RUIN(9)

We enter the bustling eatery and instantly I'm assaulted with the rumbling din of the crowd in the small space. I wish I had insisted on Noah taking me home. At least there, I can find my center enough that I can confess without having to raise my voice just to be heard.

"Over there." He gestures towards an empty table near the back of the eatery. It's small and pushed into a corner but at the very least it will offer some solace from the noise. I follow him, running the first words that I want to say to him through my mind. I want to soften the blow if that's even possible.

"I've never been here," I say quietly as we sit next to each other. I haven't. I typically don't eat more for lunch than a piece of fruit or a salad I've brought from home. I've heard about the homemade soup here from Vivian. I know, without a doubt, that if they didn't deliver, I'd be racing down here on a daily basis to grab her lunch for her.

"You only sent me back one text when you were in Boston." His eyes search the expansive menu. "I was worried about you."

I'm touched by his concern. Before I left for Boston he'd confided that he liked hanging out with me. I felt as though we were finding our way into a trusted friendship. It meant a lot at the time because of our combined connections of Alexa and Ben. Now, I feel like a fraud for still wanting that. I don't have any close friends beyond Alexa. Having Noah in my corner too meant more than I was willing to admit to him or to myself.

The waitress appears out of nowhere rattling off an impressive list of daily specials. I opt for the soup of the day and Noah settles on a fish and chips platter. After taking our orders, she's gone back into the crowd in a flash.

"Your ex-boyfriend is an asshole."

My eyes jump from the worn and chipped wooden table to his face. "What did you just say?"

"That guy, Parker, he's an ass." He cocks a brow as if he's waiting for confirmation.

Alexa must have told him about my break up and now he's assuming that I saw Parker when I was in Boston. It's an assumption anyone would leap to. I can't deny that if Ben wasn't in the picture, and I wasn't in search of my long lost damage deposit, that I wouldn't have wanted to meet up with Parker. I needed the closure last Saturday had given me. I just hadn't realized it until I walked out of his apartment.

"He's an ass, yes," I confirm with a sly smile. "I'm not sure what I ever saw in him."

"Happiness," he offers as he takes a sip of the water in front of him. "You moved back to Boston to be with him a few months ago. You must have cared a lot about him."

"I did." There's a bite of pleasure as I use the past tense. "I don't care about him anymore."

His eyes waft over the table next to us before they settle back on my face. "I'm glad. He really hurt you."

"Alexa told you how he left me." I can't meet his eyes. I'm afraid I'll cry. I thought I was over the pain of Saturday, but now, talking about Parker again has brought everything that I heard between him and Ben back to the surface.

I sense him moving forward as I hear the table creak beneath the weight of his elbows. "Alexa didn't tell me, Kayla. Ben did."





Chapter 6




I opened my mouth to respond just as the waitress showed up with our food. It's a diner. I should have expected that it wouldn't take more than a couple of minutes for her to return. The entire philosophy of the place is fast food. I take one look at the murky darkness of my soup and decide that my stomach will thank me later if I don't indulge. Noah dives into his food with full force, taking mouthful after mouthful with barely a chew in between. His mannerisms almost match Ben's each movement, as he ate lunch in front of me in a bistro not more than a few weeks ago.

"I saw Ben yesterday," he says as he swallows. "He asked Ron to arrange it."

I take a deep breath to rein in my crumbling emotions. I had no idea. There's no way I could have known that Noah and Ben spoke. The last I heard Noah was open to giving Ben another chance. I was actually in route to arrange a meeting between them when I'd been sidetracked by the overheard confessions of Ben and Parker. "Your father arranged it?" I ask in a quiet voice.

"He said Ben called him from Boston on Saturday night. He was torn up about you and about me." He cocks a brow. "He told Ron it was urgent that he speak to me."

"That's why you texted me so many times," I whisper as much into the air between us as at Noah.

"I texted you more than twenty times, Kayla." He sighs audibly. "I wanted to know what happened in Boston. I wanted to know what you told Ben about me before I saw him."

The answer to that is simple. "Nothing, Noah. We never got around to talking about you other than…" my voice trails. This is where I'm supposed to tell Noah that Ben was following me to watch our secret meetings.