Cole(33)

“I’m her best friend. Of course I do.”

“That’s nice.” Her shoulders drooped. “That’s really private. She must trust you.”

“Yeah, and you know what? I’m going to tell her you stole the phone.”

Her head shot up. “You can’t. Please. Please don’t.”

“Why not?” I felt like I was bartering with a child. “Give me a good reason why I should break her trust in me?”

“Because…” Dawn’s hands came up in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know. I’ve loved Jake for a year, and it’s hard. You have no idea how hard it is. He finally looked at me. You have no clue what it’s like to always be around, but never have someone look at you, really look at you. He did. A month ago. There was a moment, and then you moved in, and you brought her along. Now it’s back to how it was before. He doesn’t even see me. He walks right past me.”

Okay. My heartstrings tugged a little, but only a little. I held up the phone. “So you stole Sia’s phone?”

“Yeah. Because…I don’t know. I was hoping for information.”

“What kind of information?”

“Like…” She shrugged, looking away. “What does he like? Does he flirt on the phone? How did she get him? She’s not prettier than me. I might be weird, sometimes, but I can look good. I know I can. Derek thinks so.”

“So date Derek.”

“No way. He’s weird.”

“So are you.” I cringed as soon as the words were out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, but the two of you are similar. Jake and Sia, they’re similar.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t say that. Opposites attract.”

I…had no words. This wasn’t the hostile and guarded Dawn; this was the real her. She was in love, or thought she was, and she wanted that guy to love her back. A part of me felt for her. We all wanted to be loved, or to have that back again.

I tucked Sia’s phone into my pocket and started for the door.

“What are you going to do?”

I turned around, hitting the door with my back and pushing it open. “I don’t know.”

I saw the pain and hurt in Dawn’s eyes, but my heart hardened. I felt for Dawn. I did. But she’d gone about things in a bad way, and Sia was my family. Even after forgetting about me the night before.





“You stood me up!”

I went up there to tell Sia about Dawn, but then I saw how happy she was. They were eating cheese from a platter. Jake had his arm around her waist, and she was snuggled into his side. If they hadn’t been so adorable, they would’ve been nauseating.

Dawn could wait.

She was putting a piece of cheese in her mouth and froze. “What?”

“We had plans last night.”

“Oh…” I saw the wheels turning and then she groaned, her head falling to the counter. She rested her forehead there, gently hitting it one more time. “I am such a shitty friend. Holy shit. I suck. There’s no other way around it.” She moved around the counter, lifting her arms up. “First the whole make-out in front of you and now this.” She pulled me in, hugging me tight. Her voice dropped to a murmur, “I’m so beyond sorry. I’ll make it up to you. Slumber party tonight. I don’t care what I have going on. It’s canceled, and prepare for an entire month of me groveling. You’ll be getting chocolates, wine, whatever you want. Every single day.”

I laughed, hugging her back. “I’m okay, and I don’t want any of that. Just don’t stand me up again. Okay?”

Sia continued to apologize, but I was more interested in hearing how fun the hockey game was. Then I heard about their spontaneous decision to go swimming in the middle of the night, and a small guilt began gnawing at me. I didn’t want to get Sia mad about Dawn. She was ridiculously happy with Jake. If anything, I’d tell Jake later, but for now I wanted to do damage control, so I excused myself to the bathroom. I knew her passcode, and I deleted my calls from her phone, then the two texts, too. None of them had been seen yet, and once I was done, she’d never have any idea they’d been there in the first place.

I checked for any creepy messages from Dawn as well. There weren’t any, and after I finished, I left her phone on a table by the elevator door. Sia hadn’t asked for it yet, though normal Sia would’ve wanted it as soon as I stepped off the elevator. Happy and in love Sia seemed to have forgotten the whole thing already. Probably how she lost it in the first place.

When I returned, they invited me to dinner with them at Gianni’s at seven. I gave them a maybe, saying I wasn’t sure how I’d be feeling. I was going to wait to see if Cole really did call me before deciding on my plans, but of course I didn’t tell them that.