Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
Emmy found herself shaking her head. She’d expected a bitchy snob, and that had been on her.
It hadn’t been so much a women-hating-women thing as a presumption that anyone who dated Andrew had to be as bad a person as he was.
She chastised herself for that. After all, she had dated Andrew, hadn’t she?
And she wasn’t nearly that bad of a person.
To prove it, she smiled genuinely at Riley—social media stalking had long ago provided her name.
“I’m off at eight. Do you want to grab coffee?” She thought about how most people didn’t consume caffeine at all hours of the day. “Or… a decaf alternative?”
“Coffee would be great. Thank you. Sincerely.”
“I haven’t answered your questions yet.”
“You’re giving me the time. I’m already more grateful than I can say. Where should I meet you?”
“You know Coffee Fix?” Emmy asked. “They’re open late.”
“Yes, I do. Eight o’clock?”
“Make it a quarter after. It’ll take me a few minutes to finish up my shift and get there.”
“I’ll be there.”
*
She was there. Emmy decided to order a half-caf latte, figuring she’d feel less awkward with a drink, and also the ordering and waiting for it would give her time to settle.
What could Andrew’s girlfriend possibly have to ask her?
That question had rolled around in her head all through the remainder of her shift.
It was time to find out. Taking her drink, she joined Riley at the table.
“Thank you again for meeting me,” Riley said.
“It’s no problem.”
“Okay, I’ll jump right into it.” Riley paused. Frowned. “Or I won’t. I don’t even know where to start. Or how. Um… okay, you know that I am seeing Andrew. He’s your ex.”
It wasn’t a question, but Emmy said, “Yes.”
“You broke up with him?”
“Uh huh.”
Riley leaned forward, her expression serious and a little pleading. “Can you tell me why?”
That threw her for a loop. “You want to know why I broke up with him?”
“Yes. If you feel comfortable telling me.”
“Why didn’t you ask Andrew?”
“I did. Several times. To the point where he accused me of nagging. And I’m like…
I’m like listening to my gut, okay? It’s like…
the topic of our exes came up, and I told him all about my most recent ex.
I fully unloaded on him. Just—” She opened her hands and turned them over to mime dumping a heavy load.
“I figured he’d reciprocate a little, you know?
The funny thing is, I wouldn’t have found it so important if he hadn’t acted all evasive and stuff.
He told me he’d been seeing you for a while, how you met, all that.
But then when it came to the breakup, suddenly it was all vagueness.
He said you ‘wanted different things.’” She did air quotes to add emphasis.
“I pushed a little, and he said you weren’t ready to commit. ”
Emmy couldn’t help the snort. Riley jumped on it.
“See!” She pointed. “See! Right there. Okay, so…” She took a deep breath, laughed at herself a little.
“Sorry. I’ve been working myself up into a tizzy over this.
The thing is, Andrew is pushing for Serious with a capital S.
And I am like… eighty-seven percent there with him.
But my gut told me I shouldn’t take another step forward with him until I knew more about you. ”
Emmy sipped her coffee as she considered.
It was an awkward and strange position to be in, but she didn’t blame Riley for wanting to know what went down.
Andrew had screwed himself with his own evasiveness.
She knew that he must have been caught unprepared by the question.
If he’d known it was coming, he would have come up with a comfortable lie, and Riley wouldn’t be sitting across from her right now.
“Okay. Here’s what I’m going to do,” Emmy said. “I’m going to tell you my side of things as objectively as I possibly can. And I want you to promise me something.”
“Sure. Whatever. As long as it’s not illegal. I’m aiming for a promotion at work.”
The laugh was a surprise, but welcome. Emmy shook her head.
“Nothing illegal. I want you to promise me that if, after you hear what I have to say, you decide it’s no big deal for you, then that’s fine.
You promise that we can both walk away from this with no hard feelings, no judgments, and if you want to move forward with Andrew, you go for it. Don’t hold back on my account.”
“That’s fair. That’s absolutely, totally fair.
” Riley looked earnest and eager. Emmy wasn’t sure she was the best judge of character, but she appeared to be committed to this.
The question was, how would she react when she knew the truth?
Despite what she’d said, Emmy realized she’d be a little crushed if Riley reacted with an, “Oh, that’s it?
Psht. That’s nothing.” Then again, she never had to see this woman again after they parted ways, so it was no skin off her back.
She told Riley everything, trying to include as much detail as possible without injecting too much emotion into it.
