strung taut like a guitar string twisted to near breaking point ever since his little word seduction in the dark corner of Black Medicine. My vibrator barely took the edge off.
Jerk.
The only good news to come at me that week was Jo’s casual mention that Nathan was home and recovering well, and that Elodie and Clark were hosting a party to celebrate Joss’s pregnancy. Jo suspected Joss was only going along with it to prove to everyone that she was happy with the pregnancy. I wasn’t so sure. I thought the only one Joss really cared about was Braden, and from what I’d seen, he was happy and he knew that Joss was happy. I thought that more than anything they were just going along with the party because it meant something to Elodie.
The other good news – and I was determined that it was good news – was the fact that Nate had stopped calling. Saturday came around and it was time for the party and I hadn’t heard a peep out of him since our conversation at the café. That was good. It meant I was right.
Nate didn’t love me.
He’d given up easily.
He didn’t love me.
That was good.
Yeah, that’s convincing, Soda Pop.
Okay, so suffice it to say I wasn’t in the greatest mood when I turned up at Elodie and Clark’s on Saturday evening. Even the pink and blue balloons, the decorative baby gowns with funny quotes on them, the mammoth white cake with pink and blue buttercream frosting, the chilled champagne and delicious-looking finger food couldn’t pull me out of my funk.
But I pretended it did. Or I tried to …
‘You look better.’ Joss wandered over to me as I settled myself in the corner of the crowded sitting room with a glass of champagne. She, on the other hand, was holding a glass of water.
‘As do you.’
And she did. She looked well rested and happy.
‘I feel good,’ she said, a small smile flirting with her mouth as she glanced across the room at her husband. He was standing talking to someone I didn’t know, but his eyes kept flicking back to her. ‘Braden’s a little overprotective at the moment, which I thought I’d find annoying.’ She grinned at me. ‘Not so much, though. You’d be amazed at the lengths he’s willing to go to to make me happy.’
I gave her a sly look. ‘Are you using your pregnancy to extort irrational favors from your husband?’
‘I wouldn’t call making him get up at two o’clock in the morning to find a twenty-four-hour supermarket that stocks chocolate peanut butter Häagen-Dazs ice cream irrational.’
My eyes bugged out. ‘You didn’t do that to him?’
Joss snorted. ‘No.’ She took a sip of her water, her eyes twinkling with mischief. ‘But I’m going to.’
I burst out laughing, drawing the gazes of several people in the room, and one of those gazes turned me to stone.
Nate had arrived. And he looked good. His hair had been trimmed a little and he was sporting stubble. He wore a dark red T-shirt and black jeans. Nothing special, yet still he managed to look good enough to eat. I really hated that about him.
Seconds after our eyes locked across the room, his expression grew blank and he quickly turned back to Cam and Jo.
What? My eyes narrowed in heated indignation. He was ignoring me?
Joss hissed in her breath. ‘Did we forget to mention Nate was coming?’
Attempting to control my anger, I turned back to Joss, smoothing out my own expression. ‘He is your friend. I can’t expect you guys to not talk to him.’
‘Still … it’s awkward. I should have told you.’
‘It’s fine. We’re ignoring each other.’ I swallowed past the lump in my throat. ‘There’s no reason why we can’t both enjoy our friends’ happiness without one of us wanting to stick a fork in the other’s eye!’ I snapped, and gulped down the entire glass of champagne.
Joss stared at me for a second. ‘Okay then. I’ll just leave you to … your violent musings.’
She was gone before I could apologize for my insanity.
‘Fuck,’ I muttered.
‘Charming.’
I spun around at Ellie’s wide-eyed, smiling regard. ‘Hey, Els. Sorry about dropping the f-bomb. I forgot to check my bitterness at the door and Joss got whiplash from it.’
Ellie waved me off. ‘Oh, Joss won’t care. She knows all about it. She’s just in this little happy bubble at the moment and it deflects all misery.’
‘She shouldn’t have to deflect my misery. My misery should have been checked at the door along with my bitterness.’
Ellie took a step closer, her expression conspiratorial and yet still sympathetic. ‘So you’re still miserable?’
I just blinked at her.
‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ Without another word she scurried off.