Chapter 17 #2
“God, to be young and horny,” his says, his voice lowering. I smack his arm and hide my giggle. The couple doesn’t hear us, but now the guy has his hands in the girl’s jeans pockets and her head is resting on his chest while they sway back and forth in place to the organ music.
“I think we, as a society, have forgotten the true meaning of love,” I say. “Cupping your girlfriend’s ass and slow-dancing in line for a children’s ride.”
Adam barks out a laugh and grabs both of my shoulders, turning me around to keep walking. He lowers his head and whispers behind my left ear, “Don’t shit on them—they only have another six months before they break up.”
I laugh, but am almost entirely distracted by the feeling of Adam’s hands.
The sound of his voice vibrates through me and his breath on my neck gives me goose bumps.
It’s innocent, but I can’t control the heat that’s pooling within me.
He finally lets go after what feel like the longest six seconds of my life, and I can think straight again.
The couple begins to make out yet again, and I sigh.
“I wonder what it’s like to be so enamored and completely unaware of your surroundings,” I muse.
“Well…” Adam says.
“Well, what?”
“Have you forgotten about Nick?” he says.
My eyes go big because I, in fact, have forgotten about Nick. I don’t know if I’m more thrown off by the thought of a guy I met at a bar almost ten years ago—whom I had no more than two dates with—or the fact that Adam remembers him.
“What about Nick?”
“Oh, come on,” he says. “The two of you couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”
“What? When?!”
“Chloe’s birthday,” he says. “In Brooklyn.”
I cover my face with my hands, remembering only snippets of that night because I was very drunk. “Oh my God, you’re right…” The only recollection I have is of making out with Nick and throwing up on the sidewalk on my way home. “You saw all of that?” I ask, horrified.
“Unfortunately.”
“In my defense, he was a model.” I point a finger. “And what, like you were any better?”
“Me?” His eyebrows rise.
“At least that was only one night. I had to watch you being all lovey-dovey with Riley for months—” I immediately stop once I realize what I just said. Her name catches Adam off guard too, because he doesn’t say anything. “Sorry,I—”
“It’s okay,” he says, brushing it off, and his gaze lifts toward the carousel.
I’m well aware Riley’s a topic that’s been avoided.
When I saw Adam at Mara’s office, the first thought I had was to wonder if he and Riley were still together.
Unless I straight-up ask him, there’s no way for me to know.
It took only one post of the two of them together for me to unfollow Adam on every possible social media platform…
and that was five years ago. But considering Adam hasn’t brought Riley up and that he’s receiving sexts from a random woman, the clues point to no. They’re not together.
The grooves between Adam’s brows tell me that maybe now isn’t the best time to ask him what happened between him and Riley. Instead, I figure this is a better time than any to ask him a different uncomfortable question.
“Are you dating anyone?”
“No,” he says almost immediately.
“Okay…are you sleeping with anyone?” I amend.
“Define sleeping. ”
“Penetration,” I say.
“God, June.” He looks around. “I was joking.”
“What about Kelsey?” I ask, ignoring him. If Adam and I are going to really turn over a new leaf, I want us to be on the same page. No more walking around the house shirtless, picking me up to grab pots, or licking sugar off my fingers if there’s potentially someone else in the picture.
“Kelsey?” Adam frowns.
“Yeah…”
“What about Kelsey?” he asks, confused.
I stretch my neck out, keeping my eyes locked on his. No reaction. Is he really going to make me say it? “I saw her text.” I shift.
“What text?” he asks, and I really don’t want to say it out loud. “June.” Adam narrows in on me. “What text?”
“I don’t want to repeat it, okay?” I whisper-shout, aware of the people aroundus.
“Great, then I guess this conversation is over.”
“Okay.” The look on his face is a mix of impatience and confusion. I move in closer to him and lower my voice. “It said I’m soaked. Get over here. ”
Adam goes still. “Jesus Christ.” He takes a step back. “She was talking about a pipe bursting at the restaurant.”
My face simultaneously drops and turns bright red. “A pipe?!”
“Here.” Adam pulls out his phone and shows me his conversation with Kelsey. Ten minutes prior to the text that I saw, there’s a photo of a broken pipe in some back room of Alden, surrounded by water. “She’s our GM.”
“Fuck,” I say. There’s no possible way for this to get more embarrassing for me, although I guess if Adam actually laughed in my face that might be. “How was I supposed to know she was your general manager? What was I supposed to think?”
“ I’m soaked ?” Adam shoves his phone into his back pocket. “Who even says that?”
“I mean, I don’t know! People that are horny?” I shrug, still mindful of our surroundings.
“So, you thought I literally dropped everything I was doing just to get laid? I’m not a seventeen-year-old.”
“Okay, look.” I hold my hands up. “She texted you that, and then you left and didn’t come back until the next day. I clearly misunderstood.”
“For what it’s worth, Kelsey is happily married with three kids.”
“Of course she is,” I say, humiliated.
“So, this whole time you thought I was seeing someone?” he asks.
The line starts moving again and we find two horses. I gravitate toward a white one with gold and pink flowers while he chooses the black stallion with a royal blue sash besideme.
“Kind of,” I say, but Adam just shakes his head. “Are you upset or something?”
“No, of course not,” he says. “It’s just…disappointing.”
“Disappointing?” I frown. “How?”
“Nothing,” he brushes it off, and then turns to me. “Just as long as you know now that I’m not dating anyone,” he says, his eyes demanding my attention. “And I’m definitely not sleeping with anyone.”
The music suddenly kicks in and we start moving. Amid the crowd of people, light bounces off colorful patterns in a kaleidoscope of emotions. My body starts going up and down, very similar to how my heart feels right now.