She found it surprisingly easy to rehash.
No lingering pain or resentments. It was what it was.
No matter how Riley reacted, Emmy realized she was grateful for this moment.
Without this conversation, she wouldn’t have known for a long time—if ever—that she’d truly gotten over this part of her past.
She also couldn’t help thinking about what Lucy said. The book had given her time to get to this point, hadn’t it? She was fairly certain this conversation, this whole encounter, would have gone differently without her brief sojourn into the pages of a novel.
When she finished talking, she sat silently and waited. Riley stared at her, eyes wide, upper lip curled slightly. Finally, she took a deep breath, let it shudder through her, as if shaking off a trance.
“Ew,” she said. “I was trying to prepare myself for some worst-case scenarios, and racism didn’t even factor into it. Ew. Ew!”
“I know it’s weird for me to say this, but I’m sorry,” Emmy told her.
“No. No apologies from you.” Riley dismissed Emmy’s words with a flick of her hand. “You did me a favor. Seriously. Hold on one sec.” She pulled out her phone. “I’m breaking up with this fucker by text.”
Emmy let out an incredulous laugh. “Um… you don’t want to think about it?”
“Not even a little,” she replied, still typing. “Nothing to think about.”
“What are you telling him? Would you mind leaving my name out of it?”
“No worries there, girlfriend. I’m telling him I’ve decided he and I want different things, so he should text me when he’s out of the apartment so I can go get my stuff.
There. Sent.” She placed her phone screen-down on the table and reached for her coffee.
She shook her head as she drank, stared blankly out the window.
“I want the whole deal. The marriage and family thing. Whatever. But I’m young.
There’s no rush. Except sometimes I get so sick and tired of the dating thing, you know?
” She looked back at Emmy. “I won’t bore you with the details, but the ex I told Andrew about?
The most recent one? He fucked me up. Now this.
It makes me want to give up. Adopt a Jack Russell terrier, focus on my career, take up a new hobby.
” She shook her head again. “Sorry. I shouldn’t dump all this on you. ”
Emmy didn’t know who was more surprised when she reached out and took Riley’s hand. “You can dump on me. Trust me, I’ve been there.”
Riley looked down at their joined hands, then back up at Emmy’s face. She cocked her head. “I guess it would be weird if I asked you to get coffee with me again sometime. Or dinner maybe?”
“Oh. Um… no, it wouldn’t be weird. We’d certainly have plenty to talk about.
Something tells me neither of us would have any qualms about venting about our most recent exes.
” Riley laughed at that and toasted Emmy with her coffee.
“The thing is,” Emmy continued, “I… I’m in love with someone.
” That seemed to be the safest way to put it, and it was the absolute truth.
“Oh.” Riley squeezed Emmy’s hand once, quickly, and let go. “Well, it was worth a shot. You’re lucky. I’m so petty because all I feel right now is envious of you and sorry for myself.”
Emmy studied her for a moment. “How open-minded would you consider yourself?”
“Well, that sure is a question. Not open-minded enough to consider any kind of throuple situation. You’re hot, and I’m sure your partner is, too, but…”
Emmy laughed hard enough to draw the attention of nearby patrons. “No, not that kind of open-minded. I was wondering how you would react if I told you I’m in love right now because I paid a visit to a local s—romance psychic.”
Riley snatched up her phone. She snorted in amusement. “Fucker is not pleased. Good.” She swiped away a number of texts and missed call notifications from Andrew and opened her Notes app. “Where do I find the psychic?”
*
Feeling lighter after her chat with Riley, Emmy returned to her apartment with some new clarity and some semblance of hope for her future.
Good timing, because the wedding was right around the corner.
It was time for May to shine, and Emmy wasn’t going to let any of her own bullshit intrude until the happy bride and groom drove off into the sunset.
After a quiet dinner for one, she pulled the things she’d bought earlier out of the plastic shopping bag.
Barry went into her purse. She’d attach him to her keys later, if she remembered.
With her new binder, her trusty highlighters, and an assortment of pens, she began the process of planning Hikari anew.
She enjoyed every moment of it, the planning, the number crunching, the color-coding.
By the time she went to bed that night, she’d recreated most of what she’d come up with when she was in the novel, and even added a bit more.
Plus, it all had tabs and section headings now. Much more official.
She fell asleep feeling more content than she would have thought possible only a day ago. If she dreamed, she didn’t remember.