Chapter 32 Rosie
ROSIE
“I couldn’t agree more. Do you need help with anything?” I asked, ready to roll my sleeves up and get lost in inventory with her.
“Gosh, not at all. I’m almost finished. That leaves us more than enough time to grab a cup, a few pastries, and gossip. I feel so out of the loop of your life,” she explained, grabbing two cups and stacking plates with a bunch of goodies she seemed to have saved from the early morning crowds.
“Let’s go sit back here.” She motioned toward the back of the place with her head. There wasn’t anyone back there.
“Lead the way.” My mouth was salivating over that muffin I saw on the plate. We could sit anywhere, as long as I got to eat that. Megan plopped the muffin on the second plate she brought over and scooted it toward me as we sat down.
“I saw you eyeing it. You can’t fool me.” I shot her a sheepish look of thanks. “Now, tell me everything, and I mean everything.”
So I did. I told her about the book club.
I blushed my way through telling her what our current read was before she downloaded it on her Kindle app.
I didn’t even know she liked to read, and she just winked at me when I caught a glimpse of her digital library.
I told her about my resolve to move on, the date with Peter, which had her almost rolling on the floor in a fit.
She started to Google vegan grass smoothies because, while the one I had was terrible, the idea to serve them was not.
I saved the best for last. I all but stumbled over my words.
I spoke so fast when I told her Wesley showed up at my door, telling me, “Lake told me I was in love with you, so it must be true.” I pulled apart my muffin wrapper and almost threw it in the air in frustration.
Her anger and frustration were clear on her face.
“He said what?”
“He told me he was in love with me, that Lake clued him in, and that he and Caitlin were over. It was humiliating. Standing there, hearing all the words I dreamed of hearing, but in the worst possible way. On the back end of a breakup with a girl who was talking about exchanging keys. The words I would have clawed someone’s eyes out to hear, but only because his friend told him to. ”
A tear slipped, and I mentally scolded myself for it. I didn’t want to cry about him. I just wanted to move on. Not think about it. Date about it, maybe, if that made sense.
Megan reached across the table and pulled my hand to hers.
“Rosie,” she said softly. “I think I’ve spent every year since Wes introduced you to us thinking, this is the year Rosie says something, or the year Rosie pulls his head from his ass.
” I just gave her a confused stare. She had never said anything to me about any of that.
It had rocked me when Megan made it known that she knew how I felt about him.
“You’ve met Wesley’s parents, right?” I nodded. They were great; high school sweethearts, went the distance. His family was lovely, close, magnetic. Just like him.
“So you know the story. How they locked eyes across the cafeteria, and they both…”
“Knew this was it,” we said at the same time, and my lip tipped up.
“Wesley has this idea in his mind that he’s going to see his future wife and know within seconds.
What they don’t tell everyone about their love story is that they were friends for years first. That they actually broke up when he went to college, only to get back together later.
That Stella was engaged before she married Aaron. ”
“What?” I was shocked by that. The story I heard was love at first sight, and that was all she wrote.
“People like to gloss over the details that hurt, but there was a lot of hurt in their love story. And if you ask me, they did Wesley a disservice by not sharing the hard work and distance that went into them finally ending up together. Wesley has always taken that, and thought he would know at first glance, but that’s not reality.
It’s fiction, and I think he carries that with him, even if he doesn’t realize it. ”
“I don’t really know what that has to do with me.”
“You don’t?” A flash of disappointment crossed her features, but she masked it before I could say something. “You will,” she said confidently.
“I think Wesley is panicking because he’s scared to lose me as a friend. He might love me, but he’s not in love with me.”
“Says you.”
“Says ten years of indifference. Not even a cheeky bum grab. Not even.”
Megan pursed her lips at my words and choked on a barely concealed snort.
“Oh my god, Rosie.”
“What? It’s the truth. Not even an accidental tit graze—nothing—and I ignored it because my heart preferred to live in a fantasy land, but it’s blaring and red now.
He’s never been attracted to me. He loves me, but he isn’t in love with me, Megan.
He’ll realize it soon enough, and I’d rather not be the catalyst in that realization again. ”
She gave me a look like she didn’t agree with one thing I was saying, but decided not to push it.
We dropped the subject as I asked her about Bread and Bloom, and tried to pry information out of her about Lake.
Before we knew it, a few hours passed, and I was ready to get home to Lionel and the rest of my show I started the day before.
“Saturday,” Megan said as we said our goodbyes.
“See you then.”
I left her place feeling heavier in some places and lighter in others.