Chapter Fifty-Three
Brian
I didn’t even try lying to my mother. She would have seen right through me the minute I opened my mouth.
The woman had a gift.
And it felt like she was genuinely disappointed when I told her Jade and I had decided to stop seeing each other, at least for a while.
“Don’t wait too long,” she warned. “Women like Jade are special. You don’t want someone else to come along and snatch her up.”
I tilted my head at her. “I’m surprised you feel that way.”
She pulled her neck back with furrowed brows. “You are? Why?”
“She’s neither Irish nor Catholic.”
My mom reached for my hand, and in a gentle tone, replied, “Teresa and Hugh almost missed out on their grandson because of religion. There’s no way I’m going to make that mistake. If you care for her, that’s enough for me.”
I pulled her into a hug and kissed her temple. “I do care for her, but unfortunately, this is the way it has to be for now.”
****
Jade
I gave myself a pep talk during the drive to work the next day.
“You’re going to be okay. You dated Garrett for almost a year and survived. You can survive a week of playing pretend with Brian O’Shaughnessy at the beach.”
Except it hadn’t felt like pretend.
“Then he decided to play it safe, remember?” I said out loud as I pulled into the staff parking lot. “So, when they ask, you’ll say it was nothing. Just a playful joke that became a clickbait story.”
I parked and turned off the engine.
“Smile, keep it light. If someone pushes, make it sound boring—‘I helped him out while he was recovering, and people made it weird’. That’s it. No big deal.”
I checked my reflection in the rearview mirror, tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear, and forced a small smile.
“You’ve got this,” I said quietly. “You’ll go in there, do your job, and remind yourself you have better things to care about than a man who’d rather play it safe than take a chance.”
I grabbed my bag, squared my shoulders, and stepped out of the car like I believed it.
~~~~
The minute I walked into the break room, I was met with a chorus of, “Welcome back!” and “We missed you!”
I pasted on a smile as I stuck my lunch bag in the fridge. “Missed you guys too.”
Carla filled her water bottle from the water cooler. “How was the beach?”
“Great. Cape Cod is beautiful.” I said as I moved to my locker, keeping my tone even. “It was a much-needed break.”
Someone else piped up from the table, “And Brian O’Shaughnessy, huh?”
There it was.
I gave a light laugh that sounded almost natural. “That was a classic example of the press blowing something innocent out of proportion.”
“So, you weren’t on vacation with him?”
“No, I was. But not romantically. My sister’s boyfriend has a beach house that he offered to Brian so he could lay low from the media. He needed someone to drive him, and since I have a lot of vacation time banked—and he’d just saved my sister—it seemed like I kind of owed him. That’s all it was.”
Carla nodded. “Makes sense. People love to stir things up.”
I forced a smile. “Yeah, well, it gave the town something new to talk about for a few days. Hopefully it dies down soon.”
“We do love our gossip around here.”
Stephanie looked up from her phone. “Speaking of the latest gossip…”
She turned her screen toward me, A video was already playing—Brian outside the diner with Sylvia, her arm looped through his as reporters shouted questions.
Someone asked if they were back together.
Sylvia smiled and said, “Something like that.” Brian didn’t say a word.
He just stood there, polite and silent, while flashes popped around them.
My stomach clenched. He hadn’t corrected her. Just let the world assume whatever it wanted.
Steph scrolled like she was reading the comments below.
“Guess he and Sylvia are a thing again. Someone posted this about an hour ago, and one of Sylvia’s friends confirmed they’re dating.”
I managed a neutral, “Good for them,” though my throat burned as I said it.
Carla frowned. “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah.” I recognized my voice was higher than normal, so I cleared my throat and quickly added, “I should get to rounds.”
~~~~
As I drove home, the sun was too bright for how heavy my chest felt. I kicked off my shoes by the door, fed Penny Lane, then retreated to my bedroom where the blackout curtains kept the room dark.
That fit my mood better.
Sleep wasn’t going to happen, but I crawled into bed anyway. I needed to at least try.
I stared at the ceiling for a long time, replaying every word from the break room. Guess he and Sylvia are a thing again.
Fortunately, it’d been a busy shift so I hadn’t had any downtime to dwell on it.
That wasn’t the case now.
Finally, I gave up pretending I was going to fall asleep and reached for my phone. I told myself I was just checking messages, but the gossip feed was already open.
The first post hit like a punch—Brian and Sylvia outside the diner, her arm hooked through his. The comments were worse.
“Back together!”
“Told you the nurse thing was fake.”
“That didn’t take long.”
My thumb hovered over the screen. I knew I should stop scrolling, but I didn’t.
Every caption, every comment, every emoji felt like a punch.
Then it hit me—last night, Brian had suggested we date other people. That son of a bitch had already moved on with Sylvia and didn’t even have the balls to be honest about it.
I angrily swiped at the tears streaming down my face, then threw the covers off. Sleep wasn’t happening, and I wasn’t going to lie there wallowing.